MADRID, 5 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The fireworks of the Yankees this July 4 did not make as much noise as the departure of Pablo Laso from Real Madrid basketball. The coach who has directed and won the most games in the history of the club, capable of changing the fate of the basketball section into a sleeping giant that had not played in a European Cup final for almost 20 years.
‘The club belongs to the members’, ‘the fan (like the client) is sovereign’… These are phrases from the world of sport, when the idiosyncrasies of each one allow it, but the truth is that many Real Madrid fans went to sleep last night thinking about a controversial and transcendent end of cycle.
Laso suffered a heart attack after the second semifinal game of the Endesa League against Baskonia and left the team in the hands of his assistant Chus Mateo until the fourth and final game of the final against Barça three weeks ago, that of his 22nd title in 11 years. The white team decided yesterday to dispense with the Basque coach “for medical reasons only and exclusively”, after having made several consultations with cardiology specialists.
However, the coach, with another year on his contract, wanted and felt qualified to continue. It seems logical to think that Laso, along with his family, is the first interested in his health, listening to the doctors. Sport has these turns, like life itself, and it is not the first bitter farewell in Madrid. Great characters that, therefore, make as much noise when they fall like those firecrackers in the USA.
Real Madrid’s concern for Laso’s health is understandable, but the coach’s “sadness” at the club’s position, as a farewell statement says that is hardly in keeping with a legend, is more so. When he wakes up today, the Whites’ fan will read in most of the media that Laso had the approval of the cardiologist who intervened on him, also that of the team before he was dismissed last week, and that his end of cycle is orchestrated by José Luis Sánchez , head of the Madrid basketball section.
There are no more fireworks, but the smell of singeing, of taking advantage of the situation to resolve accumulated grudges, leaves a crisis that is difficult to understand and totally unexpected, waiting to hear Pablo Laso’s version from his lips. Whether it goes well or badly in sports, time will tell, but basketball Madrid dispenses with his savior, who made him ‘the 10-time European champion’. A leader capable of building teams, uniting in the face of adversity and winning and winning.
Three weeks ago, “Pablo Laso’s Real Madrid”, as Chus Mateo called it and this era will be remembered for the most part successful and attractive, lifted the League by clipping Barça’s wings. A recognizable Madrid, always wanting to run, to play, and above all to compete. Now, after a historic season, one minute away from also winning the Euroleague, the board beheads a team with capital letters, whatever the reasons, when it came from the perfect communion in the Palace and against the eternal rival.