Trinchieri said what Zalgiris must do to compete with the elite of the Euroleague

In the podcast, the specialist spoke with a member of his coaching staff Tautvydas Sabonis and basketball commentator Ryčias Kazlauskas. The topics of the podcast quickly took many different and unexpected angles.

“He made a huge mistake with Carbonara,” A. Trinchieri recalled the story alone when talking about his relationship with T. Sabonis at the beginning of the podcast. “He came and showed me the picture and said how great it was. It was horrible.” What do you do with your kids when they do something? You encourage them. I would actually rate that image a 2 or 3, but you can’t say that, you have to push them forward. Let me, because he won’t tell the whole truth. I bought all the necessary ingredients. Seriously? There are three ingredients, but it’s okay. He bought them all. He is improving, I think that after 55 years he will be able to produce something good.”

Asked on the podcast about his relationship with the players he coaches and his demands, the coach went back to the beginning of his career and admitted that he was less forthcoming about his philosophy in the early stages.

“I’ve always been very demanding. True, at the beginning of my career, I told myself that if I had to die, it was better to die because of my own mistakes than because of other people’s mistakes. I said we do it like this and that’s it – no compromises. It helped me in the beginning, but now it has become a kind of limit. I had to start somewhere. Later, I realized that in order to reach the top, I must look at everything more broadly, find a compromise and balance between strictness and demandingness and cunning. Sometimes these words don’t fit into one sentence, because at the beginning of my career I thought it might seem like a sign of weakness. Maybe then it would have been. “Sometimes I look back at things I’ve done and think, ‘Wow,'” the Italian said.

A. Trinchieri came to the podcast having prepared questions for T. Sabonis himself. The Italian, who conducted a real psychological test, asked various questions: from T. Sabonis’ biggest dream to situations in which T. Sabonis has to choose the right decision, in his opinion. In one of the situations, A. Trinchieri asked how T. Sabonis would react to a situation where, while constantly repeating to his child to look both ways while crossing the street, one day the child would not do so. The coach compared this situation to working with the players.

“There’s a tendency to say things 50 million times and hope that message gets through to them.” It is the parents’ job to help them understand why we are telling them this. In any case, you will not miss this process. It’s very similar with the players – they have to understand why you say that. The goal should be to help them, not me. It is the most difficult thing nowadays. It is the same with the players,” explained A. Trinchieri.

At the end of the webcast, both specialists received a question about the possibilities of clubs with the budget of “Žalgiris” to play in the playoffs. What do these clubs need to do better than others to be among the elite teams at the end of the season?

“First of all, you have to explain to yourself and to all the floors of the arena, to all the people here, that motivation will be the key thing. The motivation to come in here every day and do your best is the only thing that can make a difference. Everything else is something we can change, improve and adapt to.

But this, from the two wonderful ladies who take care of our stuff, to the last people who take care of the lights in the square. Coaches, players, president, manager. This is crucial. If you give yourself a chance to not be hungry, you will fail. There are no options.