Pablo Laso: 'It's not necessary that my next team plays in the EuroLeague' / News - Basketnews.com

Pablo Laso talked about his break from the benches and referred to what he's looking for in the team he's going to coach after Real Madrid.

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Pablo Laso stopped coaching Real Madrid last summer after suffering a heart attack in June and the club decided in July that he was not going to continue on the bench "for health reasons".

For the Vitoria-born tactician, it was an unwanted goodbye after eleven seasons and 22 titles.

"It was clear to me that I wasn't going to stay at Real Madrid all my life", assures Laso in an interview with AS.

Throughout his career, Laso, 55, has coached more than 1,000 games (860 in Madrid with 659 victories), and perhaps one day, he will reach 2,000 because he keeps his passion for his work very much alive.

"If it were up to me, I would coach tomorrow, but the club that signs me and I must be after the same thing," he points out.

Laso clarifies that he's perfectly capable of standing on the sidelines again.

"I'm fine, which is the most important thing. It is time to find a place where I feel well, where the work I do is valued, and I identify with what I can give to the team," he contends.

The range of options in Europe is narrow and perhaps the higher the level you've reached, the more difficult it is to find a team that meets your expectations. That's the case with Laso.

"It is always difficult to differentiate between teams and know which one is good for you. If you base your decision solely on financial grounds, if they offer you 10 in one place and 9 in another, you go to 10; but that's not my way of being or thinking," Laso stresses.

"For me, the most important thing now is to feel comfortable in a place and to be valued. It motivates me that a certain club believes that it will take a step forward with me. And no, it's not necessary that it plays in the EuroLeague," he further adds.

Since he began his professional journey, with his debut as a player in 1984 at Baskonia, still at the age of 16, Laso has spent half of his career either on the court (19 seasons that rendered him ACB assists and steals king with 2,896 and 1,219 respectively, in 624 games), or on the bench (another 18 campaigns, one in Castellon, another in Valencia, one in Cantabria, four in Gipuzkoa and eleven at Real Madrid.

Laso says he still feels like a player.

"I can't help it. What I liked the most was playing, and the luck is that I have done it at a very high level. And then I have also been able to coach at a very high level."

While waiting for a good offer to come his way, Laso keeps watching matches from any competition: "NBA, EuroLeague, ACB. Other foreign leagues such as Germany, Italy, Greece. Of course, I get more selective every day because I already recognize the situations, the teams, and the players."

Does he watch Real Madrid too?

"Yes, I watch the games, but not all of them. Madrid have made important and basic additions to the team's idea this year. Musa, Hezonja and Cornelie are new, although Tavares and Deck are key, and that's what I see. Madrid is a great team built to win everything."

But Laso is also fond of the team he played for in his heyday.

"I really like Baskonia because three of their outside players - Thompson, Howard and Henry - give them a different dimension and make them very attractive. At the European level, Olympiacos seem super solid to me, capable of playing in any context. The lack of Russian teams has made the EuroLeague very even and competitive."

Among the coaches absent from the EuroLeague, Xavi Pascual is guiding his Zenit Saint Petersburg squad only in the VTB League. The Catalan coach was fired from Barcelona in 2016, and Laso has always maintained a good relationship with his former rival.

"I consider him a friend whom I highly respect professionally and admire as a person. We spoke in pre-season and he told me: 'At first you're going to be very disappointed because you think you're going to watch all the games. You have to take it easy.'

We have been great rivals, and the conversations with him are a great lesson for me," Laso concluded.

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