On the day that Sergio Llull became, along with Felipe Reyes, the player who has worn the Real Madrid jersey the most times (1,046), the news from the Buesa Arena was that Baskonia, one of the strongest teams in the Liga Endesa, After an irregular first round in which they ultimately had to pay for a poor start to the season, they were left out of the Copa del Rey, a setback for the Vitoria team who are regulars in these events. Baxi Manresa was waiting, who had to expect a Baskonista defeat by more than a point. The final result (85-99) leaves no doubt; neither does the development of the party.
Sergio Llull played 15 minutes in Vitoria. He entered the field with less than two seconds left in the first quarter and remained on the field for eight minutes; In the second half, he put on his training jacket and sat on the bench with his teammates. He showed up again in the fourth quarter. To complete your participation. He attempted three 3-pointers and made one, also his only two-point attempt. He gave one assist and lost three balls. But what was important was not Buesa's minutes, his goal, nor the score, nor the remaining statistics of a particular game like the one between Real Madrid and Baskonia, but what his presence in the Vitoria pavilion meant.
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Because in these minutes, Felipe Reyes is the player who has worn white for the most games in Real Madrid's already very long history. There are already 1,046 games in 18 seasons between 2006 and 2024. He has 23 titles to his name in an unforgettable all-white career; 23,086 total minutes of play and 10,659 points, plus an action that went down in Real Madrid history, his basket three seconds before the end in Kaunas, which gave his team their eleventh European Cup victory against Olimpiakos.
In a transcendent game for Baskonia, which for Ivanovic's team carried the sign of “no tickets” that turned the modern into “sold out”, the encounter became a metaphor for how the first half of the season had gone ACB: a disastrous start forced him, trying to come back later, but neither in the entire season nor in the forty minutes of the game was it enough to redeem himself.
By the time the Vitorians wanted to know the game had started, Yabusele had already scored three three-pointers that eliminated Baskonia. The initial 9-0 defeat was a huge blow, made even more so by the Vitorians' lack of goalscoring combined with Madrid's shooting skills. With 2.35 meters left in the first quarter, the scoreboard showed a devastating 6:24 that had to be fought for the rest of the game. He tried everything, but Madrid wouldn't allow it. Musa scored 20 points, half as many as against Efes, albeit with far fewer minutes, and was a blast; like Yabusele or Campazzo (20). This time, Moneke's spark wasn't enough to offset his team's poor start. Real limited themselves to doing their job professionally, as if they hadn't played four extra periods two days earlier, and ended Vitoria's last hope of reaching the Copa del Rey. It is celebrated in Manresa.
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