The Euroleague is not a good choice for Gran Canaria
The Euroleague is not a good choice for Gran Canaria
Gran Canaria qualified in Euroleague because the reached last year semifinals in Liga ACB. This season is their first presence ever in this competition and there are many signs that it was a bad deal for the Spanish team. After the enthusiasm for participation in the Euroleague was gone, Gran Canaria had to face reality. And it’s not about the roster, which of course cannot be at the same level as the rich teams of Europe (Real Madrid, Fenerbahce, CSKA, Barcelona). It’s about too many long trips the Canarian team has to make every week. This round, for instance, Gran Canaria travelled more than 10 000 km flying to Moscow go and back. Of course, this is the longest Euroleague trip, but actually, if you take a look at the European map, everything is far from Gran Canaria: Istanbul too, Athens too, Kaunas and Tel-Aviv the same. They are almost so far from Moscow like Beijing is.
These long tiring trips are responsible for Gran Canaria poor results both in the Spanish league and Euroleague. In both competitions, Gran Canaria is on the last spots (14th in Euroleague and 16th in Liga ACB). Not because they are so weak, but because they are spending more time on planes than training. They have no time, they are running to catch the next flight.
In Eurocup where they previously played the schedule was not so full and their opponents were not so strong. There were also long trips, but in Eurocup, there were no so many games in a season, meanwhile, in Euroleague, you have sometimes 2 games per week and the 3rd in Spanish League. Actually, you are like in the NBA. And the Spanish League is the best in Europe, every game is a challenge. You have no rest. How to win in these circumstances?
For the future, I think that Gran Canaria has to choose other competitions, maybe back to Eurocup, maybe in Basketball Champions League, but in the Euroleague, they have no chance because of the distances. Because of this, with a better roster than last year, they are on the last spots in Spain.
Gratian Cormos, info@brainbasketball.net
