A week had passed since Icus told Edó she would be the young player traveling to the Paris tournament.

Since then, Edó had been pushing even harder to meet her expectations. She gave everything in practice, but she could feel that Icus was not satisfied with her. The question kept coming back. What was she missing? She knew she was giving her maximum. It bothered her that things on the court were not unfolding the way Icus wanted.

After practice one day, Edó gathered the courage to ask if they could talk by the bench outside the gym. Icus agreed.

Edó got straight to the point. She said she was doing everything she could, yet she felt it was not enough, and she wanted to understand what she needed to change.

Icus answered honestly. This is not just about you, she said. The whole team is not at the level I need right now. With the national team, we train using methods brought over from the United States, and those simply do not exist here yet. In that sense, things have stopped moving. That new system has pushed me to a different level, both physically and technically, and here I feel held back. I do not have partners on the court who can match it, and I have to constantly slow myself down. That is hard for me.

They talked about Paris as well. Icus said she would not be able to show what she was capable of there if she did not have the right partners. She needed players around her who could match her in conditioning and skill.

Edó took a breath and asked if she could become one of those players. She said she would do whatever it took, push herself to the limit if needed, she just needed direction. She would follow.

Icus saw this as a good sign. She said she had already told the team in the locker room that they were not going to Paris as tourists. They were going there to achieve something, and the current level would not be enough. So far, Edó was the only one who had come to her to take action.

She offered to work with her separately three times a week at the university court. One hour each time. She would pass on as much as she could from the new system. She made it clear that what took her one hour would take Edó two or three, and she had to be ready for that.

As a point guard, it also mattered to her how Edó, playing high post, could work with her, whether she understood the plays, and whether her ball handling was reliable. There was no room for breaking the flow of the game.

Edó was happy. Her role model was willing to invest time in her and share knowledge that could shape her entire career.

Later, she would often think back to that university court. Because of Icus, she remembered it with warmth, but the work itself stayed in her memory as something close to suffering. Those sessions were hard, but they paid off.

In Paris, during games, when she looked at Icus, she saw only enthusiasm on her face.

That was enough.