Euroleague – final – working day 1
Madrid facing history. Again. The white team is pursuing their 12th European Basketball Cup tonight (8:00 p.m., Movistar) against Panathinaikos, linking two titles in a row for the first time in 56 years, since 1968, and breaking the curse that prevents the champion of the regular phase from being crowned. the Euroleague. To open the encyclopedia again, no club collects three legends like Rudy Fernández, Sergio Llull and Sergio Rodríguez, the trinity of Madrid, the three old men who today will live their last European night together in the white shirt. Rudy will retire at the age of 39 at the end of this season, his body full of blows after a career at the limit of physicality and passion, and Llull (36) and Chacho (37) are out of contract and their future is up in the air. . The Balearic guard is closer to continuing another season, the Canarian point guard is further away from continuing short. In Berlin today, a part of the shield says goodbye to Europe, the last dance together after so many battles. Three Euroleague laurels adorn each of them.
“I feel like it was the first final. I have lived a lot and now I want to compete and enjoy because this is over,” summarizes Rudy Fernández, the oldest of the trilogy. In Berlin he raised the 2022 Eurobasket to the sky, invested as the great captain of a very renewed team that surprised the entire world. Today the forward is savoring the last sips of a titanic career that he wants to close with another Euroleague and with the milestone of becoming in Paris the only basketball player in history to compete in six Olympic Games. “I would be especially happy for Rudy if we win the second in a row,” Chus Mateo commented yesterday. “I will do everything possible so that Rudy has this title,” the giant Tavares conspired. Far from that explosive player who smashed the rim against Howard in the 2008 Beijing final, Rudy has recycled himself into a compendium of intelligence. This season he only added four points on two-pointers in the entire regular phase of the Euroleague (no starts), protecting himself from collisions and parading around the perimeter: 20 triples.
Llull was the hero of Kaunas, the author of the basket that defeated Olympiacos with 3.2 seconds left, his only two points of the night. “I’ve seen her a lot of times. It’s something every child dreams of. I would play it again. You know me, in those moments I’m not going to hide,” asserts the shooting guard, “the best player in the world at the last second,” according to Tavares. Like Rudy, he has played with the calculator (twice as a starter in 28 games in the European league) to reach the end of the season. Along the way he collects one record after another, such as surpassing Navarro as the top triple scorer in the Euroleague, already with 630 bingos, and being the top scorer in the Final Four this century: 207 points. Only Kyle Hines (425) surpasses him in matches in the tournament (405). “I’m fine. I will continue if Real Madrid wants”, he warns about his intentions.
The magic continues to flow from the hands of Chacho Rodríguez. Last year he was decisive in coming back in the quarterfinals against Partizan with 18 points in the fifth game (with five rebounds from Rudy and two terminal triples from Llull) and today he is the leader in assists in this final phase of the championship since 2000 (70 compared to Llull’s 67). “It’s wonderful to see Chacho with his little body, how he makes passes. He has never had a great physique, but he gives master classes on how he sees the game, how he reads the game. It’s a joy. We have taken care of him and he is comfortable,” says Chus Mateo.
“I love old people!”, wrote the former Madrid player Andrés Nocioni last year after Madrid’s feat against the Belgrade team. “Old school rules,” Llull responded on social networks. “You have to enjoy these leaders,” Campazzo asks.
Chus Mateo surrenders to the three teachers: “I only have good words for them because of how they transmit the desire to win in the locker room, how they pressure their teammates when necessary and how they have a word of encouragement when they need it, and how they are capable to train despite the thousand battles they carry in their legs. All three have adapted to a 90-game schedule by transforming their bodies. They have modified their game when their physical characteristics have changed. It’s a hat to take off. Chapeau”.
Schedules and TV. Match for third place: Olympiacos-Fenerbahçe (5:00 p.m., Movistar). Final: Real Madrid-Panathinaikos (20.00, Movistar).
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