The sixth guest in Basketball Sphere’s “When the Noise Stops” series is the Buducnost head coach – Andrej Zakelj.
Andrej Zakelj tracks radar imagery of storms on the other side of the world and once considered studying meteorology. At the family house in Slovenia there is only flowers left now, and his mother still tends them. This is his fifth year in Podgorica.
We spoke about none of it as basketball.
You follow weather forecasts and radar imagery from all over the world, cyclones, hurricanes, all of it. Where did that start?
“Weather forecasting, maps and geography in general have always been one of my biggest hobbies. I regularly follow radar imagery from around the world, cyclones, hurricanes and other weather phenomena. I also have several apps I use daily, for Europe, for the Balkans, and most of all for our region.
I don’t know myself where the interest comes from, but I remember it was already there in primary and secondary school. It has not changed with time, so even now, at a somewhat more mature age, I follow everything to do with meteorology with the same interest, and I honestly think I could work in it.
At one point I even thought about studying it. I gave up in the end. Physics was never my favorite subject, so meteorology stayed a hobby and a great love that I still keep up with pleasure. It is not something I share with many people. It relaxes me and it interests me, and that is all it needs to be.”
You once said that what you miss from Slovenia is working in the garden. What was growing there the last time you were home?
“We have a family house, and there is always something to do around it. There is the garden too, which my mother and father looked after most. Of course, I liked to help. Even now, when I go home, I like to mow the grass or do some smaller jobs around the yard.
Besides that, when I was younger I often went into the forest with my father to cut wood for the winter. Those are things I miss a little now, because they relax me and take me completely away from work and everyday thinking.
The last time I was home there was not much to do, because mostly only the flowers around the house are left, and my mother still looks after them with a lot of care.”
You noticed yourself once that people take you as more serious than you actually are. When did you first notice it?
“I would say others noticed it. Many told me directly that I am different on the court and when work is involved than I am away from it. They say I come across as more serious and more closed off, and I think they are right.
It is not deliberate, I simply become like that when I focus on work, because I want to give my maximum and dedicate myself completely to what I am doing. On the other hand, in private life and off the court I am much more relaxed. My closest friends and my family know that best, so that seriousness at work has never been a problem for me.”
You stopped playing at twenty-seven and started coaching the same year. Was that your decision, or was it decided for you?
“Yes, I finished my playing career fairly early. I played professionally in Slovenia and I can say I was talented. I went through Slovenia’s youth national teams and I had a good outlook.
Unfortunately, I had a lot of problems with injuries during my career, and two minor operations. I simply realized I did not feel capable of holding up the rhythm that two sessions a day and playing at a high level demand. Precisely because of that, when the chance came to become a coach, I did not think about it much. I accepted immediately, and it was entirely my decision.”
You won six trophies at Primorska as an assistant coach. Does the assistant’s job really prepare a person for the challenges of being a head coach?
“It does. At Primorska there was a genuinely beautiful story, I only wish it had lasted longer. Unfortunately it did not. We had an excellent team, a quality coaching staff and top conditions for work. A particular chemistry formed inside the group and that is exactly what produced the results, and I am very sorry it did not last.
I was assistant to Jurica Golemac and I believe I learned a great deal from him, and from the other coaches I worked with. The period I spent as an assistant was extremely important for my development and it meant a lot to me.
Of course, I do not think that working as an assistant is a necessary condition for someone to later succeed as a head coach. There are plenty of examples that prove it. But speaking about myself, I am certain that experience helped me a lot.”
In December 2019 the money ran out, everyone left, and you were handed what was still standing. Why did you agree?
“That’s right. Unfortunately, at the end of 2019 the club was left without financial means. More than half the team left, together with the head coach. We were down to six or seven players. On the staff, only I remained, along with the coach who had been my assistant at the time.
Why did I agree to take the team? Honestly, at that moment I had no other option. I could have gone home like many others did, but I decided to stay and try myself in the role of head coach. It seemed like the only logical move.
In the end it turned out to be a good decision. By the end of the season we achieved results that were beyond anyone’s expectations, and in February we even won the Slovenian Cup. That experience showed me that positive things can be pulled out of the hardest situations. I believe the decision to stay at Primorska and take over the team was one of the most important moves of my career.”
You said Slovenians do things by regulation, and that here everything gets done by arrangement. Which of the two are you today?
“I think we all know that we Slovenians are perhaps a little more, let’s say, tightly wound. We like everything to be by the rules, organised and as prescribed, whereas somehow the further south you go, the less of that there is. People from other regions often trust an arrangement more and are more flexible in everyday situations.That does not mean one approach is better than the other.
On the contrary, I think both have their advantages. The ideal combination would be for Slovenians to keep that discipline and respect for rules, but to be a little more relaxed and ready to adapt when it is needed. Equally, I think a bit more order and organisation would sometimes do well here.
And where am I today between those two mentalities? I would say somewhere in the middle, half of one approach and half of the other.”
You work every day in a language that is not your mother tongue. What gets lost between what you mean and what they hear?
“You know how it is, language can certainly be a challenge. Here in Montenegro I speak a foreign language, so to say, while on the court it is mostly English. Naturally, in situations like that something can get lost in communication.
Still, I think players mostly hear what they want to hear anyway, whatever the language. I was like that myself when I played, and I believe that has not changed much. Personally I do not think much can be lost because of language, because in training the same things get repeated day after day. Through work and repetition it becomes clear to everyone what is being asked and expected.
Of course, some things suit certain players and some do not. Sometimes it even happens that they act as if they did not hear what they were told, but that too is part of sport. I think those are entirely normal situations and there is nothing unusual about them.”
When Buducnost called, you said you hesitated. What was the hesitation actually about?
“Yes, I was in two minds a little, but that was above all because I like to have a certain control over the process. At Derby I was building the team myself and I had a clear vision of how I wanted to work and in what direction I wanted to develop the group.
Then, quite early in the season, already in November, the call from Buducnost came. Honestly, at that moment I was completely focused on the work I was doing at Derby. On the other hand, that is a call you do not turn down.
My dilemma was not about the club itself, but about knowing that there I would not have the same level of control and the same system I had already built. It was clear that I too would have to adapt to a new environment and a new team, and at one point I was not sure whether I was ready for that.
In the end it turned out the decision was a good one. Already in that first season we managed to establish a way of working, bring in order and build a way of functioning that suited the team. I think we finished the season well, and the results showed that the work we were doing made sense. In the end, I believe the people at the club and everyone who was part of that process were satisfied.”
What are you prepared to forgive a player for, because he fits your system?
“Players, and coaches especially, are always in a position where they have to adapt. Precisely because of that we are sometimes prepared, as the saying goes, to close one eye and let some things pass.
No player is perfect. Everyone has their virtues and their flaws, and the coach’s job is to assess whether those characteristics fit the system he wants to build and whether the team can function with them. Naturally, there are small things a coach has to accept even when they are not at the level he would want, if in return he gets other important qualities from that player. What exactly those things are depends case by case.
However, when it comes to character, desire and ambition, there I think there is no compromise. Those are qualities every player has to have. Everything else can be corrected, improved or endured, but without real character and the will to work it is hard to produce a serious result.”
Coach Zakelj answers everything and leaves almost nothing open. Injuries and two operations, a career finished at twenty-seven, and immediately the line that it was entirely his own decision. The club left without money, half the squad gone, and in the end it turned out to be a good decision. The doubt before Buducnost, and again, in the end it turned out the decision was a good one. Everything difficult in this conversation arrives already resolved, with the outcome known.
Next in When the Noise Stops: Jaleen Smith, on the country he could not find on a map, and now cannot imagine leaving.
When the Noise Stops is a written interview series by Milos Srdjanov for Basketball Sphere. It asks basketball people about everything except basketball.
