From Bratislava to Ourense, the men’s basketball team got hooked on an unexpected savior named Santi Yusta. The Casademont Zaragoza forward, 27 years old and 2.00m tall, was the protagonist of the two victories against Slovakia that have sealed the Spanish team’s ticket for the 2025 Eurobasket. On last Friday’s visit, with 21 points, 10 rebounds and above all two triples in a row, the second after stealing the ball with four tenths left and falling to force a second overtime (72-76) “with a little faith and a little luck.” And this past Monday with another 25 points, four rebounds, four assists and five steals in a decisive victory at home (84-71). After the two initial defeats in the qualifying phase against Belgium and Latvia, a Spain without players from the Euroleague or the NBA due to the eternal calendar conflict breathed to earn the option to defend the European title won in Berlin in 2022.
In that selection of meritorious and secondary players, Santi Yusta emerged, one of the few Spanish players with a prominent role in his club, a hindrance that the coach, Sergio Scariolo, has especially warned about, immersed in a new generational change. Against Slovakia, Yusta was the offensive bastion of a team again with many new and inexperienced faces, a common dance in these interwar periods. “It is a pride to feel like a leader. I have enjoyed a lot on the court and having the children say my name encourages me to improve,” explained the forward from Madrid after his second exhibition.
Yusta closed the circle. With the national team he experienced his worst sporting moment, the rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in a match against Poland in February 2020, in his fourth international event, precisely in Zaragoza, an injury that kept him out for 10 months in full pandemic. And with La Familia he has now shone at the peak of a career not without curves. Yusta debuted at the age of 17 in the ACB with Real Madrid in May 2014, then considered one of the great national jewels, European under-16 and under-20 gold, son of a soccer goalkeeper who went through the white and black youth ranks. of a basketball player. A year later the pilgrimage would begin: Obradoiro, returning for two seasons to Madrid, Tenerife and since 2021 in Zaragoza, where in recent years it has become a basic piece. Last season he was the second highest Spanish scorer in the League (12.4 points compared to Willy Hernangómez’s 12.8). This campaign he averages 10 points per game, compared to 7.9 with the national team in the 12 international games he has played. He is also the Spaniard with the most minutes on the court in the entire league competition, an average of 25 per crash, in a list in which the top 26 finishers are foreigners.
“In recent years he has been on an upward path and he is going to fight to be in the Eurobasket, he has been pushing hard,” analyzes Rodrigo San Miguel, assistant coach at Casademont Zaragoza and who has made his debut as Scariolo’s assistant in this selection window. “Offensively he has talent without doing anything especially perfect. Let’s say he has a goal, is easy to score points, is very active all over the court and is not afraid to take the shot and the responsibility. Although he is not a great shooter or dribbler, he has that mentality of wanting the ball and physicality to go to the basket. Defensively, his instinct to steal balls stands out,” adds San Miguel.
The triple at the end in Bratislava was not his first basket in the last second. Last year he scored the decisive basket in the league victory against Breogán and in his first season at Zaragoza he already forced two overtimes in a duel against Morabanc Andorra. Scariolo now demands another step to qualify for his first major international tournament next summer, the Eurobasket in Latvia, Cyprus, Finland and Poland: “If he adds a defensive tone to his game, which is something within his reach, I see it has a chance. “You must have the conviction to attack the top level.”