Arteaga arms his arm for a throw, in the last game in Pumarín. /
At 38 years old, the pivot from the island of El Hierro broke a new LEB Gold record by becoming the highest all-time rebounder in the category
If last week it was Jeff Xavier who entered the history of LEB Oro on the day of his debut with the Unicaja Banco Oviedo jersey, by becoming the foreign player with the most matches played in the second division of national basketball, this Sunday it was Óliver Arteaga, who once again inscribed his name in the competition’s ‘hall of fame’.
And is that thanks to his performance in the victory of the Oviedo against Granada, the Canarian pivot broke one of the records that another historical of the competition had, the Gipuzkoan power forward Urko Otegui, who hung up his boots this summer after two decades as a professional.
With the seven rebounds obtained against the Nasrid team, Arteaga reached the figure of 2,753, surpassing by one the record that Otegui had until that moment. A brand that has an added merit, having been established by the Oviedo player in 436 games, while the Basque power forward played 542 games in the LEB Oro.
This is not the only ranking that the canary leads, since for four years he has also led the table of maximum blockers in the category, currently having a total of 351 blocks in his favor.
Saying Arteaga is synonymous with life insurance on paint, both defensively and offensively with its characteristic right-handed hooks. His mere presence under the basket intimidates the rivals, who do not see the way to stop a player whose vitality does not correspond to that of a 38-year-old man, who came to basketball by chance.
And it is that surely the scouts who made him change handball, a discipline he practiced as a young man, for basketball, could not imagine that that Canarian boy could become part of the history of national basketball, where after twenty-two campaigns, three of them in the ACB and twelve in the LEB Oro, he does not stop breaking barriers, still having the strength and vitality to continue to dazzle with his talent and know how to be in the basket all over the country.
As he has been doing in Oviedo since 2017, where he arrived with the difficult commitment to replace another historical artist on painting, Edu Hernández-Sonseca. A challenge that he overcame with flying colors, becoming one of the players most loved by the Carbayona fans, not only for his performances on the court, but also for his involvement with the club and the team, of which he is captain.
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