Bàsquet Girona, Movistar Estudiantes, Zunder Palencia and ICG Força Lleida will compete this weekend in Girona and live on LaLigaSportsTV in a LEB Oro Final Four that is as exciting as it is unpredictable.
With the permission of their respective rivals in the semifinals, Girona and Madrid start a priori as big favorites to meet next Sunday in a long-awaited final that will decide which team will accompany the Regular League champion, Covirán Granada, next season in the ACB.
The Final Four of the LEB Oro will put the cherry on top of a season that has had countless incentives: from the presence in the category for the first time in its almost 75 years of life of a club like Movistar Estudiantes, to the return of a living legend of Spanish basketball like Marc Gasol, enrolled in the ranks of Bàsquet Girona of which he is founder and president. “Two major hooks” that, according to Jaume Zorita, content manager of LaLigaSportsTV, have allowed subscribers of this OTT to enjoy “a dream LEB Oro”.
Since joining the Bàsquet Girona squad, the former Memphis Grizzlies, Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Lakers player, among others, has become the beacon of a team that had just accumulated seven consecutive defeats and is now just two steps away. of the rise. All this, after stringing together 20 wins in the 26 games played since his return (including the last three, achieved consecutively against Leyma Coruña in the LEB Oro quarterfinal playoff).
The people from Girona resolved quickly with a 3-0 best-of-five tie in which the Gasol midfielder put his personal finishing touch with a PIR of 30 (19 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists) and certified his fifth MVP of the season in 23 games.
With a former ACB like Josep Franch in the game direction, and escorted on the perimeter by the Argentine international Max Fjellerup and the globetrotter Txemi Urtasun, Marc has put aside his impressive record and his position, and has led by example, putting himself at the service and under the orders of his coach Jordi Sagartal as one more. And, what is more important, becoming the mirror in which everyone wants to reflect themselves: from the first of his teammates to the last student of the Escola de Bàsquet who inspired the founding of the club in 2014.
In addition to having a women's club of the entity and prestige of Uni Girona, the people of Girona have regained the enthusiasm to return to the elite also in the men's category.
A shared dream, from the Costa Brava to the Pyrenees, that has been forged in the last eight years and that has finished taking shape since Marc decided to put an end to his career in the NBA. Turning a deaf ear to the siren songs that came from top-level European clubs, Marc put on his Girona shirt to close the circle and write a story with overtones of a film script.
The ICG Força Lleida will be the first of the last two obstacles that Gasol and his team will have to overcome starting this Saturday (8:00 p.m. / LaLigaSportsTV) to return the city that catapulted him to fame to the same place it occupied in that fateful summer 2008, when the economic problems of the then Akasvayu Girona precipitated its disappearance and Marc had to embark on his American adventure.
Those from Lleida won (79-70) against Cáceres, a World Heritage Site in the fifth game of the most even and unpredictable series of the LEB Oro Playoffs and they will not make it easy for the people from Girona either, as seen in their duels in the regular phase. In fact, in their first match of the season played in Barris Nord, Força Lleida clearly won (86-65).
A match that, surely, will have nothing to do with the one that both teams will play this Saturday in the second semifinal of a Final Four to which Movistar Estudiantes also goes with the favorite label.
After eliminating UEMC Real Valladolid Baloncesto in four games (3-1), Diego Epifanio's men will face the solid Zunder Palencia (Saturday 18 at 5:30 p.m. / LaLigaSportsTV) in a head-to-head match that they face with the spirit of revenge. In the two matches played in the regular phase between both teams, the schoolboys were not able to prevail over their rival and, precisely, they said goodbye to their options for direct promotion after the tight defeat at home against the purple team (71- 73) on matchday 32, the penultimate of the Regular League.
The concentration in defense of the Palencia team and the offensive success of the American with a Ghanaian passport, Prince Ali, were key in both matches for the team led by Pedro Rivero, which will have to deal with the historical background and the superiority in the stands of Ramiro's team. . However, the pressure and urgency of their opponent to return to the top category could work in favor of the Castilians, who arrive more rested in this final four after eliminating Unicaja Banco Oviedo in three games.
The guarantees that, on paper, the block provides are the main guarantee for the Estu. And not only for having managed to retain some important pieces in their squad, such as the Montenegrin power forward Nemanja Djurisic, but also for having recovered for the cause a world champion like Javi Beirsen and another old acquaintance of the club like Nacho Martin.
In addition, the collegiate technical office has opted for the incorporation of players with proven experience in the category, such as the American guard Johnny Dee, who added two promotions in the 2019 and 2020 seasons, and the former Palencia players, Kevin Larsen and Felipe dos Anjos.
They have been joined by veteran Alex Urtasun, an emergency signing after Edwin Jackson was out due to injury and who would face his twin Txemi in a hypothetical final against Girona. An extra dose of morbidity for a Final Four that has all the ingredients to establish itself as the prelude to the elite of Spanish men's basketball.
Faithful to its intention to consolidate itself as “the OTT of Spanish sport”, LaLigaSportsTV has become the main platform for the dissemination of audiovisual content for more than 40 national federations for just over three years. "There has been a lot of emphasis over these years that the growth of their sports is closely linked to the quality of the audiovisual product they offer," they admit from the LaLiga streaming platform.
In parallel to the LaLigaSports program and the broadcasts of all these disciplines, LaLigaSportsTV decided to expand its offer with the acquisition for five seasons of the audiovisual rights of competitions such as the LEB Oro. “It was one of the regular leagues along with Asobal and the National League. of Futsal that we were interested in offering and we are very satisfied with the evolution experienced in these years,” admits Jaume Zorita, OTT content manager.
Far beyond the spectacular atmosphere that will be breathed once again in the Pavelló Municipal Girona-Fontajau, the Final Four of the LEB Oro will surely surpass the great audience records of the last edition of the Princess Cup between Covirán Granada and Movistar Estudiantes , the most watched match of the season on LaLigaSportsTV.
“The pull of Movistar Estudiantes and Bàsquet Girona has served to build audience loyalty” admits Zorita. The fact of having broadcast all the games of the season has also allowed “many basketball lovers to get hooked on the competition.” “Without a doubt, this is one of our star contents, and we are convinced that next season will also work very well.” We'll see if with Movistar Estudiantes or Marc Gasol still as claims.
