Luis Casimiro (Ciudad Real, 1962) left his mark on CB Gran Canaria. In the two seasons that he commanded the Claretian bench, between 2016 and 2018, he led the team to the greatest achievements in its history with the Super Cup title and qualification for the Euroleague. Today a tribute is paid to the now Betis coach.
Just a couple of weeks ago Luis Casimiro Palomo expanded his legend in the ACB League by becoming the third coach with the most games directed on the benches of the highest category of the basket masculine spanish. The now Betis coach and former Gran Canaria player is third in a prestigious ranking in which he is only surpassed by two other institutions on the national benches, and also with a triumphant past in the Claretian team: Aíto García Reneses, first, and Pedro Martínez , second.
Luis Casimiro returns tomorrow (7:45 p.m., Movistar Deportes) to the Arena to receive a warm tribute from the island entity and its fans, who will also honor another of their records in this Endesa League duel. We talk about Eulis Báez, idol of the fans after seven seasons defending the yellow jacket. The former captain, who left the Island in the summer of 2019, returns to the Siete Palmas venue for the first time as a player and everything indicates that this will be his last professional appearance on that track, as he plans to hang up his shoes at the end of this course.
In these parts neither of these two exes is forgotten. As for the coach from La Mancha, in the memory of the fans it is still fresh that with him at the controls the team won the most important achievements in the club’s long history: the Super Cup title and qualification for the Euroleague, the highest competition of clubs at European level.
It was on September 24, 2016, a Saturday, and Granca was appearing in the Endesa Super Cup final at a historic national basketball venue: the Fernado Buesa Arena in Vitoria. The rival, the almighty Barça. The yellows broke the bank and prevailed by a resounding 79-59 to bring to the club’s showcases the first trophy in its history in the national elite.
An elite team in which a modest team born in the courtyard of the Claret school had opened a prominent place with Pedro Martínez and in which, later, they managed to consolidate themselves thanks to Aíto García Reneses with two runners-up finishes in the Copa del Rey (2016 ) and in the Eurocup (2015).
The challenge that Luis Casimiro had ahead of him was tricky. The entity chaired by Miguelo Betancor at that time chose the man from La Mancha for the mission of continuing the sustained growth of a club praised in the gossip of Spanish basketball, where the Claretian cadre aroused sympathy for serious work and for its status as a modest infiltrator among the large budgets of the ACB.
The coach from La Mancha, with the conquest of the Super Cup, quickly cleared up the doubts that his arrival aroused after the departure of Aíto. The coach starred with Gran Canaria in a story similar to the one he wrote on the bench of another modest team, TDK Manresa, which he led to the ACB title at the end of the 90s.
After winning the Spanish Super Cup in his debut on the Gran Canaria bench, Luis Casimiro closed his career in the Gran Canaria team with the best of brooches. A feat within the reach of a select few: qualifying for the Euroleague.
On June 1, 2018, Granca appeared at La Fontenta, the Valencia Basket stadium, to play the third game of the ACB quarterfinal series. The crossing was tied at one. The one who won got into the semifinals. After a frantic duel, the Claretians won in extra time (89-92) and got the passport for the clubs’ top continental competition. A few days after that conquest, Casimiro separated from the yellow entity. His destination, Unicaja Málaga. From there, after touching the sky, the Granca began its particular journey through the desert. “I feel very loved on the Island because in those seasons they won a title, the Super Cup, and we took the club to play in the Euroleague, it is always special to go back there,” the man from Mancha said yesterday.
Against Bursaspor, on Wednesday 12 at 8:15 p.m.
CB Gran Canaria announced yesterday the date and time for the Eurocup round of 16 match, a tie that is played in a single match. The clash, like all the others in this definitive phase of the continental competition, will take place in the Arena, since the Claretian team earned the right to play in front of their audience until the final, if they reach it. The yellows, first in group B in the opening phase, will seek their qualification for the quarterfinals against Frutti Extra Bursaspor on Wednesday, April 12, starting at 8:15 p.m. The Turkish team, finalists in the last edition of the tournament, finished eighth in the other group, A. If Jaka Lakovic’s pupils get through, then they would have as an adversary the winner of the series starring Lietkabelis Panevezys from Lithuania and the Paris Basketball of France, the latter group that the team from Gran Canaria won in the two group stage matches. The yellows prevailed in the French capital by 81-89. In the Arena, the locals won 118-99. | M. O.
