C.The path that will lead the Spanish basketball team to fight for their third world gold medal on August 25 in Indonesia began without their father and mother, without their grandfather or grandmother. No.i Ricky ‘MVP’ Rubioneither rudyneither lullneither openneither Willy Hernangmez Today Spain jumped to the WiZink Center.
National team basketball, and Spain is no exception, is full of players with something to prove. And in the absence of the ‘popes’, the desire to shine soars. Especially when there are still places at stake to get into the 12 definitive ones that will be in Jakarta to start. Although it is time to start with a rookie whose position does not seem to be open to negotiations.
Santi Aldama played today his first official match under FIBA regulations after leaving the University of loyola to finish his training cycle and resign from the national team a year ago to focus on a crucial season for his NBA future. the victory of the past eurobasketball it strips him, for the moment, of that responsibility for the generational leap that would have been attached to him. With all logic.
And his debut left very interesting things. The first, its position. With the debate about who will be the ‘five’ of this selection, the canary made it clear that, as long as he shares the track with another interior (Garuba, Sainz, Pradilla and even Parra), his presence will be far from the hoop. Aldama played face to face at all times, and that is how they arrived two dunks in the first two balls he touched. Attacking the rim with a dribble like the modern interior that he is.
Another thing is the defense, where he will have to spend forced minutes at anchor. That was where he left the most doubts and where he found the reason for the first angry brand of the house that he gave him. Sergio Scariolo. After the slap on the wrist, Aldama closed the game with a scoring display in the fourth quarter.
He met again Juancho Hernangmez with elite basketball after months of ostracism on the other side of the pond and seeing the horizon greener than ever. He returns to Europe to be one of the big names in the Euroleague, but do not wait for him where the spotlights point. Summer after summer, the youngest of the Hernangmez (whether things came out or not) has been showing a pressing maturity in your game. Knowing how to wait for the game without having to go for it when it’s not time.
And today, in a friendly conducive to showing off without having to share the limelight with the rest of the pillars of ‘La Familia’, Juancho was the best from the shadows. Punishing with triple consequences of the systems that started Alberto Díaz, Abalde or Jaime Fernández. Lowering the buttocks to bite in defense and playing Rudy on that weak side of which Fernndez has made personal dominance. The MVP of the final of the European past (8 triples for 27 points) was a machine of make good decisions and kill trust through the roof of the Palacio de los Deportes in Madrid.
Venezuela was a band with two ‘rockstars’ and no orchestration. Michael Carrera, brand new signing of Movistar Estudiantes who made contact with what will be his park next season in LEB Oro, began by playing a triple in Juancho’s face that opened the scoring. He will end the first quarter with 7 goals and possibly fewer passes. In your hands too many plays were born and died of a Venezuela that in the second period entered a maelstrom of bad shots without having previously played anything.
Garly Sojo He took most of the possessions that escaped the tyrannical domain of his partner to be the best player in the ‘Vinotinto’ box. At least in attack, finishing with 11 points. Of course, not leaving too much space for ‘coworking’.
Spain jumped at the start of the quarters with the rhythm to some logical extent of a first preparation game for a big competition like a World Cup. Madrid’s August does not forgive. He ended up always finding the way through the individual (Juancho, Aldama, Sebas) and ending by the collective harmony that has always characterized this group.
The third quarter was especially bloody, beginning with a 9-point run that, even so, did not help Venezuela to get into the game. There will be moments in the World Cup when the ball does not go in, but the team defensive and intensity mistakes should not be allowed which, most certainly, will not be allowed when things are at stake.
