There was a time when Espanyol was a recognized multi-sports club, with roller hockey, athletics, rugby, volleyball and basketball sections. “Espanyol has been important in the construction of sport, in its commitment to training and in the creation of competitions”, details the protagonists who presented the documentary ‘Bàsquet en blanc-i-blau’ on Thursday night. El pas del RCD Espanyol per l’ACB, 30 years després’, in which the golden age of the basketball section in the 80s is explained.
Manel Gausachs, Iván Bassols and Salva Coromina have created an emotional product, with 25 protagonists who unravel what was a glorious stage at a time when basketball “even surpassed football”, as the Cadena SER journalist Xavi Saisó explained, thanks to the tailwind of the basketball team that won silver at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Just in that period, Espanyol was competing in the ACB. There are not too many images of the time, but the opinions give body to the story.
After living in the 70s in lower categories and playing in schools, everything changed in the 1980s with the entry of Antonio de Barnola as head of the section and Seat’s commitment. After investing in a more competitive team, on March 11, 1984 promotion to the ACB in Gijón was achieved. Everything changed that day. The team started playing at the Palau d’Esports on Calle Lleida, the biggest in the competition, and invested in players like Mike Phillips, who arrived in the second season, the most successfulwhen Espanyol finished sixth, they beat Barcelona in a Catalan League match and qualified for the Korac Cup.
“He would have been in the NBA if it hadn’t been for his knee problems,” explains coach Víctor Fandos. “I’ve seen him put baskets from the ground,” adds De Barnola, who died in 2019, emotional voice of the documentary, all emotion, which narrated other emblematic moments of Philipps, who also died in 2015: “We had a very important game against Breogán. That week Mike’s mother died, and he had to go to the United States. He came back on Friday and played on Saturday. He scored 49 points and we won”he comments.
The documentary has other protagonists, such as Santi Abad, who made his debut at just 16 years old and expresses his “love and affection” for Espanyol. Ángel Martín Benito, a coach at the time, saw it like this: “For me it is the missing link between Fernando Martín and the Gasols. He could have played in the NBA”. He made a career Abad in Real Madrid, Barcelona, Baskonia and came to play in the National Team.
But all those moments lasted a sigh. The club, chaired by Antonio Baró, canceled the project and sold it to Unipublic for 50 million pesetas (300,000 euros). Little by little the team was losing affection as it no longer had the support of the club. It ended in Granollers and a section that had been in force since the 1920s was shut down. “The best successes of Espanyol have not been given by football”, explains De Barnola. The witness of that history is picked up by the Sports Sections, which have managed in just three years for the basketball team to compete in the highest category of Catalonia. Basketball and Espanyol, a love that comes from afar.
