By Stefanos Tatsios / info@eurohoops.net
In the second semifinal of the Final Four in Belgrade (18/5), Real Madrid goes up against CSKA Moscow and this battle will set the two friends, former teammates, and counterparts along Spain’s perimeter against each other.
Sergio Llull, who is back in action after his eight-month injury, and Sergio Rodriguez, who has been playing in Dimitris Itoudis’ team this season, were Real’s two main guards for six years and made history in the team’s colors.
Eurohoops presents Llull and Sergio’s accomplishments in the six years they played in Real Madrid together, but also in the national team of Spain, and puts you in combat mode ahead of the Final Four.
ACB: Real’s amazing 3-out-of-4 streak
For six years, Sergio Rodriguez and Sergio Llull were teammates in Real Madrid and were the core of the team’s backcourt.
They may have experienced some difficult seasons, but they also had many successes, especially in the Spanish league, where they won 3 Championships together, all of them in 4 years, building a small dynasty in Madrid.
The four years between 2013 and 2016 were “supersonic” for the Whites, as they won the Spanish Championship 3 times (2013, 2015, 2016), in fact, two of those in back-to-back seasons, and made history in the ACB. The only Championship that Real team didn’t win was the one of 2014, which they lost to Xavi Pascual’s Barcelona (3-1).
The two Sergios were Madrid’s backbone in their achievements in the domestic league and even though they had a multitude of stars beside them, they were the ones who always bailed their team out when things got tough.
Copa del Rey: 3 consecutive Cups with Rodriguez and Llull
If the 3 championships in 6 years that Llull and Rodriguez won together in Real are something more than a successful yield, then the Madrilenos – with the presence of the two charismatic guards – were unstoppable in the Copa del Rey.
As everyone knows, sometimes winning the Spanish Cup, considering its format (Final Eight), is harder than winning the Championship. But Pablo Laso’s team was the absolute boss in the Copa del Rey from 2012 until last year.
Real won every Spanish Cup from 2012 to 2017, except for 2013, and Sergio Llull and Sergio Rodriguez lifted the Cup together in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016, while Llull also won the 2017 Cup without his teammate and good friend as he had left for the NBA.
The only thing that is certain is that in the six years they spent together in Madrid, the two Spanish internationals “swept” everything and made Real’s myth at home even greater.
EuroLeague: The return to the throne in 2015 and the three consecutive finals
Together with Olympiacos, CSKA, and Fenerbahce, Real Madrid are without a doubt this decade’s most successful teams in the EuroLeague.
Pablo Laso revived the Madrilenos’ profile in Europe, but he needed the help of his players, chiefly Llull and Rodriguez’s. From 2013 to 2015, the Whites appeared in three consecutive EuroLeague finals, which deservedly got them back into the elite of Europe’s top teams.
But the biggest moment for Real was the 2015 Final Four that took place at home, when they had the title of undisputed favorites and were, of course, “obliged” to win the European title after 20 years.
The semifinal against Zeljko Obradovic‘s rookie team, Fenerbahce, was relatively easy for the home team, who, with the help of their fans and led by Llull (12 points, 9 assists) and Rodriguez (13 points, 7 assists), got a 96-87 win and advanced to the big final.
There, they came up against the “vampire” and surprise of the tournament, Olympiacos, who – through Spanoulis’s “spree” – had knocked out CSKA Moscow in the first semifinal of the Final Four. The Greek team may have been competitive for three quarters, but mostly Carroll, but also Real’s excellent defense, decided the winner and got Real the trophy with an emphatic 78-59 victory.
The two counterparts along the perimeter were once again the catalysts for Pablo Laso’s team, scoring 23 points (12 for Llull, 11 for Sergio) and dishing eight assists (four each).
Collecting medals with the national team of Spain
Rodriguez and Llull’s common course in Real was absolutely successful, but the two of them were also members of an amazing crop of players in Spanish basketball that made history with their national team.
From the late 90s to last year’s EuroBasket, the national team of Spain has won every kind of medal there is and the two Real teammates were on the team’s roster with an important role, alongside Gasol, Navarro, Reyes, Rubio and Rudy.
In the colors of the ‘Furias Rojas,’ Llull and Rodriguez won a gold medal in the 2015 EuroBasket in France, a bronze medal in the 2013 EuroBasket in Slovenia, and two medals in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games in London (silver) and Rio (bronze) respectively.
The only thing that is certain is that, wherever they went, successes, titles, and medals for their teams were a given.