Jaume Ponsarnau: Part of learning is assuming you haven't made it

BilbaoThe Tàrrega-born Jaume Ponsarnau has just turned 55 and is doing so at one of the best moments of his sporting career. He has surpassed 500 official matches as a coach in the elite of Spanish basketball, has just renewed with Bilbao Basket until 2029, was chosen best coach of January in the Endesa league, and this Wednesday evening he plays with his team the decisive match of the FIBA Europe Cup final against PAOK Thessaloniki with only a six-point disadvantage.

Can we confirm that this is one of the sweetest moments he is experiencing as a coach?

— It is true that we are now above expectations, sportingly above what our budget would dictate. We will see what happens in today's final, but we have done everything very well so far.

Even with options to play the 'play-off' in the ACB.

— It's difficult for us to achieve it, but we are there.

Don't you see it as feasible?

— Our schedule is very demanding and the eight teams we still have ahead of us are very good. In any case, we will try.

In the League you come from winning Unicaja, but from losing to Manresa and Barça. Do these ups and downs mean that it is a very competitive league?

— In each game, we must interpret the moment we are in, due to injuries, the schedule... In any case, the Spanish league is the best in Europe and, after the NBA, probably the best in the world. It is such a demanding league that you cannot falter.

He has already accumulated 500 games as a coach! Would he be excited to unseat Aíto García Reneses, who has coached more than a thousand?

— The illusion of increasing the number of games is not so much about surpassing other coaches, who for me have been references, rivals and masters, but rather about enduring and not giving up, about evolving. It is said about the life of a coach that he must try not to have too much food at home, because at any moment he will have to pack his bags.

It started in Manresa, and has passed through San Sebastian, Valencia, Zaragoza and now Bilbao. Is he considered a wanderer?

— The nature of this job is, in itself, very unstable. When you fall out of a team, you have to rebuild your path to get back up. It has to be assumed. But can I consider myself a rara avis?

In what sense?

— Apart from the poor results I had in San Sebastián and the short experience in Zaragoza, I have been almost ten years in Manresa and five in Valencia. Now I have been four years in Bilbao. I think I've had some stability. And it's because I think I'm more of a project coach than a short-term reality coach.

What is the main responsibility of a coach, the technical or the psychological aspect?

— Everything is very important. Basketball is a very dynamic sport that is constantly evolving and it is very important to adapt and update knowledge. But, obviously, group management is also very important. We are managing, in addition to people, professionals who have to take many things into account. And, above all, there is the objective of convincing that this is a team sport.

To Bilbao Basket, it addresses the players in English. Does this not hinder more emotional communication?

— Having to convince your players in a language that is not yours is a limitation. But after all, English is the most common language in basketball. Within this common language, whether from an emotional standpoint or not, you have to try to convey something more than the semantics of the words.

This must happen to most teams, right?

— And so on. In Bilbao we are managing a squad with North Americans, Poles, Icelanders, Norwegians, Swedes, Serbs… Oh, and a Catalan, too.

But when he gets angry with the players, in what language does he do it?

— I like to try to let emotionality influence things positively. That's why I'm a coach who tries to maintain tone and not make a big fuss.

Is the story that tells us that with effort and work results always arrive, true or a fallacy?

— Part of the learning process of life is understanding that you have not achieved it. But that does not mean you give up on achieving it, but rather that all that effort to try makes you grow as a person. Whether you achieve it or not.

And is this applicable to sports?

— One thing we learn in the ACB league is that there are eighteen teams and only one will end up very happy. Only one wins. The other seventeen lose.

How is this instilled in players and, above all, in young people?

— Let's see… in high-level competition, ego and determination are very important. They help you believe in yourself. Just as the value of humility helps, knowing that if you work, you can be better tomorrow than today. All of this teaches that the most important thing is not the goal, but the path. The path that makes you grow, that makes you improve, that makes you get up from the ground, that allows you to tolerate frustration.

He began his coaching career at the Tàrrega Swimming Club. How do you remember that beginning?

— The first solid reality as a coach was with the male cadet team. Even today, when I meet them around Tàrrega, I apologize to them.

Why?

— Because they were my guinea pigs. With them I was starting, I experimented and tried many things.

But the golden age of CN Tàrrega was with the senior women's team.

— I coincided with a group of unforgettable players and we achieved a very, very, very high competitive level. We helped the club grow, both in Catalan and state competitions.

Does it still have relation?

— Yes, I see them as much as I can. We built something I will never forget.

Despite everything, its center of life is in Sant Fruitós del Bages.

— Tàrrega is my hometown, I will always be there and I want to be identified as a Tàrrega native. But now I have my life in Manresa. My family lives there and that's where I started my career as an elite coach.

That offer from Manresa to the ACB could not be rejected.

— In Tàrrega, my training had been very self-taught. But when the opportunity arose to help other coaches like Ricard Casas and Xavi Garcia, doors opened for me, and doing so in the ACB league led me to grow and learn. And all of this in Manresa, a city with an impressive basketball tradition that gave me great encouragement.

Yesterday, April 28th, it was 55 years ago. What future prospects does it have?

— I don't make long-term plans. I always try to identify with the place where I am, and now what I want is that during this whole period I am in Bilbao, I can help the team and the club to do all the things they want to do.

And to the Spanish national team?

— I have just left the project.

Why?

— With much gratitude, I believed the time had come to change. With the new selector, it is necessary for the project to be rebuilt and for me to be able to spend as much time as possible during summers being a present father and not a remote one.

I don't know how many sporting emotions you have experienced, but which one would you highlight?

— Wow… I've been asked this before but I never know what to answer. I have many memories. The Eurocups with Bilbao and Valencia, the league with Valencia, the promotion with Manresa… Everything has been very significant, even that distant match of CN Tàrrega against Grup Barna to win the Copa Catalunya… No moment can be underestimated.