“Greetings to Colonia Dora.” That is how Gabriel Deck concludes each one of the TV interviews he participates in.

“I always end with that salute to Colonia Dora because it means so much to me. It's my place in the world and where I always try to go back. It's where I grew up, where all my loved ones are, my friends and family. That's why I remember it everywhere I go.”

- Gabriel Deck, Argentina.

 Colonia Dora is a small town 160 kilometers from the capital of Santiago del Estero. The 7 de abril neighborhood is where Deck grew up and started to play basketball. Behind his house, his father installed a board and a rim, so that Gabriel and his brother could start to practice. Then came the chance to go to Club Bartolomé Mitre, where he started little by little to fit in with the older members. Those beginning were the first encounters with basketball of someone that today is one of the main figures of the Argentine national team.

Gabriel has already started to travel the world, but his roots still are where they have always been. “My brother lives in the capital of Santiago del Estero, but my mom, my dad, my grandmothers, my aunts... they all live at Colonia Dora.” That is his main reason for always thinking about his return. “Those who are closer to me always welcome me as always, but some neighbors believe that since I’m not going as frequently it's because I've changed or something, so they treat me a bit distantly. But I'm the same person wherever I go and even more so in my town,” Deck shares. He adds: “Each free moment I have or when I'm on vacation I decide to go to Colonia Dora because my family doesn't see me as much, so I don’t choose to go anywhere else. I always go back to my town to visit everyone I love. Besides, my grandmothers continue to grow and the more I can enjoy them, the better.” Neither his new life in the Spanish capital as a recent recruitment of Real Madrid, nor his infinite options in the old continent will make him change the destiny of his next vacations. He knows he will return, once again, to his hometown.

Tourism in Europe can wait — he expects to play many years in the first international level.

By the end of his childhood and entering his teenage years, Gabriel had to work to collaborate with his family. From helping his father in the alfalfa fields to accompanying his mother to the bus company where she worked as a cleaner. “What I liked the most, during the school break, was being a porter in the bus services in the interior of Santiago del Estero. I carried the luggage and the bags of flower or corn to the stores and I received some tips. The least I wanted to do was to clean the buses because they came in full of dirt or even some vomit, which is something usual after long trips. All of that was a learning experience for me,” Deck remembers.

He left Colonia Dora for Santiago del Estero at 13 years of age, with his older brother. The reason for that voyage was Quimsa’s offer that they both come to play and live in the club's guesthouse. But the main motive, however, was their brother’s Joaquín recommendation to leave the house so that there were two plates less to fill at the family table. The possibility of practicing the sport, plus housing and education, were an opportunity they could not afford let to go to waste. During those years at the province's capital, Gabriel did not take care of his studies. More and more he traveled to play games and between the tiredness and the absence of someone to wake him up to study, he even abandoned school altogether. He had 3 years left in front of him and he promised his mother, Nora, that he would complete them some day. “I’ll do it for her and for myself,” Gaby declares.

It was at the Quimsa guesthouse where the nickname that accompanies him until today and that changed the way that everyone referred to Gaby: “Maximiliano Quiroga, a guy from Mendoza that's not playing anymore, was the one who named me ‘Tortuga’ (Turtle). I was in bed and covered, because the air conditioner was on, and they could only see my eyes. That’s when he said that I looked like a turtle and everyone started to call me like that. Most people now call me Tortuga and very few know me as Gabriel.” In fact, it has been three years since Deck formalized his nickname with a tattoo of Donatello, one of the Ninja Turtles, on his left leg.

The next jump by Deck was leaving Santiago del Estero to go to the great city. He lived for two years in Buenos Aires as a San Lorenzo player, where he was consecrated as his country's most determined player. This change was also huge for Deck. Adapting to the great city was not a simple task. There were moments when he thought about leaving everything and returning to Santiago del Estero. But Gabriel kept calm, contained himself and managed to get used to the city. In the Argentine capital Deck could not drive for more than a week because “I developed terrible stress and decided to abandon it.” “To go to training a bus went to pick me and other team mates up or I would take a cab.” Gabriel lived about 15 blocks away from the club and did not visit other areas. He almost always went to a Chinese restaurant to buy food by the pound and sometimes he gave himself permission to eat homemade pastas at a local cafeteria. He trained, he ate, and he slept nice siestas, a custom he doesn’t abandon, as the good Santiago native that he is.

His first days in Spain find him in the middle of his discovery phase. He still does not have a favorite place to eat, but he already has managed some conquests. “When I came I lived at the Real Madrid residence, but now I have my apartment at Majadaonda. I'm getting used to my new house. And they also gave me a car. I'm still getting used to driving because distances are greater. Everything is very new to me. Luckily, the experience of having lived in Buenos Aires helps me because the difference is not as shocking as if I would've arrived at Madrid directly from Santiago del Estero.”

“All the experiences I lived helped me not only to understand how I must face my profession, but life itself. You mature instantly with experiences like the ones I went through. They show you to value what you have. When I was a kid I had to work for three months to buy a pair of tennis shoes. I can’t forget that.” - Gabriel Deck, Argentina.

 It is clear: Deck does not forget his beginnings. Now he lives in an exponentially different economic reality, which is better than the one he experienced as a child. But he lives just as humbly. “You always have to feet on the ground because you don’t know when your career is going to be over. I'm not more or less than anyone. Money helps, but what’s essential is being a good person. That’s what will remain after basketball is over.” He uses his incomes to improve the lives of his loved ones. “I try to help my family with investments so that they can be fine. The situation is ugly, there’s not much work and if there is, they pay too little. Besides, we're remodeling my parent's house.”

 Family and Colonia Dora — the two pillars of Gabriel Deck’s journey. Rosalía and Teresa, his grandmothers and favorite recipients of that dedication to his native town will not watch the greeting this time on television. They will read that Gaby concludes this written interview with: “Greetings to Colonia Dora.”

FIBA