Mexico national team player Daniel Amigo spoke with Basketball Sphere about the FIBA World Cup 2023.
Mexico returned to the FIBA World Cup in 2014 after a 40-year drought. Five years later they did not perform in China, but now they are back. Because of all this, Daniel Amigo talked to Basketball Sphere with great emotion.
Amigo especially praised two teammates. Also, Omar Quintero, who was the captain of Mexico for 17 years, leads them from the bench as head coach. You can read about that and much more in this article.
The United States and Brazil were outplayed in the qualifiers
Mexico arrives at the FIBA World Cup 2023 after eight wins in 12 games played during the qualifiers. The victories against the United States and Brazil were particularly impressive.
During the qualifiers, Mexico changed 25 players, but 12 of them played only one game. Five players participated in every qualifying game, and their willingness to always respond to the coach’s call is something that Daniel Amigo particularly emphasizes.
“I must say that it is a tiring and long way through the qualifiers. There were extremely high-quality teams in our group, and the aggravating factor is that we always gathered only a few days before games. I think the important thing was our incredible desire to appear in the national team jersey every time.
We have a great group of players who are above all quality people and they represent the core of this team. Many teams rotated far more players, but in this way we have matured as a team and have obviously improved.”
![Mexico](https://basketballsphere.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/FIBA-Svetsko-prvenstvo-Meksiko.png)
“One of the best feelings in my life!”
Five players of the Mexican national team were part of the team in Spain in 2014. Daniel Amigo is not among them, and this will be his first appearance at a major competition. During the qualifiers, he filled all the statistical columns for almost 30 minutes on the court as the “glue guy” of this team.
With 13.4 points on average, he was second best scorer of the team. He also added 5.7 rebounds, and almost three assists per game. Amigo spoke emotionally about the upcoming debut, but also about his teammates, whom he respects immensely.
“The aforementioned group of five basketball players deserved to qualify for the World Cup 2023 the most out of all. I can’t tell you how happy I am for them. They are going to the second Mundobasket in the last ten years. This has enormous significance when you consider that this is the second World Cup for Mexico in the last 50 years.
Honestly, this means a lot to me, and I don’t have the words to describe how I felt when we made it to the FIBA World Cup 2023. One of the best feelings in my life, representing my national team on the big stage. We have the possibility to do something big. I am especially happy, because I have been a part of this journey since the first day of qualifiers.”
The absence of Juan Toscano-Anderson
A big blow for Mexico will be the fact that Juan Toscano-Anderson will not travel to the world fair. Still, Daniel Amigo sees great reason for optimism. Especially because there is the tandem Pako Cruz – Paul Stoll, in whose hands are the “keys of this team”.
“I will repeat, we have a great team that absorbs the basketball philosophy very well and everything coach Quintero points out to us. The atmosphere in the team is fantastic, and as I said before, our main strength is cort of the team, which has been there since day one.
Paul Stoll is an amazing point guard and I am impressed with the way he plays at this age. When I watch him on the floor, it seems to me that he is 10 years younger. Pako Cruz is of incredible importance to Mexico.
I can say that we would not have gone to the World Cup without him. I think we can surprise everyone because of the way we play with a huge dose of heart, euphoria and energy.“
“We will qualify for the second stage”
The draw for the World Cup placed Mexico in Group D. Their rivals there will be Lithuania, Montenegro and Egypt.
Daniel Amigo spoke about rivals, but a little more about the expectations that Mexico does not hide. Their goal is to qualify for the second stage, which would be a big surprise on paper.
“Just as you said, our main goal is to advance to the second round, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. We will qualify for the second stage. We are a team that looks at all its opponents identically. We will go out on the floor, do our best and play basketball.
We have already shown that we can compete against the best and that we are not afraid of any team. It is our identity, to struggle and gave effort at every moment. We are a very good team and we are here to play for each other.”
A legend on the bench
At the end of the conversation, we concentrated our attention on everything that head coach Omar Quintero has achieved in his career. First as a player, and then as a coach. He is a truly respected name in Mexico. During his playing career, he was the captain of the national team for 17 years. Also, Quintero is the first Mexican to play in the Endesa League.
Interestingly, he worked with Aleksandar Petrovic in Italy, and after that he gave the Croatian expert the nickname “El Maestro”. Quintero considers him the best coach he played under in his career. His first sentence when he took over Mexico was that he wanted to return the national team to the World Cup. He succeeded in that intention.
“Coach Quintero is an amazing personality and a great coach, on and off the court. I don’t have the right words to thank him for everything he did for me and my career. He simply has the right methods to approach every player in the team. The information about how good he was as a basketball player is also of great importance.
In the national team, he found a way to get the full potential out of all of us. That helped us win. He is very smart and understands the game fantastically. I must say that his approach gives us a huge amount of self-confidence, which is the key to playing at a high level, which is necessary for us.” – concluded Daniel Amigo.