It’s going to look weird when Spain face Tunisia on August 31st for its first game at the FIBA Basketball World Cup . Every single person in the Guangzhou Gymnasium, fans in the stands and even players on the court, will be trying to spot the Spanish jerseys number 4 and number 7. But they won’t find them, simply because Pau Gasol and Juan Carlos Navarro won’t be there, warming up and getting ready to play.
It might be considered a minor detail but, just to make it clear, both are future first-ballot hall of famers, all-time record holders for matches played (253, Navarro) and points scored (3,599 Gasol) with La Roja. And while Navarro retired a year ago, Pau Gasol has just signed a one-year deal with the Portland Trailblazers in an attempt to extend his NBA career for at least one more season but, at age 39, he will hardly play for his beloved national team ever again.
In theory, no team should be able to transition smoothly from that kind of loss, but coach Sergio Scariolo doesn’t seem too concerned about Spain’s next steps. Even without its two legendary leaders, the Spanish squad will feature established veterans Rudy Fernandez, Sergio Llull and Ricky Rubio. Besides, talented players coming from a conflicting season like the Hernangomez brothers or Quino Colom and Jaime Fernandez, who played a huge role during the qualifying rounds, will also join the team.
It’s not a bad starting point, not at all. In fairness it’s one almost any head coach would like to rely on. Especially because, in Scariolo’s own words, Spain already has a new cornerstone to build upon: it’s a familiar face, an NBA champion and a natural leader for this group. His name is Marc, Marc Gasol. The Raptors’ center would like to extend his incredible season. In doing so, he also might extend Spain’s long permanence at the very top of FIBA basketball.
Despite the uncomfortable coexistence with Slovenia first and Turkey later, Spain’s path through the qualifying games has been quiet and steady. La Roja meandered through the qualifying windows unfazed by the opponents, winning all of the first six games and ending up with a 10-2 overall record, good enough to book a flight to China. Without its most famous stars, Scariolo found offensive guidance in Colom, who led the team in points (13.7 per game) and assists (4.8 per game), and a tough leader in Fran Vazquez. Spain’s proved once again to be the best team on the boards during the European qualifiers, snagging 39.6 rebounds per game, a well recognized signature for the Iberians.
The Spanish made it all look routine, meaning the qualification was never really on the line, as if the thought of Spain missing the biggest stage of all was nothing more than a bad dystopian novel. In fact, this is going to be their 10th consecutive participation, 12th overall, at the World Cup (only United States and Brazil have done better through the history of the competition).
With all due respect for the likes of Tunisia, Puerto Rico and Iran, it would seem logical to predict that Spain will stay on cruise control playing in group C, in what could be considered an extension of the qualifying rounds. As La Roja will benefit from the huge gap in terms of talent and experience, Scariolo might wisely exploit the first three games of the competition to oil the wheels of a team that has to find a new identity. Besides Pau Gasol and Navarro, Spain will have to go hunting a medal without Sergio Rodriguez, Nikola Mirotic and Serge Ibaka, key players in their previous successful campaigns.
In the opening game against the African champions, two days later against a proud, hard-nosed team like Puerto Rico and finally against Iran, Gasol and his teammates will test their chemistry, with a chance to exploit their massive presence in the paint with Claver, Willy Hernangomez and Oriola, or even try to play at a faster pace with lightning-quick guards like Rubio, Llull and Ribas.
Options won’t be a problem for Scariolo and his staff, but they will know better than to waste any second of their first three games, well aware that the level of the competition will get tougher in the course of the World Cup.
While former Dallas Mavericks big man Salah Mejri will fight for every rebound and Bronx native John Holland will likely try to keep up with the Spanish wings shot after shot, it’s clear that more challenging rivals lie in wait around the corner that leads to the second round of the tournament.
Bound to collide with group D, Spain might have to deal with Serbia and / or Italy. The game against Jokic & Co. has the potential to be a heavyweight match under the basket. With a bunch of skilled and beefy big men on the floor, it’s not hard to envision Gasol and Willy Hernangomez going to battle against Jokic and Marjanovic for rebounds and points around the basket in an old school clash of the giants. And while the big fellas will struggle down low, the Rubio-Teodosic and Llull-Bogdanovic confrontations, top-talent guards even at the World Cup level, could get heated pretty fast.
Italy, less equipped than the Serbians in both size and talent, may otherwise represent a trickier matchup, especially with Gallinari and Datome being a little oversized for wings like Fernandez and a little too quick for Oriola or Claver. The other Hernangomez, Juancho, might play an important role in this case. The youngest of the two brothers is coming off a disappointing season where he couldn’t find significant playing time with the Denver Nuggets, but his wingspan, mobility and athleticism could help the team neutralise Italy’s most reliable offensive options.
The last time the Spanish flag wasn’t waving at the FIBA Basketball World Cup opening ceremony Kobe Bryant was 38 days old, ’Staying Alive’ by the Bee Gees topped the charts and none of the players who will play in China were even born. In many ways, La Roja is the heartbeat of the competition along with USA and Brazil, no other team can measure up. For some strange reason, though, success has rarely smiled on the Iberians. With the noble exception of the epic, unforgettable triumph on the hardwood of Saitama in 2006, Spain has never reached the podium over the course of its other 11 participations.
History might change in China, where veteran coach Sergio Scariolo is determined to lead his team through the maze of a tournament marked by competitive balance. Despite being on the brink of a major generational turnover, Spain seems solid enough to keep its medal’s dreams alive. Ricky Rubio, who curiously made his debut on the big stage at the Olympics right in Beijing when he was still a teenager, is expected to step up into a bigger role.
The same is expected from the Hernangomez brothers, both coming off a frustrating season in the NBA and eagerly looking for a chance to boost their careers. The team as a whole will have to blend the core players who earned the right to play in China through the qualifying rounds and NBA/Euroleague stars all together, and work on some details that might make the difference between glory and gloom.
A top priority will be the outside shooting, a part of the game no team is allowed to overlook in today’s basketball, and Spain will likely have to shoot way better than the 32,4% overall averaged from the three-point line in the qualifying games. The addition of Fernandez and Ribas, who shot respectively 41,4% and 38,6% from deep in Euroleague last season, could be vital and help other teammates to find better looks at the basket while also spacing the floor.
More than anything, in order to fulfill its dream of success, Spain will need its acclaimed leader to be in top shape and in conquistador mood. At age 34, Marc Gasol has just had a career-defining season, one where he had to leave the franchise from which he had become an icon, in order to travel North to partner up with Kawhi Leonard in a somewhat diminished role. Some players would have struggled with this, but instead, Gasol became a defensive anchor for the team that brought Toronto its first NBA championship.
He who once was nicknamed ‘the other Gasol’, a terrible lapse of judgement whose authors should be banned from basketball writing, is now ready to extend his incredible run all the way to the World Cup. The long NBA season might take its toll, but Marc looks like he can still put up a showcase of his doctorate in scientific hoops, at least for a 16 days-9 game span.
If Gasol were to guide his teammates to another medal, that would be his 9th with La Roja, an achievement that would even further solidify his name in the history of the game. Not that he needs any further validation, for both Gasol and Spain enter this World Cup with nothing to prove. But make no mistake, they still have much to give to the competition and to their faithful supporters.