Although he dabbled in baseball and boxing, his true love was basketball. The Cuban players even allowed him to play catch with them. When asked about his style of play and advise for the squad, he said, "Wage guerrilla warfare on the field."
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| In a rare photo, young Fidel Castro playing basketball |
Do you know what I would want to be if I had a do-over? Someone who competes in sports. And basketball is the sport that has me most enthralled. Fidel Castro was a lawyer, soldier, politician, and revolutionary who altered the course of his country's development.
Of course, he has a lesser-known aspect to his personality, just like everyone else. That would be the sports car. Baseball, Cuba's national pastime and the position he had as a teenager, was his favorite sport, but he also tried his hand at soccer (where he was reportedly a willful striker) and boxing.
Castro enjoyed it so much that he and his fellow politicians and professional sportsmen would often break procedure and go on rampages while he was president.
He got pumped up and played a short game at Iquique, Chile, in 1971, while on a government trip there. Cuban coach Carmelo Ortega sought advice from his Spanish colleague Antonio Daz Miguel before the 1974 World Cup, when the Spanish national team trained in Cuba.
Do you think it would be fun to play a game of two vs two with that particular someone?
-Clear.
–Fidel Castro is coming to play.
The outcome of the match was unknown, and no photographs were taken during the match, although various depictions and accounts of Castro the player exist. Fidel was not recognized for being a terrific defender, but he was extremely energetic, penetrated a lot, and acquired excellent shooting abilities, according to Tomás Herrera, one of the emblems of Cuban basketball who came to play with him.
To then emphasize two features. "First, he hit a lot, but he also received hits and didn't say anything," he said, before allowing his leadership qualities to shine through. He said that when the stakes were raised, he took it upon himself to make the final decision.
He also spoke about how he was always trying to better himself and his skills. "After the games he would call me to ask me what mistakes I had made, which shows the interest he had in doing everything right," he said. Braver minds have speculated that he, like Manu with his trademark Eurostep in the NBA, had a move dubbed El Paso.
Castro enjoyed music often, both in private settings and for guests of honor. After injuring his toe while diving for Cuba in one of his favorite hard and muscular dives, he called it quits as a lawyer in 1982, at the age of 56.
Because of his enthusiasm for sports, he made them a top priority in Cuba. After a decree was enacted in 1961 making sports compulsory in schools, they quickly became a symbol of the revolutionary movement. There were competitions between different schools and communities, as well as the School Games and the Youth Games.
Because of the island's progressive sports strategy, its athletes are a mainstay at the forefront of international events. Cuba won 77 gold, 65 silver, and 71 bronze medals between 1954 and 2016, the year he passed away. The United States did not win more medals than Cuba in the 1991 Pan American Games, which were held in Cuba.
When the island boasted the world's second-best baseball league, professionalism was outlawed, leading many players to seek greener pastures elsewhere, most notably in the Major Leagues of the United States.
The national team, which Fidel prioritized, went on to win three Olympic gold medals, twelve Pan American gold medals, ten Intercontinental Cups, twenty-five World Cups, and one World Classic silver medal.
Cuba assembled strong pre-selection teams for basketball, with intensive training on the island's beaches, sports tracks, and fields (and even a cameo from Castro). "Fidel played with us in the Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum those night games that he liked so much," remembered Herrera.
The chosen one was put through rigorous testing across its communist allies in Eastern Europe on extended tours. Cuban accomplishments include the United States' 1971 Pan American Games triumph in Cali and a bronze medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics, when they defeated the Italian team led by pivot Dino Meneghin and point guard Pierluigi Marzorati.
Fidel Castro was a huge fan of Cuba's historic fourth-place finish in the 1974 World Cup. "He called me every day," Ortega, the coach of the squad that defeated Australia (92-79), Canada (80-79), Spain (84-75), and Brazil (85-80), stated. "Fidel always told us: 'you have to apply guerrilla warfare on the field,'" said Tomás el Jabao Herrera, a famed member of that squad with Chappé and Urgellés.
Source: Julian Mozo/Pagina12.