Sarunas Jasikevicius: 'Obradovic was painfully honest, Pascual is tactically unbelievable' / News - Basketnews.com

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FC Barcelona head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius referred to the great coaches he had during his long and successful playing career, in an interview with EuroLeague's website.

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The two coaches with whom Saras finished his playing career, whose methods he started to follow closely as he considered following their footsteps into the world of coaching, proved to be outstanding teachers: Zeljko Obradovic at Panathinaikos (2007-10, 2011-12) and Xavi Pascual at Barcelona (2012-13).Working with Obradovic, he saw the importance of setting exceptionally high standards for players without forgetting they are also human beings.

"You have to demand the maximum from your players every day, and this is not easy," Saras explains.

"At the same time, you have to have a balance of understanding them and what they’re going through in different situations throughout the year, and really support them at tough moments. They have to feel that you really support them and you have their back."It's always a balance of how to take 100% from the players and how to demand it without any kind of excuses. But you have to understand that they are not robots. They have their lives and you have to find a balance."Although most of us only have the chance to see Obradovic in "game mode", intense and focused on the sidelines, Jasikevicius reveals there is a very different side to him on a day-to-day basis:

"Once in a while he would throw in a joke or have a private conversation. The personal side with players is very important, and it seems like it's getting more important. That's what we had with him.

At the same time, he built a relationship to the point where it was very honest. He would not sugar-coat you; if you’re not doing your job, you will hear about it. And just being honest with a player, I think honesty sometimes is painful, but so be it.

2-pointers this season

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A player has to understand that you're doing things for the best of him, for the best of the team. You're trying to learn from situations and trying to react, but at the same time, we're in the business of producing results. And results don't come easily, so you really have to be pushing yourself."When Saras left Panathinaikos to join Barcelona for the second time in 2012, he found a very different character in the form of Pascual, who now coaches Zenit Saint Petersburg.

He is keen to hail the importance of Pascual in developing his own coaching methods even though they only spent one season together, saying:

"Tactically, he’s really unbelievable, preparing every game. I learned from him that you can prepare a game in very different ways to keep your opponents off-balance.""He's one of the guys who, tactically, does the most things in Europe. And at this point, when I was already a player, I was trying to search for the reasons why the coach is doing one thing or another.

And he was clearly proving that he was able to change things from one game to another in an extreme way. Tactical things, how to really involve every player, how to take one game as a whole different world and deal with it. And when it’s over, you forget about it and move on to the next one. I think he’s one of the best and I learned a lot from him."Jasikevicius acknowledges that he spends a reasonable amount of time in conversation with his fellow EuroLeague coaches – but also that there are limits. "With the close ones we talk a lot, we share stories and different situations and try to learn from them.

You can ask another coach what they would do in a situation, but in general, you have to figure out things on your own because what’s applicable for one team might not be for another."Referring back to his previous comments about the human side of players, Saras also recognizes the importance of looking after his own health by taking the time to switch off from the demanding coaching world, explaining:

"You have to find a way to disconnect which is not easy during the year, especially because when the player has a day off, he spends it for himself. The coach still has to plan a lot of things, to plan the next practice, to plan the next trip, to plan the next game, and you get a head start by watching some video. So it’s a tough profession, there's no question about it.

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