Miribilla meets again before a historic day. This time, strange thing, it is not about the invocation of a new feat of Bilbao Basket. It houses in its green and yellow entrails the Champions League final with two Spanish teams in contention: Lenovo Tenerife and BAXI Manresa. The most immediate antecedent smiles at the yellows: 94-83 in the League a week ago. After dispatching the Israeli Hapoel Holon and the German Riesen Ludwigsburg in the semifinals, the representatives of the ACB are ready to prolong the supremacy of our country in the tournament and take over from a Burgos that has reigned in the two previous editions. First time with a fight for the cup between two compatriots. 50 percent of the teams that have reached a BCL final come from Spain (6/12).
The great favorite is the Tenerife of a Vidorreta who wants to be a prophet in his land. They face their third final and are chasing their second title after winning the Champions League in 2017. The 2017 and 2020 Intercontinental are also in the Canarista club’s showcases. Lenovo has long ceased to be a modest club to enter the nobility of the ACB . They have won their last 10 BCL matches and are on course to equal the record in the competition, held by Monaco (14, between April 2017 and January 2018). The islanders have prevailed in the six matches played on Spanish soil in the quarterfinals, semifinals or the final. Doornekamp is the only one of the participants who has played a final, the one he won with Tenerife itself. The Huertas-Shermadini alliance will once again be one of the keys.
Manresa, meanwhile, is one of the historic clubs in Spain and is missing the icing on the cake of a European title, which is why no one wants this Champions League more than they do. His showcases await a partner for the ACB League of the 1997-98 season and the 1996 Cup. They start with several points of advantage, due to the encouragement of the stands. On Friday, four thousand Bages fans shaped a Manresan hell from a distance and today the heat is expected to grow to more than five thousand, half Miribilla. Against that, a handful of brave Canarians and Bilbao’s allies, for the affection towards their coach and his five players who were men in black in the past.
BAXI have won their last four BCL matches and a victory today would bring their best run in the competition. They have been the surprise team this year, but they have expended a lot of energy with their happy and lightning-fast game. In the previous one there was a moment for the pique of both technicians. Martínez keeps repeating that Manresa has three times less money than its rival and Vidorreta doesn’t like it very much: “I don’t think Pedro is too concerned about budgets now because he knows they can beat anyone. We have a top team ahead of us, which is why they are in the final”. this will take place at 20:00 and three hours before Holon and Ludwigsburg will play for third and fourth place.
FIBA chose the Best Quintet of the tournament: Ragland (Holon), Radebaugh (Ludwigsburg), Johnson (Holon), Moneke (Manresa) and Shermadini (Tenerife). Moneke was named MVP and, without naming him, he gave Musa (Breogán) a wake-up call: “This is a team victory. I can be the MVP in Spain. In another league, if you don’t make the playoffs…” Pedro Martínez, the best coach. And the best youngster of the tournament, Bortolani (Treviso).