Euroleague Gran Canaria is much worse in Liga ACB than last seasons
Herbalife Gran Canaria was all these years one of the top teams in Spain and Europe. Between their achievements, you can count winning the Spanish Supercup in 2017, after being Finalist in the Copa del Rey one year before and then again in 2018 reaching the Supercup Final. In Europe, they have reached Eurocup finals against Khimki in 2015 and semifinals next season.
Last year they obtained the tickets to participate to their first ever Euroleague season, after reaching the semifinals in the Spanish Championship. Since then, the Canarian team is going down. It seems that they have reached their top and now they are coming straight to the bottom. And it’s not about the Euroleague where Gran Canaria has no chance to the playoffs in front of the big clubs of Europe. It’s about the domestic league, Liga ACB, where the Spanish team stays on the 16th position with 6 victories and 14 losses, with almost no chances to make the playoff. Just Murcia and Gipuzkoa are lower in the league’s ranking.
So, it seems that Euroleague participation influenced a lot the destiny of Gran Canaria in the Spanish league because there is more pressure put on the players in the biggest competition than in Eurocup, where they were involved till this season. The players give everything on the court in the Euroleague and they are not so focused on the domestic league, which is the strongest in Europe. This attitude costs a lot Gran Canaria because in Liga ACB every game is very tough and could be easily lost. Overall, in Euroleague plus Liga ACB, Gran Canaria has just 12 victories and 30 games lost so far this season. I suggest that is the moment for them to leave the European dreams and to focus 200% on the Spanish league.
Gratian Cormos, info@brainbasketball.net