In the first, I was only worried about the size of the cane that I was going to drink to celebrate it; in the second, I was already thinking about organizing the celebration the following day and that a budget had to be balanced”. Marc Gasol has been the protagonist from the court in the last two great basketball nights in Girona. In the first, the conquest of the FIBA EuroCup with that extinct Akasvayu in 2007, a promising pivot appeared with the whole future ahead of him; in the second, promotion to the Endesa League last June, he was already a 37-year-old player who, after an extraordinary career in the NBA (champion in 2019 with the Toronto Raptors, legend in Memphis like his brother Pau, three times All Star, chosen on one occasion in the best five of the competition of which he was also the best defensive player in 2013…) had just returned to the elite a club that he himself founded in 2014 and of which he continues to be president and figurehead on the pitch to continue thanking the city for how much it did for him, both on and off the pitch, between 2006 and 2008, two fundamental years to lead him back to the elite after a formative journey at Barcelona in the that they did not finish trusting him.
The one-man basketball band in Girona opted in 2014, in his prime as a player, to return men’s basketball to a city that had been orphaned of it for the horrible economic management of the previous projects. Born only with teams of lower categories, the landing in the elite was placed in the long term, but ended up coming sooner than expected, with Gasol himself giving a sporting boost for promotion to the ACB after ending his journey in the NBA and reject offers from clubs with superior sporting and economic potential. Pero Marc was clear that his place was Girona, where in recent years he has solidified the foundations of an entity that claims to be a backbone of society. Synergies with the women’s Uni Girona, wheelchair team, integration of social minorities, commitment to recycling, concern for the carbon footprint, workshops to promote healthy eating… A club in the image and likeness of a different player.
