Last October 24 marked 20 years since the NBA's first foray into Europe with the conclusion of the McDonald's Open in Madrid with the participation of the historic Boston Celtics, who arrived in the capital with an unforgettable template formed by the likes of Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge and Dennis Johnson. It was 1988 and across the pond to play in the best league in the world was unlikely a company for European players, so only a few managed to attract the attention of the General Managers , still did not see in our continent that the reef supply year after año en la actualidad.
La temporada anterior, Fernando Martín se había convertido en el único español en dar el salto a la NBA de la mano de los Portland Trail Blazers, una de las primeras franquicias en apostar por el mercado europeo. Una experiencia poco gratificante que no le sedujo, y que motivó su regreso un año después al Real Madrid, donde coincidió con Drazen Petrovic, que seguiría sus pasos un año más tarde para iniciar la aventura americana, también en el equipo de Oregon. Ya se ha hablado muchas veces de las numerosas coincidencias -tan trágicas en determinados momentos- en las carreras de estos dos geniales jugadores que fueron precursores del baloncesto europeo en la NBA.
At that time I was 12 and every Saturday at dawn, watching 'Close to the Stars, I was enthralled with the images so passionately recounting Trecet with Esteban Ramón Gómez. With them I became a fan of the Celtics, and when I discovered they would be in Madrid for another team to play against my soul, Real Madrid, I decided not to stop until I get my parents would take me and my brother to see him. Bless them. A week later, there we were, sitting at the Palais des Sports and staring without knowing where to set our eyes wide open, I imagine that under the funny look from my father that we had certainly not seen as still since we bought the Cinexin. We enjoyed every minute of a game that left with the impression that Real Madrid had put the Celtics in trouble despite the final score (111-96) did not show such equality. They
90 and something began to take shape in the old continent. Little by little, we watched as more players migrated to pursue the American dream and are no longer surprised to find that not only will stand up to the NBA teams in pre-season tour, it was possible to extract a victory. Change of the century and everything went pleasantly unpredictable for English basketball when we saw Pau Gasol became rookie of the year, Utah put their eyes on Raul Lopez, Toronto, Jose Manuel Calderon and Sergio Rodriguez Portland. Since then I have not stopped. Pau played an All-Star and consolidated as a franchise player in Memphis, Calderon became the mastermind of the Raptors and national players kept coming to the league: Garbajosa in 2006, Navarro in 2007 and finally Rudy Fernandez and Marc Gasol in 2008 . In between, the selection was crowned world champion in Japan, silver at EuroBasket '07 and silver in the Olympics again, after questioning the superiority of 'Redeem Team' in the game that many media and have described as "the best ever."
Now that Rudy images sinking the ball on Dwight Howard encircle the world and the Barça first name terms with the Lakers at Staples Center himself, where Pau played in the NBA finals last June, is hard to think that will follow. A number one draft ? As they say, time to time, but soon ...
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