Before the start of the European Cup, the Spanish team was by no means the favorite to win the tournament in the eyes of most people.
the reason is simple.
First of all, in last year’s Tokyo Olympics, Spain only ranked 6th in the end. That team was still centered on Gasol and Rubio, but their sullenness in the game could not be concealed. At that time, someone predicted that Spain would inevitably go downhill after gradually saying goodbye to the golden generation.
Secondly, before the start of this year’s European Cup, the retirement of the Gasol brothers and the absence of Rubio’s knee injury caused the star of the Spanish squad to become more and more bleak. Unlike Greece, Serbia, Slovenia and other teams that are blessed by big names in the NBA, the only active players in the NBA in Spain are the Hernangomez brothers and the young Garuba, and these three have a low sense of presence in the league. .
As a result, after the start of the European Cup, when most of the media’s focus was on the three NBA super giants, Spain was once left in a forgotten corner.
During the group stage, Spain also lost an upset to Belgium, which indirectly confirmed the remarks about the decline of the team. But since then, the team has gradually improved, gradually showing the attitude of a championship team.
At the end of the group stage, Spain beat Turkey by 3 points and successfully grabbed the top spot; in the round of 16, they defeated Lithuania by 8 points. In these two games, only a stereotyped comparison of paper talents, Spain may not be the dominant side. But obviously, compared to Turkey and Lithuania, Spain’s team cohesion and team rotation depth are more outstanding.
In the quarter-finals, Spain restricted Markkanen’s performance through rigorous defense and froze Finland’s outside shooting group. In the semi-finals, in the face of a strong German team, the Spanish team’s reversal can also be called textbook level, with enough tenacity, meticulousness and calmness.
On the stage of the final, it seemed that Juan Hernangomez’s 7 three-pointers became a winning trick. But in fact, Spain took a look at France’s defensive weakness and continued to use dislocation to hit the French interior gate Gobert, which was the real goal of hitting the opponent.
You know, Scariolo, who is in charge of the Spanish coach, is a 4-time European Cup champion, 1-time World Cup champion, 1-time Olympic runner-up and 1-time Olympic runner-up. But in his coaching career over the years, he has never rested on his laurels and stayed on the credit. During the period from 2018 to 2021, Scagliolo was willing to accept the position of assistant coach of the Raptors to assist Nick Nurse, who was a rookie coach at the time, and won the only championship trophy in team history with the Raptors in 2019.
Looking back, Scariolo applied the concept of offense and defense learned in the NBA to coaching the Spanish national team. In this European Cup, Spain has made great achievements all the way after entering the knockout stage. Behind this, coach Scariolo has formulated a rigorous and appropriate game plan according to each opponent. His credit must be indelible.
Of course, Scariolo would also like to thank the team’s 12 outstanding players who “can play”. A data show that during the entire European Cup, a total of 11 Spanish players played more than 13 minutes per game. Of all the participating teams, Spain has done the best job of digging deep off the bench and has the highest rotation utilization of any team.
On the basis of a high-quality team, there is no shortage of excellent single-point performances by the Spanish players. For example, Juan Hernangomez made seven three-pointers in the final and was named the best player in the final; Willie Hernangomez averaged 17.2 points and 6.9 rebounds in the entire European Cup 1.4 assists, and with stable performance, won the most valuable player of this tournament.
On the bench, the teenager Usman Garuba played quite amazingly, although his ability in personal attack was relatively limited. However, his tough style of play, his excellent defensive ability, defensive awareness, and the inspiration of tandem organization in the offense already have some of the style of the Warriors’ main dream-chasing Green.
Finally, I have to mention the veteran Rudy Fernandez. The 37-year-old Rudy started playing for the country as early as 2001. Now he has been wearing the Spanish national team’s shirt for 21 years. In the past 21 years, he has tasted the ecstasy of the team standing at the top of the world, and also experienced the sadness of the team’s ups and downs.
In this game, as the old captain of Spain, Rudy has scored key goals many times. After winning the championship, he wore the team uniform of his teammate Sergio Yui on the stage to accept the award, and covered his face in the locker room and cried, venting his emotions for his own efforts and the absence of his comrades due to injury. As the last gatekeeper of the “Golden Age”, in Rudy, people may see the real secret to the success of this Spanish team. Obviously, a sense of team honor deeply rooted in the soul, also passed on by Rudy, gradually took root among the younger generation of Spanish players… (Poirot)Return to Sohu, see more
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