The gold of the structured family

Spain won tonight the most unexpected title in its fertile history after a superb final in which they subdued France, another presumably superior rival who was also upset and stunned by the hierarchy and substance of a team in capital letters. It was infinitely more united than the dazzling French individualities, a squad of intimidating physicists who at no time could with the chemistry created in the laboratory of ‘La Roja’.

And it is that the team that Sergio Scariolo trains with unquestionable wisdom imposed basketball, the collective spirit and that visionary way he has of understanding the task of a mission. Very tricky in this case after the withdrawal of the fifth of the past perfect and unprecedented for the way of turning a neat step through the tournament into an irrefutable medal of higher rank. No one in their right mind even predicted access to rooms. Like no person in his right mind now has to deny this precious metal and earned to the fullest extent of the law. That of a family – this is how the federative publicity defined this uncertain group – very well structured.

The selection not only imposed its guild sense far superior to the Frenchman. He also billed a high school basketball and enormous voltage behind from the initial jump until almost the break (47-26, minute 18) and survived the predictable French attacks through the gala rise of lines such as the advance of the high tide and the fierce manner of squeezing to nausea the Hispanic rise of the ball. Nothing that a Juancho Hernángómez -imperial at last from a long distance- could not solve dressed in the Redeemer suit. Along with the necessary collaboration from Brown, the admirable Alberto Díaz who was re-fished due to Llull’s injury or Willy’s hammer, a center with ample offensive resources.

mental toughness

If this team will show mental toughness, which was also not shipwrecked when the referees (68-60, minute 32) denied the evidence that a Spanish attack ended with the ball crashing into the hoop, they decided to end possession and punished a player with a technique. Scariolo who cried out in the face of such injustice in an entire final. To eat matches, burn your tongue with the match and look for spirits that have fallen to the ground. But not. Morale remained high to withstand the French onslaught, embodied in Yabusele’s close shots, Okobo’s three-pointers and Heurtel’s spaced flares.

embroider basketball

Spain embroidered basketball for almost the entire first half with silk thread, absolute commitment and maximum determination. All this was born, once again and there are many, from the meticulous pre-match work that Sergio Scariolo and his civil army of assistants carry out before each appointment. A task of intellectual goldsmith embodied in splendid dikes to stop the harassment, that you do not collapse, of a rival stunned by what he saw in front of him.

A whole landscape of hands like blades in the wind that cut the white, blue and red cables of the tricolor. And another chair of defensive alternations from the 3-2 zone with Rudy as the forward vertex to the box and one as a way of personally monitoring Fournier outside. A work behind to frame on the wall as proud graduates do, thus accrediting the success of a university career.

But basketball is a game of balance between inside and outside or forward and backward. And not only the indefatigable painting of Scariolo obtained honors in defensive matters. He moved forward with that self-confidence that perhaps an opponent confident in his physical superiority did not expect. From the one against the other of Willy against Gobert, the blocks and continuations that Brown passed and concluded the eldest of the Hernangómez to the points of Jaime Fernández.

When the feeling floated that there was no more joy to enjoy, the poisoned darts of brother Juancho emerged until he contemplated the splendor of glory in the rest hall (21 points up). That’s where the first fatigues arose for ‘La Roja’, who received a 2-20 run in six minutes (49-46) as an omen that perhaps the logic of French favoritism would go from theory to fact.

From tourist to first class

But not. They were in charge of stripping the ghosts of the sheet, the Juancho that they wanted to admire so much, that Alberto Díaz who bites in each defense and encourages the spirit of the group, Brown’s open penetrations and Jaime Fernández’s peppered points to counteract the fervor productive of the madridista Yabusele.

So that little group that traveled to Georgia in tourist class and who was predicted to have little life in Berlin has been growing over the course of the championship, like all the teams led by Scariolo. To the point of ending up sitting in the first-class seats looking in the rear-view mirror at lineage tourists such as Lithuanians, Germans and French with their legs drawn up behind them due to lack of space. The unprecedented feat of a very well structured family.