Aito Garcia Reneses on NBA: 'There is more marketing than quality' / News - Basketnews.com

Reneses thinks that marketing has overshadowed basketball and its quality in the NBA. However, he'd like to take one idea - widening the court - from the NBA and implement it in Europe.

Credit: imago images/Eibner - Scanpix Credit imago images/Eibner - Scanpix

Aito Garcia Reneses is one of the most well-known basketball coaches in Europe. He's now coached the most games in the Spanish Liga Endesa (ACB).

2-pointers this season

52%21,0Points made:21,0Accuracy:51,8%Place in standings:7Record max:28Record min:13Most made 2FGs:Kameron TaylorTeamACBStatisticsSchedule

Throughout his coaching career, Reneses has seen all kinds of players and all kinds of basketball. He was the one who brought Ricky Rubio to stardom while leading Joventut Badalona.

After more than 1,100 games in the ACB, Reneses thinks that marketing has overtaken other aspects of basketball, especially on the other side of the Atlantic.

"Marketing has been very important [in basketball] and even welcome in some cases. We as non-US players, for example, first were fans of college basketball. Then we admired the NBA because the level of play was much higher there," he said in an interview with Clara Julia from Marca. "Little by little that has changed and we are no longer such big fans of the NBA."

"It has to be admired though because they have great marketing. It has to be said that we also have marketing here [in Spain], though at a lower level. When the ACB started, it was not as important in Spain as it has been since then. Now there's more marketing in the NBA than quality," Reneses told. "I hope that we can continue to improve marketing but maintain quality."

Despite his firm stance on the NBA, Reneses thinks that widening the court should be a practice that the European game should adopt.

"I think that things have been done [to improve the game] over the years, some positive and some negative. One thing that everyone seems to agree to change is to widen the court," the veteran specialist said.

"The physical capacity of the players to help defend a shot in the paint and defend a shot from outside is higher. You have to also try to reinforce the inside game so that if you help, they punish you [from outside]. That's why I think that widening the field is something that must be done," Reneses explained.

Like what we are doing? You can express your gratitude here.