of the golden years to flirt, for the third time, with his first drop in the National League

Thirty-nine uninterrupted appearances, nine titles, more than 1,850 match wins and an army of legendary players allow Athens present itself as the most important team in the history of the National Basketball League. That golden past only makes these days of erratic walking even more opaque: one week from the end of the regular season of the contest, the Cordovan team already knows that they will have to risk permanence in a playout series for the third time in the past five seasons.

The 90-81 loss suffered on Sunday against mercedes communications at the Carlos Cerutti sports center sentenced the Greek to dispute that series to luck or truth. This outcome was not a surprise, since this destination had been plotted since the beginning of a campaign that was far from the glorious years and very close to the hardships of the last five years: after their last qualification for the playoffs in the 2017 season /18 hand in hand Nicolas Casalanguida (lost in the semifinals with San Martín de Corrientes), always flirted with the first descent in its history.

Since the first edition of the League in 1985, in which it was runner-up in FerroAthens was, for a quarter of a century, permanent entertainer of a contest in which consecrated nine times, more than any other club: the first, in 1987; the last one, in 2009. During that period he had players of the stature of Marcelo Milanesio, Hector Campana, Germán Filloy, Diego Osella, Leandro Palladino o Fabrizio Oberto.

In recent years, sports results have been far from optimal, hand in hand with a reduction in economic investment. Part of that decision was linked to the construction of its own stadium in the General Bustos neighborhood (Cerutti belongs to the Municipality of the Cordoba capital). After several postponements, the building, with a capacity for 3,500 spectators, is expected to be ready in the middle of this year. No one dares to say if at that time Athens will retain its place in the League.

“Some time ago, we decided to finish the stadium by sacrificing the formation of the team. We have been at the bottom of the standings for four years, but this year our stadium is practically finished”highlighted the historic president Felipe Lábaque in September 2022, when he presented the squad for this campaign. At the head of that squad was Claudio Arrigoni, the coach who had taken over the team in December 2021, after a lousy start to the season that had ejected Sebastián Saborido. With Arrigoni on the bench, Athens managed to escape from the bottom of the table and was one step away from accessing reclassification in 2021/22.

Together with DT, the club also decided to keep the veteran center for this tournament Omar Cantonto the base Augusto Alonsoto the Mexican Fabian Jaimes already maximum araujo, one of the young promises of the League. And she added to the experienced Constable Alejandro y Federico Marianiand a triad of foreigners made up of Romeao Ferguson, Arkeem Joseph y Justin Satchell. Things were expected to improve with that endowment, but nothing went as expected.

Seven defeats in the first eight games ended, at the beginning of November, with the cycle of Arrigoni, a man of the house. This was not a novelty for Athens, which in 12 of the last 20 seasons had not completed the tournament with the same coach with which it had started. But that instability reached its limit this season, hand in hand with poor results.

He replaced Arrigoni Sebastian Gonzalez, another man trained in Athens, who had already led the team in the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons, and who had won a Super 8. His second experience lasted just over a month: seven consecutive defeats forced him to resign. The campus was left in the hands of one of his assistants, Elian Villafane (just 31 years old), who had no better luck: he was fired after 10 falls in a row.

In mid-February, Lábaque turned to the experienced Alvaro Castiñeira, who was directing Independiente de Tandil in the Federal League. “I am surprised that the team is in the place it is, clearly it was not set up for that, it is not a team to have won a single game,” said the DT on the day of his inauguration, who debuted with a 71-58 victory in front of San Lorenzo. That win ended a string of 23 setbacks, the second worst streak in the history of the Leagueonly surpassed by the 30 missteps in a row by Andino de La Rioja in the 2002/03 season.

With Castiñeira, the walk was somewhat more solid. Even the Greek He achieved something that seemed impossible: between March 24 and April 2 he achieved three consecutive victories against San Martín de Corrientes, Unión de Santa Fe and Oberá Tenis Club, all at Cerutti. In those nine days he won more than in the previous 166 days of competition. However, the backpack was too heavy and the last falls against Riachuelo and Comunicaciones condemned him to dispute the play out.

The multiple coach changes were not the only signs that things were not going well. Before completing the first month of competition, the three foreigners who had arrived for this season had already left: Joseph, Satchell and Ferguson were replaced by Deion McClenton, Guillermo Díaz and Dominic Morrison. And in December the point guard Augusto Alonso terminated his contract, who was replaced by the American Javion Blake.

With these changes, Athens completed the four that the tournament regulations allowed. But the problems did not end. In January the Puerto Rican Díaz left and the leadership decided to cut Morrison (he played only 10 games). Since then, the squad had only six senior chips. And on rainy, wet: at the end of March Javion Blake left to play in New Zealand. All this led to an increasing role for some youth players such as point guards Matías Stanic (17 years old) and Máximo Araujo (20), or forward Octavio Sarmiento (21).

With such trembling in the coaching staff and the squad, it is not difficult to think about the responsibility of the leadership, the third leg of the tripod on which the success (or failure) of any high-performance team in a team sport rests. . However, the leadership of Athens is perceived as oblivious to this debacle. At least that was what President Lábaque said on January 25, when he gave a press conference that raised dust in Córdoba.

“We are in the worst moment in the history of Athens. We never suspect this situation, which was not caused by us. We have done everything in our power.”, argued the leader, flanked by Elian Villafañe; Nicolás Arduh, main assistant to the then coach; and the team captain, Omar Cantón. At that time, the Greek he was last, with a record of 1-18.

That day, Lábaque loaded the inks on Claudio Arrigoni, who had been fired more than two months ago. “We have said yes to everything. I told Claudio: ‘Assemble the team as you see fit’. The team was fully assembled by the technician. Then we made the necessary changes, we brought the best coach, very expensive foreigners and there were no results, ”he claimed. Of self-criticism, zero.

With this disconcerting panorama, it is not surprising that the most winning club in the history of the League has reached the final stretch of the calendar at the bottom of the table and already condemned to dispute the play-out for permanence for the third time in the last five seasons: in 2019 they beat Quilmes de Mar del Plata and in 2021 they defeated Bahía Basket. On those two occasions, they had a home-field advantage in the decisive series.

This time, only a miracle will give them that advantage in the best-of-five game clash that will define the relegation to the Argentine League. To do this, they must win the two remaining games against Platense at Cerutti and against Instituto (the best team in the regular phase) at Ángel Sandrín, and hope that San Lorenzo or Unión (his opponent will come out of them) lose all the remaining matches.

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