• Deck. The year of the 'Turtle' at Real Madrid
  • Euroleague Second Day

Gabriel Deck crosses the field like a freight train, with its two meters of power, with its deceptively rigid wandering, with that ferocity that is unstoppable. A little over a decade has elapsed and no more dust comes out after his steps, and the network sounds when it hits, and the crowd celebrates it and there are no tears of rage when it cannot with the elderly. Gaby already made an important hole in Real Madrid and stepped on the title of the World Cup final. "Everything happened too fast, maybe that's why I don't feel vertigo," says the eaves about his exciting life story. Because the Turtle, as they know him, comes from the humblest of origins. Back in Colonia Dora (1995), a little town in the heart of America, I was happy.

Not so long ago, Deck didn't even know what basketball was. Just a few years after discovering each other, he was the MVP of a Under 17 World Cup. «I started training bigger, with 12 or 13 years. Not mini. That was why it was also incredible for me, ”he recalls. His childhood was football, but he also worked hard. «We had to help at home, contribute to the family. Obviously, it is not normal for a child to go to work . But when it was needed, we did it, with joy, ”he admits, without blushing when he remembers his father picking alfalfa under the sun or cleaning buses with his mother. There were no tears there and yes when he and his brother Joaquin packed their bags to Santiago del Estero, the state capital, recruited by Quimsa, to, now, "pursue the dream of basketball." «They offered us food, house and soil. That's why we left and because we took two plates of food from my parents. But it was hard ».

- But how did you learn to play basketball?

- My brother was the one who watched television, who imitated the things he saw in basketball. The one that led me to play, because I didn't like it at first. He hooked me. The elders played on the field of the city, we were very young and we could not. That is why my father decided to make us a basket that he made with the steering wheel of a tractor and a piece of wood , which he used as a dashboard. We spent the afternoons playing with friends, in the back of my house. On a dirt floor. It was a unique stadium. Amazing. After we broke up and a blacksmith, our friend Luis, who lived in the corner, helped us.

- Is there any of those matches still in Gabriel Deck?

- There is a lot of that field left in my current game. The competitiveness we had there was incredible. You always wanted to win and when you lost you would get to tears. Crying to win! Today is that spark and that fire inside.

Today, still 24 years, after exploding in Quimsa and then being the best player in South America with San Lorenzo , he is one of the great bets of Madrid and Pablo Laso. Europe made the leap last year and neither occupy an extra-community position nor the period of adaptation to a basketball "so intense" took its toll. It was not an extraordinary first year, but hopeful enough to keep the club's confidence in its enormous possibilities, in its versatility, ratified in a World Cup in which it averaged more than 13 points with the surprising and silvery Argentina.

«I accept the requirement. This year I hope to contribute more », he says, about his new future. "The first year I arrived with a bit of anxiety," he says and confesses that the release of three is the score to improve in his repertoire, because almost everything else, also of character, is left over. «We Argentines have that different spark, which we try to contribute to infect. It is something passionate . Although in general, the hunger for victory of this team is incredible ». And yet, off the track, Deck is anything but Argentine. Sober, speak softly and respond shortly, without arabesques.

Among the Pan-Americans (gold), the World Cup (silver) and the start of the season with Real Madrid -in the final of the Super Cup he dried Mirotic-, Deck barely had holidays or time to return to Colonia Dora. «I loved going to see my grandparents and my uncles, the tractor, work the alfalfa. There a car passes every hour. They are things that are not forgotten ». They are the tolls of stardom, the requisites of a capricious destiny. «Coming from such a humble town, difficulties are faced differently. It is reflected on the court, ”he proclaims, and claims a debt he is not willing to overlook. « I promised my mother that I would finish my studies . With so much walking around, we barely have time. But I will comply ». As he also met his people: a few months ago he launched the children's dining room April 7, in his childhood neighborhood, in Colonia Dora.

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