It was the poster of the final, also of a time. Rudy Fernández lifted the 37th Real Madrid Basketball League this Wednesday after beating UCAM Murcia in the third game and fulfilled his last service to the white team accompanied in the celebration by two other legends, Sergio Rodríguez and Sergi Llull. The forward will retire this summer at the age of 39 in an attempt to play with the national team in his sixth Games and the Canarian point guard (38) and the Balearic guard (36) are pending to clarify his future in the White House. Both are out of contract, as are Causeur, Hezonja, Poirier and Tavares, as well as the coach, Chus Mateo, a lineup that anticipates a lot of work in the offices and the regeneration of a team that has won almost everything.
Madrid has been a crusher: 72 victories in 86 games played during the season, 83.5% wins and only 14 defeats (33, for example, suffered by Barcelona). The whites opened the season with 19 straight wins, until losing to Unicaja in November; They have achieved the third national treble in their history (League, Cup and Super Cup) after those achieved in 1985 with Lolo Sainz and in 2015 with Pablo Laso; In the ACB qualifiers they have swept 8-0 after beating Gran Canaria 2-0 in the quarterfinals, Barça 3-0 in the semifinals and UCAM Murcia 3-0 in the final, a progression without progress which I had not tasted for 28 years; and in the Euroleague they set the record for victories in a regular phase (27) and only a bad second half against Panathinaikos prevented them from retaining the crown of European champions.
Given this performance, the renewal of the workforce is due more to an inevitable generational change in some cases and competition with other offers than to the need for a revolution. The club’s roadmap involves renewing Chus Mateo for two more seasons. In two seasons, the 55-year-old coach has not only emerged victorious from the shadow of Pablo Laso, the man who marked an era with 22 titles in 11 campaigns, but has also extended his hegemony with five more titles (two Super Cups, one League , a Cup and a Euroleague) and calm leadership. And on the court, once the growth in the game was strengthened with the arrival of Facundo Campazzo a summer ago, Madrid completes the continuity of its great reference of recent seasons, Edy Tavares. The most dominant center in Europe, 32 years old, is close to signing a long-term and financially rich contract.
In the direction of the game, Sergio Rodríguez plucks the daisy. “I have to make a cold decision,” he said at the Endesa League celebration. Causeur will not continue in white, and on the agenda are Andrés Feliz, Joventut’s Dominican point guard (26 years old, 1.83m), chosen in the ACB ideal quintet, and the Canadian Xavier Rathan-Mayes (30 years old, 1.93m ), point guard for Enisey, of the Russian League. Poirier also seems more out of character, tempted by the Anadolu Efes checkbook. In the painting, Madrid is testing the return of Serge Ibaka, who already played as a Real Madrid player in 2011 during the NBA lockout and who this year has returned to Europe at the age of 34 with the help of Laso at Bayern Munich. And Usman Garuba’s option remains open, although the international center with Spain intends to improve his options to continue in the American League.
In that puzzle, the key piece is Mario Hezonja. The Croatian forward has avoided some renewal offers at the insistence of a Madrid that considers him essential due to his offensive capacity and his physical display. “We lost the title because of me,” Hezonja lashed out after the defeat against Panathinaikos in the Euroleague final. This Wednesday, after the league victory, he kept the ball from the final, which Llull gave him, and he showed his desire to continue: “I’m not going to talk about the three titles. I am a perfectionist and I always like to win. I feel bad for having lost a title in the worst game of the season. I would like to give these fans more titles in the coming years. They have welcomed me with open arms when people said shit about me that was a lie. “I want to return that love with more years of success.” Súper Mario is the link that seeks to tie Madrid on its path to regeneration.
You can follow The USA Print in Facebook and xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
