Laia Palau (Barcelona, 1979) put an end this Wednesday to 25 years of career as a professional basketball player. She did it on the parquet floor of the Fontajau pavilion (Girona), her natural habitat in the last quarter of a century full of successes that has elevated her as one of the great legends of Spanish basketball.
Palau will turn 43 on September 10, but for the first time in a long time she will no longer be blowing out the candles as a professional basketball player. She will do so as head of the training academy that she has opened under her name at Spar Girona, her latest club. She arrived at Fontajau in 2018 and in these four courses she has won an Endesa League (2019), a Super Cup (2019) and a Queen’s Cup (2021), the first in Girona’s history. With Palau, captain of the team, Girona has also broken its ceiling in the Euroleague, the highest continental competition, and has reached the quarterfinals for the first time (2021 and 2022).
In his last season as a professional, Palau has played 51 games between the Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB) and Euroleague competitions. The last one was the second leg of the League semifinals against Valencia Basket. Palau withdrew suffering from discomfort in her calf and could not help her team, which fell out of the final.
The Barcelonan says goodbye to professional basketball having won the Euroleague twice: with the late Ros Casares in 2012 and with USK Prague in 2015. She is the player with the most assists in the competition: 1,353 in 277 games, with an average of 4.9 per game. She has also competed and won in France (Bourges) and in Poland (Polkowice). She altogether she has raised 33 titles at club level, including 14 national leagues. In Spain he has won seven: one with CBF Universitari de Barcelona, his first professional team, five with Ros Casares and one with Girona, as well as five Copa de la Reina and five Spanish Super Cup titles. He also has a European Super Cup (2015, with Prague).
The goodbye of this Wednesday adds to the farewell of the Spanish team, announced in November, after its fifth Olympic Games held in Tokyo. Palau too She is the player who has worn the Spain jersey the most times (314) and the one who has won the most titles (12, one more than Pau Gasol)counting both men and women. In 19 years as an international, from 2002 to 2021, he achieved an Olympic silver (2016), three World Cup medals (one silver and two bronzes) and eight European medals (three golds, one silver and four bronzes), being a key player , vital. Palau had 1,839 points, grabbed 684 rebounds and distributed 838 assists in his 314 afternoons with the national team.
But the statistics are only part of the great legacy of Laia Palau, because her influence on future generations of players, quality and smile have always transcended the limits of the parquet. In Girona, she said goodbye to professional basketball. She began as one of the pioneers of a golden generation to become a legend of Spanish sport.
