Argentina's Nestor Garcia eager to start training for Americas Qualifiers

MIAMI (United States) -  Néstor "Che" García will debut as head coach of the Argentine national team on a big stage - the FIBA World Cup 2023 Americas Qualifiers on November 26-30.

The coach from Bahía Blanca had already led his country's national team on an interim basis in the 2012 South American Championship, but now he will have the opportunity to take charge from the beginning of a qualifying cycle which means fulfilling a dream.

"It is an enormously proud opportunity to represent my country," said García, who later this month will face Paraguay in the city of Buenos Aires. "It is a new challenge, a new cycle, with a lot of things already in place and some that we are still developing. We are in the top ten of the FIBA World Ranking (at No. 7) and the fact that they have trusted me with this is something amazing for my career. I am very excited and eager to get things going."

"Che", who was appointed to the position in September, knows that he and his coaching staff have to make the most of the time they have, working with the players installing their sets on both sides of the ball – most of it starting from scratch.

"We are preparing everything that has to do with the game plan. We will not have much time to train as our domestic league (Liga Nacional de Basquet) will stop on the 21st and our first game is on the 26th. We will send all the information on defensive and offensive concepts to the players who will be on the list that we will announce soon in preparation for the beginning of training camp in an effort for the players to have some familiarization with what we are wanting to do."

In addition to the two games against Paraguay in the opening round in Group A of the Qualifiers, Argentina will later face Venezuela and Panama.

"We are evaluating everyone in the group and have great respect for their coaches and players. These are games where anyone can beat anyone. We are going to approach each national team that way. The most important thing is that we as a country and as a national team can give is our best effort each time we play."

Garcia, who won gold with Venezuela at the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship and later guided them in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, already knows what it is to be successful at the national team level. He recently coached the Dominican Republic at the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China and finished 16th.

"We must go step by step. The first short-term goal is to have an identity, to play Argentina basketball that engages everyone, that fans can get behind and recognize. These things will make up the DNA of our national team.”

FIBA