According to Marci Báder, talent is nothing without diligence

Márton Báder is the undefeated figure of Hungarian basketball, the 98-time national team center has flashed his skills in domestic clubs and as a foreign legionnaire, and his debut as a sports manager was also excellent. As the professional director of Szolnoki Olaj KK, he was able to celebrate 2 Hungarian championship titles and a cup victory, promotion after 21 years as the professional director of the Honvéd, and since then we also know that BHSE has remained in the first division. The 43-year-old Báder was elected president of the Hungarian Basketball Association on May 2.

“After a successful sports career, a person always has a strong desire to give back to the sport as much as possible. I’m in a lucky position, because I’ve been put in a position where I couldn’t do more for Hungarian basketball anywhere else.” – the new president said to the MOL Team with a smile.

He knows where he wants changes

“My first task is to see the operation of the association perfectly, and although I have ideas about what should be changed, after a month it would be neither credible nor responsible if I started talking about reforms,” ​​said Báder.

Photo: Szoljon.hu/Csaba Illyés

“Part of the tasks that await me, and more precisely, together with the new presidency, are related to internal operations, and the other is sports-related. Primarily the latter will be visible to the public, and that’s fine, since the showcase of an association’s work is always the performance of national teams and club teams. But the most important changes that I consider salutary will not show their value quickly, in months.”

The president said that although there are no problems with the present of the men’s and women’s national teams, the men’s team needs to be involved in talent management, because everything is not in order there.

“While the women’s national team is a young team that can ensure international competitiveness for years, the men’s junior tournaments show that we are far from the level we hope to reach. “All our age groups are in group B, i.e. between 17-32, in Europe, and we have to improve on this. We have to face the problems, we can’t sweep unpleasant issues under the carpet,” said Báder determinedly.

The three passwords

According to the former excellent center, it is crucial to educate coaches with appropriate professional preparation, and he envisions the reform of the youth team along three watchwords: attracting young people to basketball, selection and professional training.

“It is important to increase the immersion, from which prepared professionals can select the talents who have everything to become international level players. I define them that way because I don’t always agree with who we call talent. Unfortunately, it is common to look for children with good movement and skillful hands, even though there are other, sometimes even more important, components of who becomes a good player.”

“I consider talent to be someone who has the necessary skills, but who is also diligent, has sufficient willpower and motivation. Someone who is simply good but is not willing to put in the work, even if he has the potential, he will not be able to take the path that his talent would enable him to do.”

According to Báder, the American system is the most successful youth training system, but unfortunately the preparation and competition system from high school to university cannot be transferred. He considers it his task to make the system based on domestic academies as efficient as possible.

“A Hungarian high school student, who is at school from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, cannot participate in more than five or six quality training sessions a week, and that is not enough. “Many problems can be overcome with the academy system, but not all of them, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the professional knowledge of the training coaches is very important, which also has room for progress. Of course, the task is not easy, we have to deal with many challenges, and the results will not be seen until 4-5 years at the earliest we will see.”

We need the legionnaires

We asked the president how good he thinks it is that naturalized players and legionnaires have an important role not only in the club teams, but also in the national team. Báder said that basketball is a special sport in this regard, and if we were to completely exclude the possibility of naturalization, we would be taking a different path that even the great European basketball powers would not dare to do.

“The Spanish national team, which works “slightly” more intensively than the Hungarian national team and has an excellent supply, also employs a naturalized American player. I don’t think this is a bad thing, and maybe it’s a bit too dimensioned, since only one naturalized player can appear per national team. I don’t think it would advance us if we gave up this opportunity.”

“The situation is a little different with the club teams, in the Hungarian NBI for the time being there can be five legionnaires per team, but next year this will change: there will be only four foreigners. “We don’t want to interfere in the operation of the club teams, but with the youth rule we want to ensure that as many domestic talents as possible can show themselves. Meanwhile, I personally think that a prepared player from a different basketball culture can add a lot to a club team.”

“We have a lot of work ahead of us with the new presidency, but it is a great help that I have taken over the management of a well-functioning organization, whose official leg is excellently managed by Péter Bodnár. Challenges, as well as inevitable conflicts, are part of my work. An exciting period is coming,” concluded Báder.