When you have lived in the opulence of sporting glory, surrounded by medals, it is difficult to settle for a more mundane result overnight, where effort and work are not always rewarded with praise or shiny trophies that reflect the success. During the last two decades, it has been customary to relate the benefits of absolute Spanish basketball, almost always assiduous to its appointment with history. Rare was the summer without the men's or women's team adding a medal or giving away games to remember. The triumphs of the Gasol brothers and company or those of Laia Palau, Anna Cruz, Laura Nicholls and Marta Xargay, among others, are already past. Age does not forgive. In the case of them, the absence of important names in the Tokyo Games and in the European Championship was already noted, in both outside the semifinals and consequently without a place for the World Cup. For their part, for the first time in a long time, Sergio Scariolo's pupils face the Eurobasket that begins in 10 days without being the favorites for the title, even for the medals, with a completely renewed group in which only the veterans Rudy Fernández and Sergio Llull take the viewer back to the time of wine and roses. “It is clear that talent is down. You can't cheat”, recognized the coach during the preparation of the continental event.
Matching these successes is almost utopian, even more so considering that during this time installed on the podium few new faces have entered the rotation, especially in the men's. “The transition has been extremely fast and we've had five or six injuries. He is a role model who has given us success. Bring together two, three or four veterans, other young people and a nucleus that has been working continuously, ”the president of the Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB), Jorge Garbajosa, tells La Vanguardia. Among others, Garuba, Brizuela, López-Arostegui and especially the Hernangómez brothers, habitual in recent years, will have to step forward to defend a difficult present that, however, could be the prelude to a splendid future.
The door is enduring as best it can the constant blows that the pearls of Spanish basketball are giving, young people loaded with reasons based on medals to win more minutes in the elite, in an Endesa League that serves as a bridge for the senior team. Only this summer, the men's and women's teams have been champions of Europe under-20 and in the under-17 category both have been runners-up in the world, only beaten by the American ogre. Then they won the gold in the European sub-18 and the silver they in the same age group. Finally came the medal in the men's U-16 European Championship, with the women's tournament in that category still to come. Seven medals in seven tournaments. “I am happy and excited about the future because there is a lot of work behind it. When you get to seven finals, it's no coincidence," says Garbajosa, world champion in 2006 and silver medalist at the Beijing Games in 2008. With teenagers shining, a recurring debate arises: give them a chance sooner than their ID marks. or let the definitive step with the older ones be natural, although with the danger of seeing their progression cut off. “If the process is accelerated, sometimes it is very positive and other times it is negative. It is not so easy”, says the federative president.
Among others, Txell Alarcón (Araski), Claudia Contell (Hozono Global Jairis), Elena Buenavida (Valencia), Noa Djiu (Valencia) or Iyana Martín (Siglo XXI) have stood out this summer in the women's teams, while in the men's they have outstanding Mario Saint-Supéry (Unicaja), Jordi Rodríguez (Joventut), Izan Almansa (Overtime), Rubén Domínguez (Students), Millán Jiménez (Valencia), Michael Caicedo (Barça), Héctor Alderete (Students) and Juan Núñez (Ratiopharm Ulm ). The latter two were included in Scariolo's shortlist, but Alderete has already been ruled out. “Of course I want the training players to play, but you can't be unfair to the work of some clubs. Little by little I see a change in mentality and the economy of the clubs is not infinite", explains Garbajosa, who claims the creation of the Women's Challenge League and the FEB Futur@ project as "a place where young people start to play basketball ”.
“The technicians are excellent with the children. After that there is no continuity. When they have to make the jump, most ACB teams are in a hurry for results. There are no long projects, ”explains a history of Spanish basketball like Jordi Villacampa to this newspaper. The last youngster who has flown to Germany in search of more playing time is Núñez, MVP of the Under-20 European Championship and Real Madrid youth squad. Others, such as the sub-17 world runners-up Álvaro Folgueiras and Izan Almansa, MVP of the tournament, have chosen to finish their training in the US, a leading country in the care of its young athletes. In addition, the arrival of the nationalized Lorenzo Brown to the family has fueled the debate about the presence of the national player in the ACB, where last season he only represented 29%. The quotas, which ensure four Spanish players, have not diminished the importance of the community player and the non-community player.
“You have to have the courage to risk it with young people”, defends the former player and president of Joventut, a club always supported by its prolific youth academy. “Ricky Rubio also kicked it in the foot at the beginning and then came the performance. He went to the Beijing Games when he was 17 years old because he already had a tour of the ACB with Penya. He debuted when he was 14 years old, ”he recalls about the base, now injured, whose case is similar to his, also a very young verdinegro debutant, at 16 years old. However, in his time there was still no Bosman law that opened the door to more foreign players, applied from 1995. Shortly after, in 1999, the gold juniors, including Pau Gasol and Navarro, were world champions under-19 and anticipated a golden era for a team that now faces an unknown scenario. Meanwhile, illusion continues to be created from the base, which between European and World Cups already has 98 medals in its history.
