Ehe magical tale of Spain continues to write epic stories. “There is a new reality and we must accept it,” said Sergio Scariolo, national coach, days before starting a new challenge. Even bigger. The golden generation, double world champion and triple Olympic medalist, is ending and with its last ‘warrior’, Rudy Fernández, burning the last minutes on the court of his life. But ‘La Familia’ resisted, fulfilled its history and tradition, and earned one more dance. They defeated Bahamas in the Valencia Pre-Olympic and will go to the Olympic Games from Paris. What a last dance.
Rudy throws.
There is a new reality and we must accept it
It sounds like past time seeing Spain outside an Olympic event. Although he was close to drama in Valencia, after running into the Bahamas of the NBA. “In individual talent there is nothing to do,” Scariolo said in the preview. But he resisted, and the last stain on the history of national basketball continues to be that sequence of negative events. From the ‘Angolazo’ of Barcelona 1992, to the ‘Chinazo’ of the 1994 World Cup and a dose of hosting in the 90s, when Greece left Spain without the 1996 Games after being eliminated in the quarterfinals of the European Championship in Greece in 1995.
In Valencia, Spain clung to the epic. Because yes, she is number 2 in the FIBA Ranking and is European champion after the miracle of miracles in Berlin. But there is not even elite talent that always wins, and every game is a war. From the semis against Finland to the final against the Bahamas. A new exercise in resistance to survive and avoid curses from the host. Some remember the 2014 World Cup or the 2007 EuroBasket, now history gives a Pre-Olympic in which Valencia devoted itself weekend.
And to Paris. There the company is much larger. The group leaves no respite. The Canada that already eliminated Spain in the World Cup and that calls up Jamal Murray to be a contender against the United States and its Dream Team or the France of the extraterrestrial Wembanyama. Australia, a rival to beat is to go to the dentist. AND Greecewith Giannis Antetokounmpo and winner of a Pre-Olympic in Athens in which she almost didn’t have to break a sweat.
This team always competes
Yes, Spain’s change in basketball is real. The talent exists, but it is not the differential of Antetokounmpo (Greece), Doncic (Slovenia) or Jokic (Serbia). But Spain resists. “This team always competes,” Scariolo argues. And it is in Paris, for a party for the basketball teams, with the presence of the women’s team and a 3×3 candidate for the plate at the great sports party.
