February, 2002

By Pablo Malo de Molina

     Soccer is the “official” sport of Spain. People love and follow it and most information about sports in newspapers and TVs is soccer. However, there is some room for other sports, and basketball is the next one in the Spanish people preferences. It’s the second most practiced and also the second most followed.

     Spanish main competition is the ACB League (Basketball Clubs Association), founded in 1983 and nowadays considered the top domestic competition in Europe, both in organization, playing and support. There are 18 teams playing there in the top level. The competition system is easy, as there is a regular league in what the Top8 make it to the playoffs. There are three playoffs rounds, all them up to 5 games.

     The ACB is a very professional league, as teams have an average budget of 5,685,574 euros (4,975,000 USD). There are allowed two foreigners players and there is no limitation for Bosman-A players, although the ones from outside the European Union are still considered foreigners. Teams have 11 licences and the 12^th one is for the player coming from the young teams. Average salary for players in the league is around 276,465 euros (about 242,000 USD).
     ACB League is also the top competition in Europe in attendance, as there is an average of about 5,700 people per game. Adecco Estudiantes have and average attendance of more than 12,000 people and Unicaja leads here, filling it’s court (8,511 seats) almost completely for many years. Tau Ceramica and Pamesa Valencia are other teams that take more than 7,000 people at each of their games. Besides that, there are 3 games broadcasted each week, all them in paid channels. Canal+ pays about 15 million euros (13,150,000 USD) a year for TV rights.

     Apart from the Regular League, the most interesting competition in Spain is the Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup). It is organized in a Final-8 format with the top 8 teams in the first leg of the league, and it is a success: tickets are quickly sold out and there are more than 600 journalists (and growing) each edition. 2001 edition was played at Malaga with Barcelona as champion, and 2002 event will be held at Vitoria in March.

     Last two teams in the ACB regular league are relegated to the LEB, the second division in Spanish basketball. It is organized by the Spanish Federation, like the third division, LEB-2. Both leagues are professional and have 16 teams each. Foreigner limitations are the same as in ACB, and most teams use their both 2 non-EU spots. LEB-1 teams can have a limit of about 1,000,000 USD of budget and they are starting to sign Bosman players, something not too common in past years.

     Apart from ACB, LEB and LEB-2, the three professional leagues in Spain, there is another competition, called EBA, where there are 90 teams split in 5 conferences. Many ACB teams have there their 2^nd teams, and there are some Bosman players too, as there are not allowed foreigners in the competition.

     Clubs history has two main stars: Real Madrid and Barcelona. They are the only teams in the ACB owned by a soccer club and have the biggest budgets. Real Madrid have won 28 times the Spanish league (6 times since ACB was created) while Barcelona has achieved 12 titles (9 in ACB). DKV Joventut (4 titles, 2 in ACB) and Manresa (1 title in ACB, in 1998, and now in LEB) are the other teams that have claimed the championship.

     Tau Ceramica, Unicaja Malaga, Pamesa Valencia, Adecco Estudiantes and Caja San Fernando are other alternatives to Real Madrid and Barcelona, and some of them have reached the ACB Finals in the last years and even claimed a Copa del Rey title. However, last two editions of ACB ended in Barcelona – Real Madrid Finals. The win in the 1999-00 was for Real Madrid, while Barcelona took the revenge in the 2000-01, when they also beat Real in the Copa del Rey final.

     Spanish teams are powerful in European scheme. In the 2000-01 season, Unicaja achieved the Korac Cup title, while Tau Ceramica was the Euroleague runner up. Real Madrid has been 8 times (last in 1995) European Champion, while DKV Joventut also claimed a European championship title in 1994. Barcelona has reached several Final Fours in the Euroleague but has never achieved the championship.

     Spanish National Team is not that successful, as it has never won any European or World Championship. However, Spain was 5^th in the Greece’98 Worldbasket and has claimed a medal in last two European Championships: 2^nd in 1999 and 3^rd in 2001. The team, coached by Javier Imbroda, is quickly improving and is nowadays one of the strongest squads in Europe, with a young and complete roster.

     The reason could be 1980’s generation, led by Pau Gasol. The forward was the highest draft choice of a player not developed in the US in the NBA history, as he was picked 3^rd in the 2001 draft. Gasol, who is now heading for the first European Rookie of the Year award, took part in the team that become European and World Junior Champions in 1998 and 1999, besides achieving the Albert Schweitzer title also in 1998. Raul Lopez (#24 in 2001 draft), Juan Carlos Navarro (probably 1^st round in 2002 draft), Felipe Reyes, Carlos Cabezas and Berni Rodriguez, all from that junior team and from 1980, have already made their debut in the National Team