This Monday, April 13, marks the 25th anniversary of the Eighth of Madrid in basketball , the ugliest trophy in memory, an innovation by FIBA in methacrylate and metal that served to decorate the conquest of an obsession: the European Cup. The glory came in Zaragoza at Easter in 1995 with the best interior couple of the Old Continent, Sabonis and Arlacukas , in a team of polished roles. And with Zeljko Obradovic , the new alchemist on the bench. While Madrid achieved its first title in three decades, the 1980 trophy was already far behind in Berlin against Maccabi, the Serbian coach added his third Euroleague in four seasons with three different teams with just 35 years old (he now has nine with five clubs).
After 15 years of drought in the basket, 29 joined in soccer then (and there were still three left for Mijatovic's goal), so "the European Cup had become an absolute obsession for the club," recalls José Miguel Antúnez , who scored 12 points in the final against Olympiakos (73-61) by 16 by Joe Arlauckas and 23 by an Arvydas Sabonis harassed by fouls and relieved by Antonio Martín against Fassoulas, Tarlac and Volkov. Ismael Santos (impeccable defense against Eddie Johnson) and Javier García Coll completed the initial five, while Pep Cargol and José Lasa contributed good minutes. Madrid has never been so long without a continental success combining the two sports .
Arlauckas: "Obradovic had something abstract that made him special"
"The first thing that comes to mind is the intensity of training in the previous week, I never experienced anything like it. An hour and a half of work was like two games in a row. We prepared special situations, like handling ourselves with three points advantage in the absence of a minute and a half, "says Arlauckas now , explaining that" Obradovic was beginning to make a name for himself. " "He has won and he has also lost a lot, but he has always been accompanied by something abstract, intangibles that make him special . The day of the final we went out to eat and I asked him why. 'Do you want to go to bed to not sleep the nap and go 16 laps? 'he replied. "
The American considers that "one of the best teams " in which he played: " Sometimes we had big fights, always constructive. There were no bad rolls and that made us better . In the final, for example, I started badly and, nevertheless, I did not lose the confidence of my teammates. Then we showed that we could win the game even without Sabonis, who rested on the bench with three personnel in the first half and a fourth shortly after going out again. I know that the Cup meant a lot to the club from Europe, but, although it sounds ugly, for me the 15 years without triumphs meant nothing, I looked at the present and what I knew is that my future was at stake. I also wanted revenge after the defeat of a year ago in the playoff of fourth against Joventut, which I felt guilty about . Maybe Biriukov and Martín, who had been in the team for a long time, including Martín Ferrer, who came from the youth academy, understood better the pressure that the press was transmitting. them, for their effort in all previous seasons. As an American, I admit, ten years before I did not know what the Euroleague was. "
Antúnez: "Sabonis played lame and was a great partner"
For Antúnez it was "the culminating moment" of his career, the success that everyone wanted and with personal prominence . A success that began to take shape two years earlier, in 1993, after the unexpected defeat with Limoges: "We did not prepare that match well, we were young and perhaps we arrived somewhat confident. The defeat did us a lot of damage and therefore in Zaragoza, from Again in the semifinals face to face with the Limoges of Maljkovic, Michael Young, Bilba, Dacoury and Forté, we imposed our rhythm and took off a weight that allowed us to face the final with tension, but with calm and confident of our possibilities. Better players don't make the best team, ours was round. Sabas was the big star in Europe, although you had to know how to move at your own pace and where to pass him, and it wasn't always easy. I shared a room with him on trips for three years and I knew him well . He was peculiar and introverted and at the same time a great person and companion . The two serious injuries he had to the Achilles tendon made him start again from below, maybe that's why he came to the ACB and not he went straight to the NBA. In the three campaigns in Valladolid (1989-92) he recovered and then made the leap to Madrid, where he always wanted to play and where he was happy. He loved life in Spain . "
The European Cup was the desired title , also the only one that the Lithuanian center was missing and "when he got it, he changed the chip and went to the NBA, " says Antúnez, who does not know what his ceiling would have been without the limitations of mobility and jump: "With the maturity he showed then on the track (he was 30 years old) and with the physique prior to the injuries ... I don't know where he would have come from. He did n't stop evolving despite being lame, he played with a prosthesis on his right heel, He rested his flat foot on the ground, he did not articulate it and he could not stand on tiptoe, so he did not jump.He liked to receive in the area to turn by pivoting with the other foot, the left, and finish hook with the right, or that they will pass him on the high pole face or triple. "
Arlauckas stresses that Sabonis did not lose sleep to win: "If he did, well, otherwise nothing happened. Perhaps later that thorn of the European Cup could have remained ... After the victory, yes, he did not stop smile, a huge smile My friend was the happiest guy in the world And for me it was the most important title of my career, although the most emotional one came in 1994 with La Liga (3-0 at Barça), my first success. My father had been suffering from cancer for two and a half years and died that same summer . I remember he took my uniform and they buried him with it. Very emotional. "