ALCOBENDAS (MADRID), Nov. 8 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB), Jorge Garbajosa, thanked the base Laia Palau for his 20-year period for the Spanish team and for helping him “to understand what women’s basketball deserves to be”, and made it clear that he wants to have her “close” in the future.
“It has been a hilarious week because you had to try to understand what I wanted for this act. Laia wanted something simple, but you are the player who has represented the team the most and the one who has achieved the most cups,” Garbajosa said during the recognition ceremony to the player after officially announcing his international retirement.
The leader stressed that he met the Catalan at the 2004 Athens Games and that “over time” he discovered that she was “what a professional basketball player should be”. “She is the best I have known when it comes to understanding the basketball profession. We have had endless talks and they have helped me to understand what women’s basketball deserves to be,” he praised.
“He is a spectacular person with an overwhelming personality, extremely intelligent, very one of his own and special in my life. You leave the national team with the highest possible honor, although you are never going to leave and when you stop giving lessons at your club you will continue to be linked to basketball, I want you close, “added the former player who, addressing the internationals present, reminded them that they had had” the best teacher without knowing it. “
For Garbajosa, the vision of women’s basketball held by the base “is very global” and that, therefore, “uniting it only to a federative part would be wasting its talent.” “It is important for the FEB that the national teams have those referents who anticipate the needs that may exist. For me it will be a key element in the FEB for the future and limiting it to one area is wasting it, we will respect what you like. it’s near the court, “he warned.
On the part of the internationals, Silvia Domínguez spoke, who has inherited the role of captain left by Palau. “Basketball as a whole should thank you. A stage is closing, but you will continue to give a lot and basketball will continue to give you a lot,” he said.
“Thank you ‘Commander’ for what began as an illusion and ended up being a revolution. I am sure that there will not be any player who with this shirt will do what you have done again. Yours has been giving, giving and giving, many times. without receiving. You have been lucky enough to live this golden stage, but it was not always like that and you deserve to have lived this moment. As a colleague I want to thank you for doing it your way and I hope that basketball continues to give you a lot “, concluded the base of the Perfumerías Avenida.