WITHCrowds of fans walked past the silhouettes of cranes and construction work around Barcelona's Camp Nou last Friday night. But they weren't there at the world famous football stadium. Instead, a sea of Barça shirts headed towards the Palau Blaugrana basketball arena. There was an expectant but anxious buzz in the air as the night marked a big event: real Madrid were in the city.
It is widely accepted that the greatest rivalry in basketball is between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics; between them they have won nearly half of all championships in NBA history. The Lakers and Celtics matchups of the 1980s transcended basketball and embodied different Americas: West Coast brilliance versus East Coast grit; flashy fast-break basketball against the fundamentals; and frankly, although perhaps sometimes too simplistic, Black vs white.
However, there are few contenders in world basketball that could rival the Lakers and Celtics in terms of cultural relevance, even if the standards of play are not exactly the same. Panathinaikos-Olympiacos in Greece comes to mind. The same can be said about the raucous matches between Red Star Belgrade and Partizan, as well as the fierce intercontinental derbies between Istanbul's Fenerbahce and Galatasaray. Another one that could compete with, and in the coming years even clash with, the Lakers-Celtics? Last Friday's game: Barcelona vs Real Madrid – basketball classical.
You've almost certainly heard of football. classical. This is possibly the biggest derby in the world and attracts about 650 million viewers. Like the Celtics and Lakers, the Barcelona and Madrid football and basketball teams are also the most legendary in their respective leagues. In basketball, they have won 58 Spanish league titles, and Madrid have dominated Europe for decades, winning 11 EuroLeague titles. biggest in history the continent's elite competition. (Barcelona has two.)
Tensions mounted as Friday's kickoff approached. In the long lines making their way into the stadium, there were chants about Madrid's history of cheating (in football, basketball, politics and God knows what else). Here, basketball is inseparable from football, and the rivalry exposes sociopolitical chasms that go back not only to the 1950s or 60s, as in the case of the Lakers and Celtics, but centuries ago. Barça football fans are still singing”independence!” at 17:14 minutes of the matches that marked the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, and with it the fall of Barcelona and abolition of Catalan political institutions under the absolutist rule of the Bourbons – back in 1714. Likewise the chants¡Puta Barca, Puta Catalunya! (“Whore Barça, Whore Catalunya!”) can still be heard at Madrid matches.
The two clubs played a role in Spanish history that is reflected in the modern rivalry. During the Spanish Civil War, Josep Suñol, Barcelona's president, was executed due to his Procatalan views on independence and is remembered as the club's “martyr president”. In fact, the first recorded basketball classical was played around midnight in Madrid in May 1942.during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, a regime that championed Real Madrid as a symbol of centralized Spanish nationalism and an international sporting ambassador. Just a few months ago, Madrid fans chanted “Franco, Franco” when new Argentinean Franco Mastantuono entered the field, which outraged many Catalans.
Football intensity classical also present in the basketball version. The heyday of the on-court rivalry may have been the Audie Norris-Fernando Martin battles of the late 1980s, where echoes of the Lakers-Celtics rivalry continue to this day. Madrid's Martin led Spain to a silver medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, while Barcelona's Norris, a former NBA player, made his own transatlantic comparison with Country in 2019: “I always compare it to the Lakers-Celtics rivalry. That's what helped the growth of basketball in the United States, and my fight with Fernando helped grow the Barca-Madrid rivalry.”
Last Friday, the Palau Blaugrana stands began to fill an hour before kick-off. The players warmed up, the air filled with the squeaking of rubber soles. The film crew sets up their equipment. The smell of hot dogs wafted through the stands. A group of excited teenagers arrived wearing Lionel Messi and Lamin Yamal T-shirts and began looking for their seats. This classical comes at a time of tectonic shifts in the landscape of European basketball. However, the two rivals will meet in the Euroleague. reports suggest they may switch to a proposed European league run by the NBA in the coming years. The NBA is reportedly considering launching in other major cities such as Milan, Munich, Berlin, Manchester, London and Paris, and is targeting a 2027 launch date.
In Europe, basketball teams are often subdivisions of soccer clubs. The Spanish Basketball Federation itself named Madrid and Barcelona “heirs to their football rivalry”. Some clubs have different sports divisions besides football and basketball. Here in the arena, jerseys of retired Barcelona greats from the basketball, handball and futsal teams line the walls, while the corridors of the Palau Blaugrana are lined with photographs of star players from across the Barça brand. On the hardwood court, faint outlines of futsal and hockey markings are visible.
This multi-sport club model may soon become more familiar to Americans. Whether it is the inclusion of already established giants such as Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich, or the creation of basketball teams for football giants – claims reports It could include AC Milan, Chelsea and Manchester City – multi-sport clubs likely to be present in any NBA-Europe league.
Last Friday the entire Barça family was present at the event. Club president Joan Laporta arrived and began shaking hands. The event is often attended by players from the city's football clubs, including Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Junior and Aurélien Tchouameni, while several players from Barca's handball team were also present. High in the stands, Barca fans, the Draxes of 1991, were already on their feet, whistling and chanting with the intensity of a football match. ultras. As kick-off approached, the stands filled with the colors of Barça and Catalonia, a blue-garnet wall streaked with red and yellow of the regional flag, signand supporters of independence Star. There could be as many football jerseys as basketball jerseys. And in Europe, many fans follow both the football and basketball teams of their club. Madrid is no exception, with a small but noisy road section filled on the far side. Their muffled screams echoed through the stadium before being drowned out by the Barca fans regaining home advantage.
Finally the warning came and the Palau Blaugrana erupted into a deafening whistle and roar. The lineup included Alex Len, making his Madrid debut, as well as Trey Lyles and Facu Campazzo, both former NBA players. Madrid has nine former NBA players, one of the best in the EuroLeague. According to Basket News. Barça have six players, namely Tomas Satoransky and Jan Vesely.
This is not surprising. The Real Madrid and Barca basketball teams have long been home to talented players. For many US NBA However, the one fans most associate with Madrid is probably Luka Doncic, the Slovenian superstar and likely future NBA MVP who signed a five-year contract with Madrid when he was 13 years old.
Draco jumped up and down, urging Barca on. But Madrid came away with five early 3-pointers. Madrid's Chuma Okeke, a five-year NBA veteran, threw a prayer from his end at the buzzer and watched it sink, adding to the feeling that Madrid couldn't miss. However, the atmosphere remained tense, football-like, deafening and filled with furious anti-Madrid chants as the Barça fans continued their relentless noise.
Later in the game, Madrid's lead increased to 17 and Barca fans began waving white handkerchiefs to express their displeasure. Lyles, in particular, delivers a fluid game, showcasing the one-on-one skills more common in a style more common on the other side of the pond. When the final buzzer sounded, Madrid had secured a 101–92 away win, their ninth in a row. classical victory. But could he become one of the last in the Euroleague?
It seems likely that we will soon be able to see classical games under the NBA logo. Perhaps one day we could even see Boston and Barcelona or Los Angeles and Madrid go head to head in an intercontinental competition. Who knows, as basketball is headed for perhaps its biggest shake-up in history? Whatever happens, for Madrid and Barca fans it will be a far cry from that midnight game in 1942, but never too far from the history and politics of the derby – wherever they play, in whatever league, the most important game of the season will always be classic.
