The deep and penetrating voice of Fernando Romay was the particular wake-up call for many Spaniards that Sunday, August 24, 2008. That ordeal of Spain in the Olympic final for the best basketball team in USA from the ‘Dream Team’ despite the final defeat (118-107) made an early Sunday morning rarely make so much sense.
Between disgust and pride Pau Gasol, Juan Carlos Navarro, Rudy, Ricky and company, Kobe Bryant still had the scare even for a while after taking the gold around his neck. After the press conference, ‘The Black Mamba’, crosses paths with Pepe Couple, the inseparable physical trainer of the eldest of the Gasols, the one who sculpted the body of ‘strips’ of Sant Boi to make it one of the NBA.
-Tell the ‘coach’ that they played an exceptional game, that if it hadn’t happened because God helped me make my shots, they would have beaten us-, Kobe told Casal very clearly.
Pepe Casal with Kobe Bryant
“That phrase will remain with me forever,” recalls the Galician coach in conversation with MD. He left him so marked that Casal’s Whatsapp photo is the one that was taken with Bryant in Beijing after that conversation. Even the ‘Black Mamba’ he felt the fear. And Pepe Casal well perceived it.
“Carmelo Anthony, even LeBron even being released…they didn’t want to shoot at the end. They were all given to Kobe for him to throw away. Yes, you could feel their fear.” Casal recounts. They all entrusted themselves to Pau’s teammate in the Lakers, who had to resort to divine help. Anything to take that gold home after the ‘disgraceful’ bronze in Athens 2004 of the United States, defeated by the Argentina of the Ginóbili, Scola and Nocioni.
In those 2008 Games Kobe came to respect a Pau even more whose dorsal ’16’ already rests next to yours in the sky of yesteryear named Staples Center. They were already intimate with the arrival of the eldest of the Gasols in Los Angeles in February of that year, but Bryant was going to score a red line, charging hard against Pau in the first Spain – United States, in the group stage, something that he did not believe or another fierce competitor like LeBron James. “He’s your teammate, man.” He came to call him ‘The King’, 14 points in the final to Kobe’s 20. The top scorer was Dwight Howard with 27, more remembered for the tremendous dunk he took from Rudy than for his score.
The team then led by Mike Kryzewski dispatched the Aito Garcia Reneses for an unblemished 119-82. It seemed that there was no option to compete against that American team saturated with stars, not only LeBron, Kobe and Carmelo Anthony, but also Howard, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade… Actually, it was all a hoax on Aíto’s part. “It’s just that that game wasn’t important, I was saving it all for the end,” recalled the current Girona coach in conversation with MD on the occasion of Pau’s withdrawal a year and a half ago.
“Aíto took out all the tactical artillery in the final”, highlights Pepe Casal. “After that first Spain – United States squeezed all the players well in the video. “The defense in the final was spectacular, Carlos Jiménez was phenomenal, like Mumbrú, Rudy… Aíto used different ways to defend the direct block, put in hidden zones, assists… there was a moment when they they were not able to play. And then Pau and Navarro made them a suit with direct blocking, they put them in all colors”, recalls Casal.
“We had no base in that final and the referees did not whistle for steps, it could have been different”
Rudy, with 22 points, the oldest of the Gasols (21) and the ‘Bomba’ (18) were the top scorers for the team, affected by factors unrelated to the game that ended up being decisive, as the physical trainer warns.
“We had no base. Calderón he was injured, Raul Lopez I couldn’t play and Ricky hurt his finger at the beginning and, of course, it wasn’t the same. Then, the arbitration, since they did not whistle for steps. I called the Argentine referee everything I remember and threw in the towel on the court out of rage, but he didn’t point out or technique. Then, on the last play, Navarro made some ‘super’ steps of bad milk”, explains Pepe Casal about the day in which, if it had not happened yet, Spain and Pau Gasol earned the respect of Kobe Bryant.
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