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The Zaragoza City Council paid tribute this afternoon to the Spanish basketball team that won the historic silver medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. The mayor Natalia Chueca presided over the event, which was also attended by the delegate councilor for Sports, Felix Brocateand the entire squad: Fernando Arcega, José Manuel Beirsen, Juan Antonio Corbalán, Juan Domingo de la Cruz, Juan Manuel Iturriaga, Andrés Jiménez, José Luis Llorente, José María Margall, Fernando Romay, Juan Antonio San Epifanio, José Ignacio Solozábal and the physiotherapist Francisco Binaburo. The late Fernando Martín was also part of the team.
Four decades later, the 1984 national team gathered in Zaragoza to celebrate an event that marked a before and after in the history of Spanish basketball. “You were a pioneering team, which achieved something that no one had achieved until then: an Olympic medal for our basketball,” recalled Natalia Chueca.
“Thousands of boys, girls, adults, people of all ages became interested in basketball thanks to you. An entire generation got hooked on this sport because you made us enjoy it like never before,” declared the mayor, who added that the consideration of Zaragoza as a ‘basketball city’ was born, to a large extent, “in that golden decade of the 80s.”
Natalia Chueca has also valued the union and friendship between the members of that team, which remains to this day. And he has highlighted his “effort, sportsmanship, camaraderie and teamwork, values that you have transmitted perfectly throughout your professional career, even after hanging up your boots.
At the event, some images of the historic 1984 final against the US team were projected, in which he played Michael Jordan and a constellation of NBA stars. In the Spanish team there were three representatives from Zaragoza: Fernando Arcega, Epi and the physio Francisco Binaburo.
The Olympic medal for Spain in basketball was a milestone that was not repeated throughout the 20th century. We had to wait until 2008, with another generation of great players who also reached the podium in 2012 and 2016.
