Basketball Alavés loses one of its great pioneers. Xabier Añua has died this Friday at 90 years after a long pulse … Against the disease. His loss leaves a feeling of pain in several generations of players and technicians who, throughout a long professional and vital career, met an ever close, restless and wise coach.
Under his always restless spirit, the first basketball initiatives began in the territory of clubs such as the legendary Phillips. Xabier Añua was also the coach who took the reins of Kas to put the capital Alavesa in the first line of national basketball. The Vitorian coach also directed Barcelona between 1968 and 1972 and signed a brief but successful campaign under the command of Baskonia (1984-85), which led to the achievement of the Association Cup title, the first trophy that joined the showcases of the Barca club.
The figure of Xabier Añua transcends the world of basketball to become a unique personality in Vitorian society. Lawyer by profession, he finished his law studies during the military service he carried out in Morocco. His always close and dirty personality also earned him to be awarded the Golden Celedon. They cataloged him as “a universal Basque” and a “captivating Vitorian.” He was also one of the first promoters of a Jazz festival in Vitoria and then gave the witness to his brother Iñaki. His was the first seed of a contest that, today, is recognized internationally.
The great love was always the sport of the basket, but made his first pinitos as a footballer in Vitoria. In the end, basketball ended up being his great passion, the same that helped him convince Pepe Laso to move to Vitoria from Madrid to take the reins the Spanish Junior team in the sixties of the last century. That was a fundamental alliance to give a definitive thrust to the role of coaches in a Alavés basketball in need of references on the benches, people with initiative to teach.
Laso (father) would still play in the mythical Kas. With the signings of Carlos Luquero, Chus Iradier and Adolfo Beneyto placed the Vitorian pediment up with the Cup final against Madrid and the classification for the Recopa. A pioneer also to make the Americas. In March 1968, he went to the United States, to the full heart of New York, to Madison Square Garden, where he always told him the script with all possible plays.
He returned to establish them in Barcelona, where he imposed the signing of one Aíto García Reneses de Base. With a young group, he relaunched the Culé section. From 1973 to 1975 he transferred his success to the French Antibes before returning to Vitoria and focusing for a moment on his lawyer. But basketball always ran through its veins. He had the short but successful stage of Baskonia, in which he made another helmsman of legend debut with 16 years: his beloved Pablo Laso.
Since then, despite its seasons in Catalonia, it was always linked to the Alava society and local basketball. He was one of those who saw the first basket on his school, the hearts, where years later he would meet Ibon Navarro. He gave him the same advice as his parents transmitted. Study. Dedicate yourself to engineering. But the now Unicaja coach chose to follow Añua’s trail, succeed in basketball leaving a mark at every step he took.
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