The Russian basketball clubs are approaching the end of the offseason. Almost all major acquisitions have been made, the degree of success of which sets goals for the season and sells subscriptions for fans. Perhaps the most intriguing changes were in the popular basketball club of our country - Kazan “UNICS”. Over the past six years, the head coach of the team Stanislav Eremin changed the bench of the head coach to the leather chair of the general manager and told Izvestia correspondent Andrei Ivantsov that this will change in his life and the life of the club.
At the end of the season, you said that you had exhausted yourself in the Kazan club and left the capital of Tatarstan to realize yourself in a new place. What made you change this decision?
The main reason, of course, was that I was constant in character, and in order to change the place of work, to which, in addition to my professional duties, I became friends, I needed to either get a much better alternative offer, or really, really get tired of the old place. There was neither one nor the other. But there was a certain disappointment because UNICS did not win medals of the Russian championship for the first time in six years of my work and unsuccessfully performed in the ULEB Cup. At first this dictated all my statements. But then, having thought it over well and received a really ambitious offer from the club president Evgeny Bogachev to become general manager, he decided that this was a very interesting option for continuing his career.
Now you can say that after all it became the main reason for leaving the post of head coach - only results or something else?
Formally, of course, the result. But in fact, even before this season, I felt that the club needed some kind of shake-up. We trampled in one place, which I would not wish anyone, because in such an atmosphere it is almost impossible to step forward. It seems that we did everything right, but the result did not reach expectations and goals. Therefore, my resignation was the best way out.
According to the president of UNICS Evgeny Bogachev, you had proposals to train other clubs, including from abroad. Were they not interesting enough?
In each case, there were some nuances. In one, I didn’t have confidence in the reality of the realization of the goals that were set before me; in the other, my new place of work was too divorced from my homeland, family and friends, without whom I cannot imagine my life, although I sacrificed it more than once for the sake of work, than had to regret. To leave somewhere, I must know that they will let me realize myself there, there are normal financial conditions for working with the team. All this coincided in the offer of my former club, but in a new role.
How much are you interested in working in a new position?
After the resignation, I thought a lot about what I did in Kazan, and what didn’t and why. After all, do not forget that since I came to train UNICS, the club has grown tremendously. Here is one of the most modern basketball palaces in Europe, we are consistently among the favorites of the Russian championship on the eve of each new season and are respected in Europe. But in order to become leaders, we lack a bit, namely, more intensive work in such areas as selection, staffing of club employees, and curation of junior teams. I hope that in a new position I will eliminate the nuances that prevented me from achieving great victories when I was a coach. Now I understand that at the age of 55 it’s very interesting to change your life.
Andrey IVANTSOV