Rudy Fernández made a promise. “I promised my father that the Olympics would be my last tournament,” he confessed a year ago.. And he complied. The myth, the last active world champion player in Saitama and finishing his last days on the hardwood, did it. Spain beat the Bahamas, won the La Fonteta Olympic Qualifiers and takes its great captain to the sixth Olympic Games. Athens, Beijing, London, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Paris. The legend will say goodbye in style.
I promised my father that the Olympics would be my last tournament
Rudy will surpass all myths. With five, he equals Pau Gasol, Juan Carlos Navarro, Oscar Schmidt, Andrew Gaze and Teófilo Cruz. He ascends to another galaxy, to one that will accompany a A very long track record in which he has four EuroBasket titles (2009, 2011, 2015 and 2022), two World Cups (2006 and 2019), two silvers (2008 and 2012) and one Olympic bronze (2016). Even further, to a historic and unique place.
The novelty of Pre-Olympic did not change the captain. He accepted the challenge and the novelty. In the first phase he appeared with efficiency and at the crossroads he went to his tireless work. On the ground and fighting rebounds against Finland, xxx against the fearsome Bahamas. He once again remembers that phrase from Sergio Scariolo that went around the world after the last gold in the EuroBasket. “He has a bad back, a bad knee, a bad neck and he’s not scared. He goes after all the balls, he is amazing. He hurts everything but he enters the court and steals balls as if he were 18 years old“, defined the Italian coach. That’s Rudy.
He has a bad back, a bad knee, a bad neck and he’s not scared. He goes after all the balls, he is amazing. He hurts everything but he enters the court and steals balls as if he were 18 years old
That he was already a legend and did not need to continue ‘breaking’ his face. 261 matches included him, he broke Navarro’s international cap record in the last World Cup. But it’s still there. From being a prototype of a modern player, represented by the dunk over Dwight Howard in the 2008 Beijing final, to being part of the generation of legendary players like Pau Gasol, Navarro, Ricky Rubio, Marc Gasol, José Manuel Calderón. To lead by example, jump at every ball. “It teaches us that it doesn’t matter if your name is Rudy and you’ve been here for 20 years or Santiago and you’ve been here for two. You go after all the balls. You fight,” Aldama acknowledged to MARCA during the tournament.
And it’s in Paris 2024. Now yes. It’s her final dance. The ovation from WiZink will be left behind when he led, after a lavish second match, Real Madrid to the Endesa League title against UCAM Murcia. A Pre-Olympic Championship will be left behind in which they leave with their work accomplished. “I promised my father when he left me,” he said. “I don’t believe it. I knew how hard it was going to be and the work of a few days was very hard and it was worth all the work and sacrifice of the Games,” he added. Paris, his destination.
For an exemplary, decisive and leader player. It was everything. From the 2008 and 2012 finals, to a EuroBasket in which he changed the games from the locker room talks to the pitch. To sign up for a challenge in which the talent is no longer that of the past and Team value is what rules if Spain wants to be in the complicated panorama that comes in the future. But it complies. And it’s in Paris. The legend remains.
