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He was told by his discoverer, Osvaldo Echevarría , as soon as he reached the lower categories of Peñarol de Mar del Plata. "Having a future with 1.78 is very complicated. You are not going to grow any more: what you have to look for is speed of execution. Everything you do not earn above you have to gain from below. Legs," he recalled these days at La Nación . Echevarría welcomed him as a father when he left home with 15 years. It was also who later told Oveja Hernández , then coach of the first team and today Argentina coach, that the boy was ready. Echevarría and Campazzo speak often. And sometimes they cry, the coach confesses. Because who was going to imagine all this.

That he not only had a future in his country, but that he would also succeed in Europe. That would lead the selection with Luis Scola until the end of a World Cup. If Scola is the umbilical cord that unites this group with the Golden Generation , Campazzo is the engine and personality of this new batch, a pocket Nocioni . Chapu himself tells it in his biography Memories of a warrior : "He can win or lose games, but he makes the decisions. There are players who have doubts about losing or winning. Not me. I always took the responsibilities. Facu too."

More than once Nocioni confessed to feeling identified with Campazzo, with whom he coincided very briefly in Peñarol during the lockout in the NBA in 2011. Facu was still 20 years old, but he was already the star of the team. In fact, that same season debuted with the selection on the way to the 2012 Games. Five years younger than any teammate. The advance of a new generation that would not begin to break until the Pre-Olympic 2015 and today is the basis of success. There was Scola and there was still Nocioni, his patron when he arrived at Real Madrid. The two who, together with Ginobili in Rio 2016, passed the torch. Today he holds it next to the eternal Scola.

"It's a total fuss"

Campazzo is the pulse of Argentina. An earthquake that will keep Ricky Rubio , Sergio Llull and Pau Ribas with their hands full. Because it is one thing to know that it is the focus of the attack (13.6 points and 7.7 assists, the best passer in the World Cup) and another to guess where it will go. Like that missile in the back that sent Marcos Delía against Serbia, the first big blow on the table that gave the albiceleste in the tournament. Activity, imagination and impudence. The 'Oveja' Hernández said it the first day he trained him in Peñarol, still being junior. "It's a total fuss."

But it is also next to Pato Garino - great against Serbia and France - the first line of defense of Argentina. No, with 1.78 it is not easy to be a good defender either, but Echevarría already gave him the key. "Legs". It is a lower span than Rubio, but it supplies it with intensity and a powerful lower train to become annoying and sticky. For something, for that too, it is perhaps the most decisive base outside the NBA. This summer, by the way, there was interest from the Denver Nuggets but nothing serious, so he renewed for five years with Real Madrid. And despite the great World Cup there will be no change: it renewed with Real Madrid until 2024.

Argentina, like Spain, has been leaving behind a historical generation, but it keeps alive that competitive gene in the Campazzo, Garino or Deck , as the selection does in the Marc Gasol, Llull, Rudy or Ricky. "We are giving a great example of overcoming, of work and of sacrifice. These are the values ​​that many times the Golden Generation , which so high put to Argentina, transferred us," said the base, leader along with the inexhaustible Scola of this new Argentina.

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  • sports
  • basketball
  • Basketball World Cup 2019
  • Spanish Basketball Team
  • Facundo Campazzo

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