Diamantidis: “Association with children makes me a better person”

Away from the limelight, which he never liked anyway, o Dimitris Diamantidis he has had his own role for over a year at her side Children’s Nationalas general leader. The legend of Greek basketball spoke to the EEC website and showed that he enjoys the coexistence with the kids.

-What does the presence in the Children’s National Team mean to you?

“I am next to the new kids and we are trying not only myself, but those who are in the team coaches, assistants, Yannis Chrysanthopoulos who is the team manager to be able to teach the kids the right mentality, how to give them the help they need to they manage the situations, the wins, the losses… I’m really, really happy to be a part of this effort.”

-How much satisfaction does working with children in basketball give you?

“I really like it! Because you’re dealing with children and you want them to progress, because we’re about a.. 25 years apart in age, not just for me, but for those of us dealing with young children, what we want is to give them the best supplies and the most help possible during this time who play basketball so they can get where they want to go.”

-What is the thing you are asked most often? Do they ask you about matches you’ve played, competitions for example?

“They don’t ask me about old times. Because with the children you can talk about the game they have played, discuss some parts of the game or even make fun of yourself, you can learn from these children and how they think, how they see certain things. All this interaction with children makes me a better person and I see his perspective, how they think at this age.”

-What do you find yourself telling them more often?

“What I tell the kids and it’s no secret and everyone tells them: In order to move forward and go forward and where you want, you need proper work in training and secondly the right mentality. These two are the combination required.”

-Last year’s experience, unprecedented for you, what did it teach you and what did it show you?

“It was a terrible experience! We started in September looking for which kids will make up the 12 in the summer. It was a very nice journey, it is very nice to see the improvement that these children have in the 6-7 months that we traveled until we reached the Eurobasket in the summer, where we had a very good presence both competitively, but also in matters that are important for us. It was a really special experience for me and all of us who were close to the team.”

-Is the effort to create a competitive identity in these “small” national teams distinguished competitively?

“Yes… EEC tries to all national teams to play a certain way of playing. And not only the national teams, but to go this across the spectrum of basketball. We know it’s not easy. We base it on a style of play that we want to follow. Maybe sometimes it doesn’t lead you to victory or success, but we see that basketball has changed and we have to follow the current that exists.”