By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Even without Pau Gasol, the injured leader of the “golden boys” generation, exactly ten years ago Spain was on the top of the world!
For the last time a European team won the FIBA World Cup, then called “World Championship” or simply “Mundobasket”, as Spain dominated the final against Greece. The losing side was the defending European champion and in the semifinal the Greeks made history by beating USA.
However, the final belonged to Spain with the players of coach Pepu Hernandez getting an easy 70-47 win. The current president of the Spanish federation Jorge Garbajosa scored 20 points and Juan Carlos Navarro also finished the game with 20.
With Pau Gasol on the bench, Spanish players wore T-shirts which read “Pau tambien juega” (Pau is also playing) as they entered the court before the game and Felipe Reyes got his place in the starting line up.
After the first quarter which ended with Spain leading 18-12, a 10-0 run was made by Navarro and Garbajosa (28-12) and the game was over. “We had a tough game against the USA so we came into this game with a lot of nerves,” said Greece’s legendary coach Panagiotis Yannakis who added: “It’s unbelievable to see two European teams in the final. We saw that the level of basketball in Europe is very high.”
“This is fantastic,” said Spain coach Pepu Hernandez, “We’ve come out with so much emotion on the court and we are world champions.”
This gold medal remains the greatest achievement of the Spanish national team, which for a decade dominated the European basketball and emerged as the main rival of the USA in the world stage.
After 2006, Spain won a medal almost every year . Three Eurobasket golds (2009, 2011, 2015), two Olympic Games silvers (2008, 2012), one Eurobasket silver (2007), one Eurobasket bronze (2013) and last but not least this summer a bronze Olympic medal (2016).