The Spanish DNI tries to make its way into basketball. Gone is the time when an army looked powerful in the NBA, the breeding ground for the best generation in the history of the national team along with the stars that shone in Europe. Today the reality is different, and in this period of transition and relief the national basketball player pursues the elite through different paths. A group of young people who are elbowing each other in the ACB raise their voices, while other fifth-grade classmates cut their teeth in the lower echelons in the United States. The demand of the American University League is growing due to the concern of the training clubs, who see their promises fly away with hardly any compensation. The summit is the same for those who play on either side of the ocean, even if they seek it in different ways.
Some data is devastating. Until this day, the tenth, only four Spaniards appear among the 50 players with the highest rating in the Endesa League (Fran Guerra, Willy Hernangómez, Jaime Pradilla and Sergi García), two among the 50 with the most minutes (Santi Yusta and Pradilla) and only one among the 50 top scorers (War). No national basketball player made it into last season’s ideal quintet (Campazzo-Feliz-Howard-Osetkowski-Shermadini) nor into the second best team (Marcelinho-Montero-Badio-Brussino-Moneke). Foreigners take the lead in a competition regulated by the quota system: 4 of the 12 players in each squad must be training players, that is, between the ages of 13 and 20 they have spent at least three seasons in a club Spanish and are community or under the Cotonou umbrella (78 members of the association of African, Caribbean and Pacific States). This framework was established after the European Union resolution invalidating the selectable quotas, and means that a club may not have any Spaniards. This is the case of Baskonia.
The outlook is not better in the NBA. In the mecca of basketball, only one Spaniard is enlisted, Santi Aldama (Memphis), the lowest number since Raúl López joined Pau Gasol in 2003. The peak was 10 representatives in 2017. It was another universe. Last year was the first in 20 years in which no national basketball player competed in the final phases for the ring.
But behind the numbers lies another reality, some green shoots that make us think of a more exciting future. For example, six of the 10 players under 22 years old with a rating of five or more in the ACB are Spanish: Hugo González and Eli Ndiaye (Real Madrid), Juan Núñez (Barcelona), Sergio de Larrea (Valencia), Mario Saint -Supery (Manresa, on loan from Unicaja) and Rafa Villar (Lleida). The last three participated with Sergio Scariolo’s team in the recent qualification for the next Eurobasket and symbolize the generational change in which La Familia is immersed. In those matches against Slovakia, Santi Yusta (Casademont Zaragoza) shone like no one else, and Jaime Pradilla (23 years old, Valencia) added kilometers, who today appears as the top rebounder in the League (6.9 catches per duel), with records that They are related to Felipe Reyes and Marc Gasol.
ALBERTO NEVADO (EFE)
The president of the ACB, Antonio Martín, reflects: “If everyone says that we are the best League in Europe, it is because we have the best players. The clubs that compete in the ACB have an enormous level and demand. All the national players who play in the Endesa League have a very high level. Let’s keep the good, now another extraordinary generation is beginning to arrive, with spectacular talent and audacity, and I ask our coaches to continue betting on them.”
This resurgence has a mirror in the United States. Up to 20 promising Spanish players play in the University League (NCAA), among them center Aday Mara (19 years old, at UCLA Bruins) and forward Baba Miller (20, Florida). Also notable in the batch of emigrants is Izan Almansa, the 19-year-old power forward who was MVP of the U-17 and U-19 World Cups, who went through the Overtime academy and the Development League in the US and now plays for the Perth Wildcats. of the Australian League, a usual springboard to the NBA draft. Juan Núñez was chosen in 36th place by the San Antonio Spurs in the last election and Hugo González also appears in that showcase.
The exodus of talent with hardly any economic return is worrying in European basketball, especially in the clubs that invest the most in the youth system. The secretary general of FIBA, Andreas Zagklis, announced this week the creation of “a working group of experts” that includes a Spanish representative, José Miguel Calleja, general director of the ACB, to create mechanisms to control transfers and protect training entities. Scariolo speaks of “a moment of emergency due to the aggression and recruitment of the NCAA” since an agreement was announced last May so that young people can earn money in those leagues. The magnet is almost irresistible. “There must be a compensatory mechanism so that investing in the quarry is profitable,” asks the coach. Antonio Martín elaborates: “We are very concerned. The ACB clubs do a fantastic job and make a great financial effort in training, our quarries are the best in Europe. Now, if players leave for the United States when they reach the age of 18 or even earlier, the entire European basketball ecosystem is put at risk. Although we know that it is difficult for FIBA to take measures due to the different regulations of the NCAA, it is necessary to protect the training work of the clubs, or the entire player development system in Europe will be put at risk. And our basketball has the challenge of achieving a more attractive ecosystem for our young people.”
Since he came to office in 2009, Scariolo claims to be experiencing his “most difficult” moment to remain at the top while the replacement is brewing. “I have been warning for 10 years, not because I am smarter than anyone, but because I see the generations and the competition that exists. I’m sorry to be a doomsayer. The trend was evident and is not going to stop. In the short and medium term it is what it is. You have to see the prominence that the players have, how much they have the ball, in what match situations, not only in the ACB, but in the NBA and the Euroleague, which is what carries over to the senior team. In the long term there are well-founded hopes, optimism not for the next six months, but for three or four years, when these players acquire experience and physical, technical and mental maturity. We manage a group of about 15 players who, if all goes well, starting with the 2028 Games they will give us a high-level selection. Until then, we have to fight with those who are competing,” says the coach; “The green shoots are visible, but it takes time for them to become robust trunks.”
