• 10 moments. "I didn't get up to lose":
  • Anniversary. 30 years of the death of Fernando Martín: "It was our James Dean"

"What a mess on the M-30!" Real Madrid players went to the Sports Palace. Between troubles and airs of tragedy, I expected that meeting against the CAI Zaragoza. Scheduled for 6:15 pm that Sunday, it was never going to be played. There was never more drama in a locker room than on December 3. Like a macabre script, between the usual smell of liniment and the pre-divided nerves, rumors and certainties were mixed in a time when information did not fly through the networks as is the case today; with the passing of minutes the fatality took shape. That of one of them. «Partners began to arrive. It was like a Russian roulette, ” Fernando Romay often remembers.

Fernando Martín had been suffering from tendonitis. His last game had played 15 days before, just 14 minutes on the track for these physical problems, against the IFA Granollers Group of Manel Comas , with the legendary Nate Davis and Claude Riley in front. Eighties basketball myths like Chichi Creus , who witnessed, unknowingly, the last time the white 10 wore short. But, like Quique Villalobos , also injured, both had an appointment on Goya Street, although they had permission to arrive a little later.

Martin began his third season after the return of the NBA with an obvious and growing disenchantment, although the arrival of George Karl to the bench, with his novel methodology, had returned some illusion to the pivot. Only a couple of months before he had seen his particular nemesis leave, that Drazen Petrovic with whom he had shared an unforgettable course for so many things. He had spent the morning of the day before at the INEF facilities with Paco López , physical trainer of his confidence. At night he went to dinner with his friends at El Molar. And then they took something in Father Damien. Both Paco López and those who shared that last evening with him remember his good mood. The reason was Jan , his five-year-old son, who in a few days arrived in Madrid - he lived in Israel with his mother, Petra Sonneborn -, to spend Christmas. He didn't see him.

Several lanes crossed

The last hours was Fernando in the family villa of Conde de Orgaz. After eating and after having a conversation with Jesús Abadía , who had been a physiotherapist in Madrid, he climbed the flaming red Lancia Thema with Ferrari engine, 215 horses, with game shoes. He joined the M-30 from the old N-II, heading north (not going straight to the pavilion). It was 3:20 pm that Sunday. He lost control, crossed several lanes circling the bell and collided with the Opel Kadett driving Ricardo Delgado , who was seriously injured. Speeding and a flicker to dodge a puddle were the cause of the tragedy. Martín was transferred to Ramón y Cajal, where he already entered a body.

Image of the car after the accident.

But in that locker room the news that arrived was still confusing. It already seemed clear the accident, its severity and that the fateful protagonist was one of them. When Quique Villalobos entered the race ... «The confusion dissipated as soon as I arrived. Antonio shot out, "the escort recalled, then a young newcomer who had made very good crumbs with the veteran:" For me it was God. And it is impossible for God to die. It was very sad.

Spain shook the news that Sunday afternoon as a slap of bitterness. The images of Telemadrid, which was going to transmit the encounter, of that bloody M-30 with scattered photographs of the player, of the two shattered cars, of chaos, marked generations. TVE interrupted a handball game of Atlético de Madrid so that María Escario announced the death of the myth.

The pictures of the burning chapel in the old pavilion of the Sports City - especially exciting was the arrival of his Barça rivals, including Audie Norris : «There are few things that I have had as clear in my life as I wanted to be in Madrid, I wanted to be for his family and I needed to be for myself »-, from his funeral on Tuesday in the rain and the game that that afternoon his teammates played against PAOK are part of the most unfortunate imaginary of Spanish sport. Still many, every December 3, shudder. «I fear these dates, they are all memories. It is the saddest day for Spanish basketball. And for me. Fernando was a great guy, ”says Lolo Sainz , his eternal coach excitedly.

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