More or less anecdotal, but a transcendental truth in any case. With its removal from the Olympic Games Paris in the hands of Canada again Jordi Fernandez, Spain made it two summers in a row without winning a medal. A negative record so unusual that you have to go back to the early 2000s to find the last time a Spanish team went two consecutive years without landing on the podium, when it finished seventh at the Athens Games. 2004 and fifth in the Eurobasket of Serbia and Montenegro of 2005.
Since 2006, with gold at the World Cup in Japan, the team literally lived on the podiums of international competitions at the dictation of the golden generation led by a Paul Gasol who debuted with bronze in the 2001 Eurobasket.
If there were disappointments such as elimination in the quarterfinals at the 2014 World Cup in Spain against France, a medal in the following summer would have forgotten it. The team even chained it to four consecutive years by hanging metal in between 2006 and 2009 at the height of Gasol, Calderón, Garbajosa and company batch and beginning of Ricky Rubio.
During that time, Spain won its first World Cup gold in 2006 and its first European Championship in 2009, in addition to almost turning silver from the 2008 Beijing Games into gold in the final against Dream Team 2.0, considered by many to be the greatest game in basketball history. The streak of medals continued in the following decade, with silver at the 2012 London Games after another memorable final against the United States or gold at the Eurobasket in 2015 where Pau Gasol had ruthless revenge against France of the World Cup with his 40 points in the semifinals in Lille.
Also the 2019 World Cup, where Marc Gasol imposed his cachet as the recently proclaimed NBA champion and MVP Ricky Rubio.
The 2020 Tokyo Games certainly marked the end of an era in the departure of fuel, not from the winning culture, because the Spanish team surprised the 2022 Eurobasket gold with a roster in which there is no longer a member of the best generation except for Rudy Fernández, who retired after playing his sixth Games. The Hernangomez They fought with MVP of the tournament for Willy and MVP of the final for Juancho.
However, neither the competitive spirit that remained nor the inexhaustible record of Sergio Scariolo was able to compensate for the lack of talent in the last two years, especially shown in the position of base in Paris. They were also the first Games of the century in which Spain did not access the qualifying rounds, although only in this edition 12 teams They debate the final draw.
Although Spain has achieved a lot of international success in the lower categories in recent summers, national basketball sees shadows such as the lack of NBA players. Santi Aldama He is the only relevant player with a guaranteed position for next season, key to the team’s present and future. Memphis Grizzlies.
Usman Garubaa free agent and with no news of a renewal for the Warriors, won’t use the Games as a springboard to relaunch his NBA career with an early exit like he did at the 2022 Eurobasket. Izan Almansa decided to withdraw from a draft in which the San Antonio Spurs were selected Juan Nunez as a future base to play with Victor Wembanyama, but the young Real Madrid player will stay in Europe for at least a year after signing for Barça. Through Aday Marawhich will continue another campaign at UCLA in the NCAA and Hugo Gonzalez of Real Madrid, a large part of the hope also passed.
If it is confirmed that Aldama will be the sole representative in the American league next year, Spain will return in parallel with a brand from more than 20 years, of a single player in the NBA and also in the Memphis Grizzlies, Pau Gasol. The one from Sant Boi came to the Tennessee franchise in 2001.
To be fair, what the national team has achieved in the last quarter of a century is very complicated, especially considering that there is a big event every summer without a break. With the Eurobasket 2025 At the next stop, time will tell if this dusted negative record in Paris is symptomatic or not.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Jason Root, a professional writer working with Today Times Live, the premier news website. I specialize in sports writing, covering the biggest stories in the world of athletics. With an eye for detail and a passion for storytelling, I provide engaging and informative articles that capture the key elements of any event or issue. My work has been featured on numerous respected websites and publications around the world.
