BarcelonaThe basketball season kicks off nationwide with the Endesa Super Cup, this weekend in the Santiago Martín de San Cristóbal pavilion in Tenerife, where it was already played last season. Barça, Madrid, Valencia and Lenovo Tenerife are the four candidates to win the first state trophy of the season. The Catalans arrive after the resounding defeat in the final of the Catalan League against BAXI Manresa, which for Šarūnas Jasikevičius does not seem to be very important. In fact, with the final already lost, he has beaten the Catalan competition, happy because the team is “very motivated to play the first title of the season”.
Barça will have to beat Valencia in the first semi-final, this Saturday at 7pm, to earn a place in Sunday’s final. The other finalist will be the winner of the match between Lenovo and Real Madrid, which will take place the same Saturday at 22 h. If Barça manage to reach the last game for the title, they will face their rivals on Sunday at 6.30pm. Jasikevičius’ team arrives with many doubts after the surprising defeat in the Catalan league. For Barça, a victory in the Super Cup would be a total change of scenery. The team needs a dose of optimism after falling to Manresa and starting the season in the worst possible way, having won almost everything above.
You have to look back to 2015 to find the last time Barça won the Super Cup. With a win he would now be able to match Real Madrid with 7 titles in this competition. Madrid arrives in Tenerife with the casualties of Thompkins, Randolph and Abalde. In addition, the whites have a controversial case with Jaycee Carroll, star of Madrid in recent years who is currently in the United States and has not responded to the offer of renewal. His coach, Pablo Laso, has made it clear that they want him back. “He’s a player we value, we want him, he’s very Real Madrid, but he won’t be in the Super Cup.” Carroll’s case is similar to Pau Gasol’s with Barça, because the Barcelona center-back has not yet said whether he will continue playing for the club where he grew up.
After lifting the League and the Copa del Rey, Gasol closed a great season last year, at the age of forty. He has retired from the national team at the Tokyo Games and now the whole club is waiting to see if he wants to continue playing or if he leaves the courts for good. For now, it is clear that he will not be present at the Super Cup. While at the WizINK Center they are clear that they want Jaycee Carroll, at the Palau Blaugrana the Gasol option is much less clear. This is what Jasikevičius said, making it clear that right now he is far from wearing shorts and that his salary must be taken into account: “I don’t think about Pau Gasol. If the option appears later, we will value it. I can’t say -I don’t, I don’t pay his salary “.
But for those who share a clue with Pau, there is no doubt that if he is, better. Pierre Oriola, who returns to the squad after being absent during the Catalan League, is clear that there is no one like him. “We’re talking about the best player in our country’s history.” Despite competing for the same position on the court, Orihuela wants to have the six-time NBA All-Star. “It’s a very tough competition, and it wasn’t easy for the last three months of last season. But when he wants to come back, I as a captain will be willing to come back and help us.” The words of his teammates can influence Gasol’s decision, as well as the role of the section manager, Joan Carles Navarro. La Bomba and Gasol, twenty years ago, shared a track by passing each other and now share offices by passing contracts.
Without Gasol, the great star of this Barça is Nikola Mirotić today, but his continuity hangs by a thread. The center-back arrived at Barça in 2019, with a contract available only to players from the first football team and now, with the club “in the ICU” financially – as president Joan Laporta says -, the reduction Mirotić’s salary is vital. It has already been lowered in full confinement, like the rest of the staff, but it is not enough. Barça have already sent an offer to the Montenegrin and Mirotić has rejected it because his salary was already deferred when he renewed until 2025. In addition, he considers that he already made a lot of effort when he accepted Barça’s offer to facing salaries well above the NBA.
With Mirotić, for the moment, and a Gasol undecided, Barça arrives at the match against Valencia with the more than probable loss of Sertac Sanli but recovering Orihuela. The Turk has a fissure in his big toe that makes him his best option is not to play. Barça’s rival, Valencia Bàsquet, arrives full of casualties. Xabi Lopez-Arostegui, Dimitrijevic and Labeyrie Jasiel Rivero will not be able to be present in the first semifinal of this year’s Endesa Super Cup.
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