MADRID, 12 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the ACB, Antonio Martín, is clear that the Endesa League is a “brutal sporting competition” and that it can be seen in the “results” of his teams in European competitions. In addition, he hopes that the Euroleague semifinal between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona is “a great match” between two teams that are going “to die in the best sense of the word”.
“Sportingly, the competition is brutal, it has a brutal level of demand, the formation of squads made by the 18 teams is what it is, very powerful, and when they arrive in Europe, the results are there. Like it or not, in the end it’s a very strong league with a very powerful presence and that translates, sportingly at least, into that final dispute of all European competitions”, said Antonio Martín in an act of homage to the former president of the ACB Eduardo Portela.
For Martín, it is worth valuing “the effort that many clubs make to maintain, both the first team and the academy part.” “In the end, it’s the one that gives us results, not only in winter basketball as I say, but also in summer. And you know that the president of the Spanish Basketball Federation and I agree one hundred percent on that idea” he declared.
The leader sees Real Madrid-Barça in the Euroleague Final Four as “a great game”. “Not only because of what it means to be a Clásico in itself, but because I think that the two teams arrive at a moment in which they have had doubts, to put it in some way,” he commented.
“These are very long seasons and many people expect the teams to maintain a stable line throughout the year and that is very difficult, but I have the impression when observing the two that they arrive at a time when they say ‘now we are going to die’ in the best sense of the word and compete to the death, and I think it’s going to be a very nice match”, highlighted Antonio Martín.
Regarding the end of the Endesa League, whose Regular Phase will end this weekend and where the two relegation places remain to be determined, Antonio Martín, although he knows “that the competition is very beautiful” because this shows that “it is alive” and “it is more and more even”, he as president has a hard time because he knows “the illusion that there is in each project and what they have bet on”. “Anything that happens is not going to do me any good,” he explained.
Nor does he dare to guess about the ‘Playoff’ for the title, where the two semifinalists of the Euroleague are the favorites to reach the final. “In theory there is a lot of script or prediction that this possible match between these two teams will be the final, but then things happen that have already happened to us,” Martin warned.
“What I think was the most brutal was in the final in Valencia, where let’s say that Baskonia was not at its best, it was not playing its best basketball, they focused on competing and there they were. In the end, the competitive mood of a team scores a lot, and we are going to see that as it happens because before the final ‘Playoff’ there are some quarter and semifinal matches that are not going to be easy at all”, recalled the president of the ACB.
“SOMETIMES YOU FORGET THAT PORTELA HAS BEEN DISRUPTIVE IN A THOUSAND MOMENTS”
Antonio Martín was pleased with the great news of the season, the return of the fans to the stands of the Endesa League. “For us it’s not that it’s important, it’s that it’s the reason for doing what we do, and I’m not talking about us, I’m talking about the clubs. The ACB belongs to the fans and if they’re not there, then this had little history. Return to seeing them, more than a reason for joy is to return to naturalness and normality”, he remarked.
Finally, he praised the figure of Eduardo Portela, the man who held his position until 2011. “I think this tribute was and is fair because the world of basketball recognizes Eduardo’s career for me was essential,” he said Martin.
“As Honorary President I see him and live with him and it is not what he has done, but what he does, which sheds a lot of light on many things for me. And being in the chair that he has occupied for so long, Of course, it’s almost a bit of a challenge to try to do the things that Eduardo has done for the ACB. People sometimes have a short memory, but he has been disruptive in a thousand moments, from the third referee to making very important changes and sometimes we were forget, and I don’t want it to be forgotten”, he concluded.