Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Basketball Beat Reporter
Photo courtesy of Jake Barger of SJSU Athletics
Alvaro Cardenas thought he overcame all unthinkable obstacles to play Division I basketball for San Jose State in June of 2021.
The Spanish Embassy amidst a global pandemic let him know he hadn’t thought of everything.
“Now the problem is trying to get a visa and they shut down the [Spanish] Embassy in Barcelona so there is only one in Madrid,” said Cardenas, who was born and raised in Granada, Spain. “There’s no appointments until December of the next year and I need to be here in August.”
Fortunately for Cardenas, he had an unrelenting support system working in his favor.
His mom was up at 4 a.m. everyday checking for appointments, while SJSU head coach Tim Miles was trading direct messages with Spanish Embassy officials on Twitter and reaching out to congressman.
“Then one day all of the sudden a couple of appointments opened up,” said Cardenas. “It was a miracle.”
It was wheels up for Cardenas, and since he arrived in San Jose, the Spartans too.
His 10.2 points per game, hustle and keen leadership have made him a co-captain and gifted SJSU (13-9, 4-5 MW) its most conference wins since the 2016-17 season. Moreover, its second double-digit win season since 2010 and lifted the Spartans 220 spots in the NET, from 333rd a year go to now ranked 113th.
“There’s no doubt that Alvaro has had a huge impact on our emergence,” said Miles, now in his second-year as SJSU head coach.
In his introductory press conference in April of 2021, Miles said he wanted “scrappy” players.
He asked and he received someone who personifies that cliche, age-old sports trope.
“Alvaro has been a late bloomer, a small guy all his life,” said Cardenas’ father David, who coaches basketball in Spain.
Forever undersized and doubted, but forever making sure it didn’t stand between him and success.
David Cardenas vividly remembers his then 13-year-old son skipping down a set of stairs at 10:30 p.m. after studying for hours.
“‘Are you going to have dinner?’ David asked.
To which Alvaro replied, “No, I have to train. Later.”
Whether or not 13-year-old Cardenas knew it, his life would always revolve around a ball, a hoop and a will to improve.
While David was well-known and revered in the basketball community, he never pushed Alvaro to take basketball seriously. But with his son’s passion, obsession and promise he began to tap into his network.
From the very beginning of his basketball journey, David told Alvaro one thing:
“It doesn’t depend on you, it depends on somebody who can trust you.”
That became prophetic thanks to David’s close friend and basketball contact Ramon Carbonell, who now works as a scout for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Now, Carbonell wasn’t that “somebody,” but he helped introduce Cardenas’ to a man who became that somebody:
Gilbert Abraham.
A well-respected skills trainer, who has spent decades fine-tuning a swath of NBA talent, Abraham helped run and coach the Get Better Academy in the Czech Republic. With his decades of well-proven expertise, David had confidence that Abraham could help Alvaro fulfill his dream of playing Division I basketball in the United States.
So off Cardenas went to Jindřichův Hradec, trading the skin-bronzing sun and translucent ocean waves of Grenada, Spain for the cold, gray and unflattering backdrop of Central Europe.
But for a gym rat like Cardenas, weather is just the brief thing he’d experience going back-and-forth from his bedroom to the weight room and basketball court.
“I would sometimes have eight, 10 hour days in the gym and everyday I would have to kick him out,” said Abraham, now a coach for the Spurs’ G-League affiliate. “I’d have to tell him to go do something else. Go read a book, go on a walk.”
Like always, Cardenas took Abraham’s advice.
Except Cardenas’ idea of a walk was strolling with teammates to a nearby frozen lake for an all natural ice bath.
“We had a stick that we found … he just started breaking the ice as he’s walking and then we just created a little pool,” said Cardenas. The two went neck high and discovered water’s violent tendencies.
“That s**t hurts man,” said Cardenas. “It just feels like someone’s sticking things into you.”
Long days and brushes with hypothermia were a culmination of a bigger plan.
That plan didn’t factor in a global pandemic, however.
Eliminating the exposure of COVID-19, meant eliminating the exposure Cardenas needed for a scholarship.
Get Better Academy’s tours through the U.S.? Kaput. Traveling through Europe and building tape against elite competition? Kaput. Having coaches or scouts from the U.S. come and visit? Kaput.
Matters were made worse for Cardenas when the NCAA gave athletes another year of eligibility to compensate for the COVID-19 season and also unleashed the transfer portal. Roster flexibility became too stiff to heavily invest in an unproven, undersized point guard from overseas.
“The questions that are going to be coming are, ‘Why are you going to take a guard from Spain when you can get one in your backyard?’” said Abraham.
Abraham saw the countless hours, he saw Cardenas’ “ravenous” desire to improve and saw his leadership. What he needed was a program to trust what he saw.
Programs were interested, but that’s as far as it got.
“I would talk to some other coaches from other schools, but it’s like I never talked to the head coach, that’s not really a good sign,” said Cardenas.
By the time May came around, Cardenas had zero scholarship offers.
Second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, the cold, unforgiving hands of time held nothing, but the possibility of despair.
Until one day in May, a woebegone program from sunny San Jose, seeking to change its downtrodden narrative held everything Cardenas needed in the palm of its hand.
A scholarship offer.
Through a mutual contact, Abraham was able to connect with newly appointed assistant coach David Miller who was impressed enough to look past his 6-foot-1-inch frame.
More importantly, Miles saw what Abraham and Miller saw, and confirmed what Cardenas and his dad knew all along.
Cardenas’ physical limitations didn’t mean he couldn’t play Division I basketball.
“There was no doubt after meeting Al on zoom that he was going to flourish in our environment and at San Jose State,” said Miles.
Miles was “worried” about his size, but gambled that he could mentally endure hardships that come with playing for a program that had gone 21-93 in its previous four seasons.
“I think certain people are attracted to that challenge because I’ll challenge guys and some guys like that challenge and some guys don’t,” said Miles.
“There’s this magnetic attraction one way or another. Some guys are repelled. They don’t want anything to do with that.”
Besides, what’s a rebuild compared to a foreign affair debacle with the Spanish Embassy?
“There’s nothing I don’t think that kid can’t handle,” said Abraham.