Usually this is expected, but this time it was surprising.
That Spain wins the title is accepted naturally, in this case not at all.
When they ranked her candidacy for the win at the beginning of the tournament she was maybe sixth, the estimates were that this time the glass ceiling was the quarterfinals.
The lackluster line-up without the stars who retired and the injured did not foreshadow what we saw yesterday.
But the Spanish national team has the tradition, the winership, the star that will come, and the best national team coach in history - Sergio Scariolo.
Even before the final, the Italian coach said: This medal is the most unexpected, but the most satisfying.'
Rudy Fernandes, the fighting fox, added: "This is the most special win."
Sergio Scariolo delivers with whatever 🇪🇸 Spain team he has 🔥
🥇 2009 EuroBasket
🥇 2011 EuroBasket
🥈 2012 Olympics
🥇 2015 EuroBasket
🥉 2016 Olympics
🥉 2017 EuroBasket
🥇 2019 World Cup
🥇 2022 EuroBasket#EuroBasket pic.twitter.com/e7X0fMWfql
— BasketNews (@BasketNews_com) September 18, 2022
Scariolo has already seen and won everything.
Usually it was primarily due to the shining stars he had, but this time with this squad the victory is his first.
The ability to assemble a less talented staff, to build the most team-oriented team, with the right hierarchy, and above all to make the right decisions that changed games (go watch the last quarter against Germany), to improve on the fly, to discover unknown heroes, and to back up the decision to naturalize Lorenzo Braun were His - and therefore he is the MVP of the tournament.
Lorenzo Brown.
The decision of the tournament, photo: Getty
The 61-year-old Sergio, whose wife is Spain and whose son played in Spain's youth teams, is becoming a coach of historic proportions.
He has been in the national team for ten years (in two terms), and there probably has not been a better national team coach than him in history.
His team career has had ups and downs, but in the Spanish national team he is number 1 of all time.
All four of the team's EuroBasket wins are under him, he also won the World Championship and two Olympic medals.
Everyone talked about the shining NBA and Euroleague players, but he did so when in his squad: a Eurocup player, three Champions League players and a player from the Japanese league, but mainly in a period of generational change, after the (legendary) Gasol brothers retired, a large professional hole was created in the Spanish national team.
It turned out that very quickly there were those who stepped into their shoes and again they are a pair of brothers: Willy Hernangomez is the MVP of the tournament, his brother Juancho is the MVP of the finals in an amazing performance that proved that he is not just a movie star.
The name of the movie he starred in and what he did yesterday are the same - "Hashikush".
The Hernangomez Brothers.
They played it, photo: Reuters
Brothers is a tradition in the Spanish national teams over the years.
The Martin brothers, Fernando (one of Spain's greatest players of all time, killed in a car accident at the age of 27) and his brother Antonio (today the president of the league).
Later on the Reyes brothers, Alfonso and Felipe, after them came the Gasols and now it's the Hernangoms.
everything stays in the family.
The decision of the tournament was not made by a player, but by a manager (we call it a businessman).
Jorge Garvajosa, a great former player, was the first of the golden generation to retire from the national team.
He became the chairman of the association and was a participant in the great achievements and the return of Scariolo who left and was brought back by him.
He made his most significant decision before the tournament.
It was not a popular decision, but the chairman realized that all the shortcomings could be covered, but not the hole created in the center position with the lack of Ricky Rubio (injured) and Sergio Rodriguez (retired from the team).
Rudy and his friends are celebrating, photo: EPA
It created a stir.
In Spain, they hardly ever use naturalized people, certainly not those who have nothing to do with the country (unlike Mirotic and Ivka).
Garvajosa not only went for a naturalized, but also chose him the most correctly - Lorenzo Braun.
He backed him up, let the storm pass and the team benefited hugely with a decision worth winning the title.
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