Girona dreams again of promotion to the ACB thanks to Marc Gasol

Bàsquet Girona, Movistar Estudiantes, Zunder Palencia and ICG Força Lleida will compete this weekend in Girona and live on LaLigaSportsTV a Final Four of the LEB Oro as exciting as it is unpredictable.

With the permission of their respective rivals in the semifinals, the Girona and Madrilenians start a priori as great favorites to meet next Sunday in a long-awaited final that will decide which team will accompany the Regular League champion, Covirán Granada, next season in the ACB.

In the final next Sunday, June 19, it will be decided which team will accompany the Regular League champion, Covirán Granada, next season in the ACB.

The Final Four of the LEB Oro will put the icing on the cake of a season that has had countless incentives: from the presence in the category for the first time in its almost 75 years of life of a club like Movistar Estudiantes, to the return of a Living legend of Spanish basketball like Marc Gasol, enrolled in the ranks of a Bàsquet Girona of which he is founder and president. “Two major hooks” that, according to Jaume Zorita, LaLigaSportsTV content manager, have allowed this OTT subscribers to enjoy “a dream LEB Oro”.

Marc Gasol: teacher and inspiration in his own school

Since joining the Bàsquet Girona squad, the former Memphis Grizzlies, Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Lakers player, among others, has become the beacon of a team that had just accumulated seven consecutive losses and is now only two steps of the ascent. All this, after stringing together 20 wins in the 26 games played since his return (including the last three, achieved consecutively against Leyma Coruña in the LEB Oro quarterfinal playoff).

The Girona team resolved the best of five games in the fast lane with a 3-0 win in which the Gasol middleweight put his particular finishing touch with a PIR of 30 (19 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists) and certified his fifth MVP of the season in 23 games.

With a former ACB like Josep Franch in charge of the game, and escorted on the perimeter by the Argentine international Max Fjellerup and the globetrotter Txemi Urtasun, Marc has parked his impressive track record and his position, and has led by example, putting himself at the service and under the orders of his coach Jordi Sagartal as one more. And, what is more important, becoming the mirror in which everyone wishes to reflect: from the first of his teammates to the last student of the Escola de Bàsquet who inspired the founding of the club in 2014.

In addition to having a women’s club of the entity and prestige of Uni Girona, the people of Girona have recovered the illusion of returning to the elite also in the men’s category.

The people of Girona have recovered the illusion of returning to the basketball elite also in the men’s category

A shared dream, from the Costa Brava to the Pyrenees, which has been forged over the last eight years and has finally taken shape since Marc decided to put an end to his NBA career. Turning a deaf ear to the siren songs that came from top-level European clubs, Marc put on his Girona shirt to close the circle and write a story with hints of a film script.

The ICG Força Lleida will be the first of the last two hurdles that Gasol and his team will have to overcome as of this Saturday (8:00 p.m. / LaLigaSportsTV) to return the city that catapulted him to fame to the same place it occupied in that fateful summer 2008, when the economic problems of the then Akasvayu Girona precipitated its disappearance and Marc had to embark on his American adventure.

Those from Lleida won (79-70) against Cáceres, a World Heritage Site, in the fifth game of the most even and unpredictable series of the LEB Oro Playoffs and they will not make it easy for the Girona team either, as seen in their duels in the regular phase. In fact, in their first match of the season played at Barris Nord, Força Lleida clearly won (86-65).

A match that, surely, will have nothing to do with the one that both teams will play this Saturday in the second semifinal of a Final Four to which Movistar Estudiantes also attends with the favorite label.

Movistar Students or the weight of history

After eliminating UEMC Real Valladolid Baloncesto in four games (3-1), Diego Epifanio’s men will face the solid Zunder Palencia (Saturday 18 at 5:30 p.m. / LaLigaSportsTV) in a face-to-face that they face with the spirit of revenge. In the two games played in the regular phase between both teams, the schoolboys were not able to impose themselves on their rival and, precisely, said goodbye to their options for direct promotion after the tight defeat at home against the purple team (71- 73) on matchday 32, the penultimate of the Regular League.

The concentration in defense of the people from Palencia and the offensive success of the American with a Ghanaian passport, Prince Ali, were key in both games for the team led by Pedro Rivero, who will have to deal with the historical residue and the superiority in the stands of those from Ramiro . However, the pressure and urgency of their opponent to return to the top flight could work in favor of the Castilians, who arrive more rested in this final four after eliminating Unicaja Banco Oviedo in three games.

The guarantees that, on paper, the block provides are the main guarantee for the Estu. And not only for having managed to retain some important pieces in his squad, as is the case of Montenegrin power forward Nemanja Djurisic, but also for having brought back a world champion like Javi Beiran and another old acquaintance of the club like Nacho. Martin.

LaLigaSportsTV has become the main platform for broadcasting audiovisual content from more than 40 national federations

In addition, the collegiate technical secretariat has opted for the incorporation of players with proven experience in the category, such as the American shooting guard Johnny Dee, who added two promotions in the 2019 and 2020 seasons, and the former Palencia players, Kevin Larsen and Felipe dos Anjos.

They have been joined by veteran Alex Urtasun, an emergency signing after Edwin Jackson was injured due to injury and who would face his twin Txemi in a hypothetical final against Girona. An extra dose of curiosity for a Final Four that has all the ingredients to establish itself as the prelude to the elite of Spanish men’s basketball.

Weekend of the Final Four LEB Gold

Semifinals – Saturday June 18
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5:30 p.m.
Movistar Students vs Zunder Palencia

8:00 p.m.
ICG Força Lleida vs Basketball Girona
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​Final – Sunday, June 19 at 6:45 p.m.

The success of the bet on the LEB Oro

True to its intention to consolidate itself as “the OTT of Spanish sport”, LaLigaSportsTV It has become for a little over three years the main platform for the dissemination of audiovisual content of more than 40 national federations. “There has been a lot of insistence over the years that the growth of their sports is closely linked to the quality of the audiovisual product they offer,” they admit from the LaLiga streaming platform.

In parallel to the LaLigaSports program and the broadcasts of all these disciplines, LaLigaSportsTV decided to expand its offer with the acquisition for five seasons of the audiovisual rights of competitions such as the LEB Oro. “It was one of the regular leagues along with Asobal and the Liga Nacional. of Futsal that we were interested in offering and we are very satisfied with the evolution experienced in these years”, admits Jaume Zorita, content manager of the OTT.

Far beyond the spectacular atmosphere that will be breathed once again in the Pavelló Municipal Girona-Fontajau, the Final Four of the LEB Oro will surely exceed the great audience records of the last edition of the Copa Princesa between Covirán Granada and Movistar Estudiantes , the most watched game of the season on LaLigaSportsTV.

“The pull of Movistar Estudiantes and Bàsquet Girona has served to retain the audience” admits Zorita. The fact of having broadcast all the games of the season has also allowed “many basketball lovers to get hooked on the competition”. “Without a doubt, this is one of our star content, and we are convinced that the next season will also work very well.” We’ll see if with Movistar Estudiantes or Marc Gasol still as claims.

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