Learning from Spain

Spain’s victory in the recent FIBA-Europe basketball championships in Poland was its first continental win after six runner-up finishes and for MVP center Pau Gasol, breaking the jinx was as meaningful as playing for the national team that captured the world title in Saitama three years ago and the Los Angeles Lakers who claimed the NBA crown this past season.

I watched the finals between Spain and Serbia on live TV with Spanish commentary and saw how coach Sergio Scariolo’s squad broke the game open as early as the second quarter when Gasol and guard Ricky Rubio combined to trigger a 9-2 run that erected a 21-point lead, 43-22.

Serbia just couldn’t get going. Spain raced to a 24-9 start and held off the frantic Serbians who cut the margin to 14 at 58-44 in the third period but lacked the imagination to derail the relentless Spanish Armada.

What made the easy win so remarkable was Scariolo isn’t even Spanish and doesn’t coach in the Spanish league. The Italian mentor coaches the Khimki Moscow club in the Russian super league where, by the way, Spanish reserve guard Raul Lopez, 29, now plays. Lopez, nicknamed the “Spanish Fly,” once played for the Utah Jazz.

There were six NBA veterans in the Spanish lineup – brothers Pau and Marc Gasol, Rudy Fernandez, Juan Carlos Navarro, Jorge Garbajosa and Lopez. Additionally, three were picked in this year’s draft – Ricky Rubio (Minnesota), Victor Claver (Portland) and Sergio Llull (Denver). The others were experienced internationalists Carlos Cabezas, Alex Mumbru and Felipe Reyes.

Another Spanish NBA cager Jose Calderon (Toronto) would’ve played for the team but cancelled out due to injury. Calderon was part of a weighty four-man TV panel that covered the finals. At the last buzzer, Calderon left the broadcast booth to celebrate with his teammates on the court.

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Rubio, who turns 19 on Oct. 21, started at point guard for Scariolo. He’s in the record books as the first player born in the 1990s to be drafted in the NBA. Rubio, chosen fifth overall by the Timberwolves, has opted not to play in the NBA until at least in 2011.

Rubio had a live contract with the Spanish team DKV Joventut and for Minnesota to sign him up, a buyout of anywhere between $6.6 and 8.2 million had to be executed. Under NBA rules, a franchise may cough up only up to $500,000 to buy out a live contract, meaning Rubio had to raise the difference. There was an attempt to line up sponsors for the buyout but Rubio eventually decided to stay in Spain.

Joventut sold Rubio’s contract for $5 million to FC Barcelona which then inked the 6-2 1/2 guard to a six-year deal with the option to leave for the NBA after the 2010-11 season with a buyout provision of $1.4 million.

In an interview, Rubio said his role on the national team wasn’t to be the star but to facilitate. He scored 10 points in the finals and shone brightly on defense, holding Serbia’s hotshot Milos Teodosic to only five.

Spanish play-by-play announcer Andres Montes was, as usual, colorful in his delivery. His nickname for Rubio is “Ricky Business” – which the guard’s grandmother and No. 1 fan Anna Maria has stated in the newspaper “Marca” she dislikes. Whenever Spain hit a triple, Montes yelled, “rat-tat-tat-tat-tat” as if to mimic machine gun fire. Despite the presence of three other panellists, Montes dominated the air with his inimitable style.

The win was worth about $150,000 per player.as bonus money. When Spain lost a 118-107 decision to the US to settle for the silver at the Beijing Olympics, the players received about $125,000 each as a prize.

Gasol and his teammates were in tears after Spain formalized its victory, erasing the bitter memory of the 2007 finals where Russia, starring naturalized player J. R. Holden, hit a last-second shot to beat the Armada, 60-59. The bonus was peanuts for Gasol, whose annual Laker salary is $16.5 Million, but the win meant a lot more than money.

For the record, there have now been 14 Spanish players drafted in the NBA, starting with the late Fernando Martin in 1985. Two Spaniards who have suited up in the NBA but weren’t drafted were Calderon and Garbajosa.

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In Poland, several NBA players were absent like Andrei Kirilenko for Russia, Dirk Nowitzki for Germany, Andris Biedrins for Lithuania, Alexander Vujavic for Slovenia and Ben Gordon for England. But NBA veterans Hedo Turkoglu (Turkey), Linas Kleiza (Denver), Nenad Krstic (Serbia), Tony Parker (France), Boris Diaw (France), Mikael Pietrus (France), Rony Turiaf (France), Beno Udrih (Slovenia) and Pops Mensah-Bonsu (England) were accounted for. Russia showed up with Kelly McCarty instead of Holden and bowed out in the quarters, losing 79-68 to Serbia. 

There are a lot of lessons to be learned from just watching how Spain played both ends of the floor to crush Serbia. Spain often went to the full-court press, no matter how big its lead, to delay the ball’s advance to Krstic, Serbia’s No. 1 offensive option. The pressure was unforgiving. Rubio took care of Teodosic and Spain gave little room for Serbia’s crack outside gunners to set up. When Serbia brought the ball inside the quarter area, Spain went to a “closet” zone and made it difficult to pass to the interior, kick out or penetrate. That was the key.

Gasol’s mobility was a huge factor. He hardly posted up against the bulkier Krstic and attacked from the outside to score on flying alley-oops. Fernandez unselfishly dished off and often played decoy to invite Serbia’s defense – a situation where the shooter became the passer. Scariolo never left a unit on the floor without at least a veteran shooter and a big man, assuring a smooth flow in shuffling starters with relievers.

What was evident was Spain did its homework. Serbia never got a chance to explode. In the preliminaries, Spain dropped a 63-60 decision to Turkey but recovered to eliminate France, 86-66, in the quarters and Greece, 82-64, in the semis.