CAN – “One on one” with Leo Rautins

A great player during the decades of 1970, 1980, and 1990, Leo Rautins has been coaching his country’s national team since 2005. Without their stars, Steve Nash and Jamaal Magloire, they are learning how to face tournaments like the FIBA Americas Championship without players with little, or none, international experience. Nonetheless, they haven’t done that bad during the tournament beginning, with a good game against Brazil, and a victory over Venezuela.

Was this game closer than expected?

I think that most of the people that watched the game between Venezuela and USA, may have gotten the wrong idea. But if you pay attention and take a good look of Team Venezuela, you’ll realize that it is a young talented team. They are quick, aggressive, and the fact that our players don have enough international experience, we knew it was going to be a hard game.

Did Hector Romero made it harder?

He’s a great player. I’ve been watching him for a long time. He’s a fighter who plays hard, doing a great job taking advantage of every chance he gets. He’s the kind of player that set the pace for the team. He knows how to play.

Jermaine Anderson had a bad game on your debut, but he made some decisive points at the end of the game against Venezuela. What do you have to say about that?

When we play against Puerto Rico, he did it really well. He’s had a great summer. He has work very hard to improve himself each day, especially on how to improve his position on the court. I knew that he was going to recover from the first game, because he’s a great competitor. He takes into consideration everything you say to him. He made those two key points, as he did against Puerto Rico. He’s reliable, and know how to handle the “pick and roll”.


Fabian Garcia
FIBA Americas