The National Team, loyal to the Olympic event

No European team, except Spainis present in all editions of Olympic Games since 2000. With his victory Bahamas in the last game of Pre-Olympic of Valencia On Sunday (86-78), the Spanish team made sure to maintain the series of excellence that keeps Spanish basketball in the world elite.

Only USA and Australiain less demanding global classification zones, corresponding to successive occurrences in recent editions.

The Americans, with 20 presences (all since the beginning of the basketball tournament) lead the global ranking, followed by Australia and Brazil (both with 16). Spain is in fourth position with 14. The United States continues to lead the current ranking FIBA but Spainwho held this privileged position before the latter worldkeep pushing to get it back.

If we except participating in the Games of atlanta in 1996, the common denominator of this streak with the Spanish team was Rudy Fernández, present at all five Games follows and also, if nothing prevents it, in Paris, its sixth. The Balearic forward will become the first basketball player in the world to achieve the endurance milestone.

“I was lucky enough to live to five and I told them that if there were six, I would be very happy, but I asked them to fight for their Olympics, to compete, because we are a family,” insists the Mallorcan forward. emotional, referring to his teammates after the victory Bahamas which led to this extension of his career and the record. The captain of the national team emphasized that now he has to “enjoy this Olympics”, his last professional tournament, as he promised his father when he died and now he feels “very grateful for the job” that he did to get to this point. and for being able to “continue to enjoy this team and this family.”

If we other than the host France, state join It is the only country that will have representation in four types of basketball at the Olympic Games. Paris (5×5 and 3×3 in male and female versions). Spainwhich will also have a women’s team in 5×5 and 3×3, is in second position with three teams, namely Canada, Australia, Germany and Serbia.

rest week

After brilliant success Bahamas which provided the classification, the Spanish team will now have a week of rest and recovery before facing the Olympic challenge. The team will meet again next Monday the 15th to continue training on Madrid.

Scariolo and his technical team are confident that this period will allow the two injured players to recover, Alex Abrines and Juancho Hernangomez, who could not play in the final Pre-Olympic matches. Abrines suffered a small muscle tear while Juancho struggled with his left adductor.

His physical condition will determine the coach’s final decision to identify his final group of 12 players going to Paris. The final technical disposal of Sergio Scariolo For the Valencia event is forward Joel vinewho stayed in the group until a few days before the start of the tournament, like the young Sergio De Larrea, who became a ‘guest’ in the preparation and covered Lorenzo’s absences. brown and John Núñez.