Pedro Martínez and the desire for basketball on the banks of the Ter

It was a complicated season, 2007/08, for Akasvayu. pinch it was already history and the project was beginning to tremble due to the financial problems of the real estate company that gave the team its name. Martínez, in his writing in Valorus Pro, explains how from inside the dressing room in the last stretch of the season it began to be clear that things were not going well: “In the last month and a half, two months, things had happened in the ‘internal area of ​​the club that already showed that it had no future. A very clear example is that during this period we were not paid per day and when they did they gave us stubs, but there were no funds to collect them. Then it was already clear that the thing was very screwed up and despite that Antonio Maceiras, who was the general manager, tried not to give all the information so that we wouldn’t panic, it was clear that on a day-to-day basis the difficulties were very big to manage that end of the season”. Before Akasvayu’s disappearance was confirmed, however, the team reached the finals of the ULEB and in the quarters of play-off of the ACB. In both cases, the youth, directed by Aíto García Reneses, was the executioner. And a Badalona, on May 20, 2008, the last page of that history of 20 uninterrupted seasons of Girona in the highest division of Spanish basketball was written there. It was also Marc Gasol’s farewell before heading to Memphis and in the NBA, crediting 23 points, 10 rebounds and 31 ratings.

Aíto has played 1,089 games in the ACB. Pedro Martínez, who is 61 years old, 15 years younger than the current coach of Girona, has a total of 960 and on Friday, if he wins, he will reach 500 victories in the ACB. At Akasvayu he reached 22 in the 37 games he managed. After leaving Fontajau, there was no shortage of work, on the contrary. Only a few months after the bankruptcy of Akasvayu, Martínez signed for the cajasol and since then he has always had equipment. Later came five consecutive seasons in the Gran Canariaone in Manresa, two in Valencia (who he made league champion in 2017), Baskoniaagain Gran Canaria and once again Manresa since 2019 have been their destinations.

In the book Valorus Pro Pedro Martínez points out that “(…) it’s hard to think, because we’ve seen it all these years, that a place without tradition arrives and can consolidate itself in the ACB. Basically, history works in favor of cities that do have this tradition. This is now happening with Girona and I am sure, despite the fact that the results will be the ones that will mark, there are solid foundations of the club and of the city itself, to be in the elite again for many years. In addition, seen from the outside, the project is very solid and very eager to make its way and grow with the ideas of Marc Gasol, who has a lot of vision for the future and not just for the present.” Of the current president and player of Girona, whom he managed in that Akasvayu, he is full of praise and remembers that “he was an absolutely decisive pivot in the team and in the league and we played for him, but without directly. We simply put the basketball through his hands and because he has a lot of ability to do different things, his game had a lot of impact every minute he was on the court. For the team it was natural, you could say that he went out on his own, just letting him play basketball at the pace he imposed.” On Friday, Manresa and Girona will play a game that could be vital for staying. But according to the coach “I don’t think that the groups that have gone up, as is the case of Girona, are candidates to go down, I’m talking about the history of the city again; and of course Gasol, since his performance will be key to knowing what the team can do». Both, one from the bench, and the other on the court, will speak on Friday at the Nou Congost 14 years after seeing Akasvayu faint on that fateful night of May 20, 2008 in Badalona.