A quarter of a century has already passed but Carlos Ruf (54) remembers those days as if they were yesterday: those days in which Pedro Martínez (62), then a twenty-something coach, had appeared in the Joventut juniors' locker room, breaking them the schemes and changing their lives, treating those teenagers as if they were top-notch professionals.
–We were kids and he dedicated himself to training us. And what he achieved was for all of us to play above our own level – tells us Carlos Ruf, who was going to be an important center in the following years.
(And today he is a venerable giant with long hair and a white beard who shares coffee, a table and a tablecloth with his neighbors).
–But, what did he give to you? –Ruf is asked.
–Going to train with him was, automatically, increasing your performance. He made the players better by working on his roof (referring to the brain). He gave us confidence and made us believe in our possibilities. You had to be a jerk for me to lose trust in you.
The people of Baxi Manresa know what we are talking about.
On Sunday, the people from Manresa defeated Real Madrid at the WiZinkCenter (72-83).
How they did it?
With Pedro Martínez at the controls of the bench.
There is no other, because Madrid-Manresa is a Goliath against David, clichés aside.
The whites exceed the forty million budget. The people from Manresa barely reach a tenth of it.
In Madrid there are legends like Chacho Rodríguez, Rudy Fernández and Llull, and giants like Poirier and Tavares. Badio and Oriola play for Manresa.
Manresa is David, but Pedro Martínez's shadow is long. Months ago they reached the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey and now they are eighth in the ACB League, inserted as they are in the playoff zone, just a few steps away from Barça, Gran Canaria or Valencia, and ahead of larger teams. equipped like those of Baskonia or Joventut.
–As a coach he marked me. And those were the last years of my sporting career – says Roger Grimau, now Barça coach, who had played a year under him, in the 2014-2015 season, when he said goodbye to the hardwood.
–Pedro Martínez is a basketball savant –says Carlos Ruf–. He is good people, but he can be very harsh. He has to be like that. Only a very tough guy can remain on the ACB bench for so many years.
That said, we have to take a look at his history.
Starting in 1990, with his debut in the Penya first team, we see him appear in nine teams in the top category, including this Baxi that he has led since 2019.
(“It is inexplicable that he has not coached Barça or Madrid,” there are those who write on social networks).
–Do you know how basketball has changed in all these years? And he's still there, it seems like a lie! “This man is not a vintage coach,” says Ruf.
–How has the game changed? –She asks him.
–When Pedro Martínez entered the ACB, it was played in two twenty-minute halves and now there are four ten-minute quarters and it is played from the bottom. We played with rigid systems: a point guard, two forwards and two tall, inside centers. Now the field is opened because the area has become too small for the agile giants. You no longer pull 6.25m, but eight meters. If you try a little tray, you get a plug. Pedro Martínez has adapted to all that and on top of that he is a visionary. In Girona he recovered that Marc Gasol discarded by Dusko Ivanovic for Barça. And he makes the most unpleasant parts of the game fun. He makes you have fun even defending.
