(Edited) They had training (and sundvor didn't say otherwise), but still, remember Boeing's decision that little or no re-training for the Max was needed for pilots already having 737 training.

See e.g. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/22/politics/boeing-737-manua...

I'm talking about a chain of causes here. There are clearly multiple factors at play.

They said no such thing