I played basketball during my teens. I consider it to be one of the greatest influences on my life.

I picked the interested in basketball at around 11 years old. I was a small kid, who was insecure about his height — I was the smallest kid in the class and, genetically speaking, I would probably always be a small guy.

I think I never said this to anyone, and actually maybe never thought about it since, but this lack of confidence about my height was the reason I became interested in basketball. I found a game played by big fellows, and I wanted to prove myself that I was as capable as them. I wanted to prove myself that my height wasn’t a limitation.

During my basketball years I worked harder than I ever had for anything so far in my life. I’m not saying it to brag, because there were other players working as hard and harder than me, but I honestly did. I used most of my free time to play basketball — every school break, every day after school, every practice, every weekend… be it hot or cold, be it with companion or alone.

During my basketball years my place in the team varied. I remember to, specially in the first years, being part of the starting five in the majority of the games. But later in time that started changing. In part that happened because I had the pleasure to play in better teams, but I also believe that my skills didn’t evolve as they should have.

Despite this, I surely kept working hard. I was in love with the game and the competition and, was I part of the starting five or not, I was seeing good results results of my effort.

During a few of those years (intermittently) I had a coach that taught me a lot about basketball. I can actually say that it was with him that I learned my greatest basketball skills, and was him who passed me the love for defence — one of my personal marks. He was the most demanding basketball coach I ever had, and the person with most love for the game that I ever met.

He was very demanding in every situation — be it during practice or during the game. And, as good as this can sound in principle, it actually backlashed for some people during the games. That was my case.

We weren’t allowed to make practically any error. If during the first minutes in court I made a bad pass which resulted in a turnover, I was very probably coming to the bench. Unless I quickly made a great point, pass, or other move that could compensate my previous error. He sometimes told me that I was starting the games already with a negative balance, so I had to first turn it positive before I had any opportunity to fail.

This affected my confidence in the game. More specifically, I became too afraid to fail, and very conservative of every move I made in court.

This stayed with me for a while.