Chess, sudokus and studies, the Israel González method in Berlin: "Let the players hit the coconut"

“I have been very lucky,” Israel González (Torrelavega, 1975) repeats several times during the conversation, one of the six Spanish coaches starting in the Euroleague that starts this Thursday, completing his third year at the helm of Alba Berlin.. The coach responds to the humility and low profile with which he has reached a peak that he never imagined treading. “I always thought I would be a Physical Education teacher at a school,” he admits a few days before dawn with the German derby as his first course, against Pablo Laso's Bayern Munich, the guy with whom it all started.

We have to go back to 2006, to Lobos Cantabria of LEB Oro, to the initial steps on the bench of the Vitorian, when he demanded that the physical trainer who put so much effort be officially part of his staff. “Because of Laso I left school and got 100% involved in basketball, he asked me to fully immerse myself in this world and convinced me to become a professional,” thanks Israel, formerly a teacher and even a librarian, always a 'crazy' basketball player.

«As a young boy I was already trying to take my first steps as a coach. I had a hobby of thinking about tactics, inventing plays, spying on rivals.. I was on the right path, because at 17 I went to the school behind my house to train children.. And I was still a junior player,” González recalls that he studied INEF thinking of fulfilling those desires, perhaps “at the regional level.”. “But one thing leads to another…”. While studying in the Canary Islands, he met Himar Ojeda at the university and together they forged a path that has led to Berlin, where one is sports director and the other is head coach.

The youngest team

With the lowest budget in the Euroleague and the youngest team, Alba, however, has become an entertainer of the competition. For its status as a springboard club and for the courage of its commitment on the field: “counterattacks, quick transitions and freedom in attack”. Everything well measured by Israel González, who drank from the best sources. «Laso and Aíto are my two great mentors. I would add Pedro Martínez. I have also worked with Manolo Hussein and Luis Casimiro,” says the Cantabrian, who took over from maestro Aíto García Reneses two seasons ago after several more working alongside him, a “German-style” succession, “learning from the best. He has written the basketball book, he is the how coach.

The González method does not include shouts or fuss and does include a lot of innovation. There is no other option to compete in the jungle of the Euroleague against infinitely larger budgets. This season, for example, they have lost their franchise player, Luke Sikma (Olympiacos) and other fundamental players such as Maodo Lo (Milan) and Ben Lammers (Gran Canaria).. «Society is changing. Young people must be treated differently. Imposing your ideas is going to lose strength. However, I think you have to convince with your proposals. That is the way,” confesses the Spanish coach, who goes to work every morning by bicycle through the streets of Berlin.

And in his plan with young people, Israel mixes the physical with the mental and there, another of his passions: chess. He was already playing games with Edy Tavares when the giant was forming in the Gran Canaria youth academy. «You have to make the mind work. When it's not chess, it's sudoku, it's studying, it's thinking, posing situations so that the players can hit the jackpot too.” At the club they encourage players to continue with their university studies or to train in other ways: “They should take language courses, computer courses, whatever. That the times we do not train are not sitting in front of the television or playing the Play Station. That they also form as people, which is never too much. And, selfishly, I think it's an important part of the game to be agile of mind and think quickly.

Israel González, with a contract until 2025, lifted the Bundesliga and the Cup in his first year as Alba's head coach, but he could not repeat the past, eliminated in the BBL quarterfinals by Juan Núñez's surprising Ulm. In the Euroleague, reaching the playoffs is almost a chimera. But beyond the sporting demands and objectives, there is the development of the player and a long-term project where “the objective, always, is to progress to be better.”