First stoppage time of the match. The person in charge of the public address, takes the microphone and dedicates a message to the fans. Engresto al Palau to welcome Básquet Girona and talk about the good news that the team has climbed up to the ACB to add another Catalan derby to the category. The nearly 7,000 spectators who fill the venue applaud. Standing ovation, like the one he received Pierre Oriole, a few moments before, with the match about to start. Captain of Barça in recent seasons, now it’s his turn to look at it from another side. He received a short tribute from the club. Photography of rigor with Joseph Cubells, the manager responsible for the Blaugrana basketball section, and the anthem that played in the background. These are some of the ingredients of a match that went beyond what happened on the court.
Since the 2007/08 season that a team from Girona has not visited the Palau Blaugrana in a match of theACB. L’Akasvayu it was the last one. Also with Marc Gasol, who returned yesterday, a good bunch of years later. The pivot, also applauded by the stands, chatted up and down during the warm-up. A greeting here and a chat there. “Is the family okay?”, he asked Nikola Mirotic, with whom he shared experiences in the national team, before running for a while. It was not the only contact between the two. They met again in the locker room tunnel to star in one of the anecdotes of the day: Mirotic asked Gasol to sign a Girona Basketball shirt with number 33 on the back.
It is a whole institution that is the pivot. In Girona, of course. But also in Barcelona, despite not having left a considerable mark. He played there for three seasons, though his impressive resume also helps. Ovation also went to Aíto García Reneses, player (1963-68) and coach in various stages (1985-90, 1992-93, 1993-97 and 1998-2001) of Barça. He lived it in silence. A slight smile, and to focus on the match. “When I come here I’m thinking about my team and doing the best I can. Another thing is what is outside the party. Of course I have memories and many of them are interesting. I inaugurated the Palau as a player and then I was a coach there for years”, he explained, the derby already finished. Special evening also for Eric Villa, James Sorolla i Paul Figuerasall of them with a past at the club.
A most “strange” day
Many of the focus of attention, focused on Oriola. Seven minutes on the track, the first of the course. The first after five seasons at Barça. “I felt strange”, he admitted after the game. “I spent time doing the same route every day, from home to here. So coming to the Palau as a rival has been different and special.” I was returning to what I still consider “my home”. He was still doing it at full throttle, leaving behind an injury that has haunted him for some time: “I haven’t set foot on a basketball court in about five or six months and I still have a long way to go.” Of the match, he highlighted the “pace” that had “imposed” the Blaugrana team after a good start by his team and regretted having “lost a lot of balls”. And he added: “In the last period we were able to force the mistakes of our opponent and we took the duel where we wanted, but when the quality of the opponent is superior, you can make mistakes and this is what happened”. Of course, a bit of optimism: “We’re on the right track, we’re still growing.”
