15 years had passed and another 19 had to pass. This Monday marks the 25th of that milestone for Real Madrid, which at the time was its eighth European Cup ('lasismo' arrived and there are already 10 ...), as a islet in its history, the only one without connection with before or after . And, above all, with a proper name. That was the Arvydas Sabonis European Cup. Although...

It was also, of course, that of the young Zeljko Obradovic , that of Joe Arlauckas ... "And that of the quartermaster", as José Miguel Antúnez, the base of that strange Madrid, who started in the initial quintet in Prince Felipe from Zaragoza with Javi García Coll or Ismael Santos, where José Lasa or Pep Cargol -Biriukov, the captain, did not dispute a minute- were decisive in their deaf work from the bench to measure against an Olympiacos that "was a great team". Volkov, Eddie Johnson, Fassoulas, Tarlac, Sigalas, Nakic ...

At the age of 24, the 'Sabas' who had landed in Valladolid in 1989 when the USSR finally allowed him to leave, accompanied by his inseparable Valdemaras Chomicius, had all the suspicions of a downhill race due to serious injuries in the Achilles. And yet, Pucela was a sanatorium, the previous step to Real Madrid. The previous step to the NBA . Two Leagues and a Copa del Rey in white, but something was missing. "It is done. I was chasing him, I needed him, finally, "he confessed to Nacho Calvo's microphone as soon as he finished. "He was going to death to win the European Cup, because he had come to Madrid for that," says Antúnez, who, like all that group, had to adapt to the giant, to wait for him, to look for him, to block him ... everyone had their hobbies on the court. He liked to receive on the left side and well above, no chopped passes. I came from an Estu in which the slogan was that he did not stop and with him you had to raise your foot, involve him. Because it was unique », he details.

«He scored 23 points that day, almost without fail, and I, 16. Still, we do not feel responsible for anything . Winning did not depend on us, but on everyone », recalled Joe Arlauckas for this newspaper a few years ago. «I knew that I had to go out, play, score points and defend. That was my job, like others had another. In the end, the most difficult are the first 20 minutes and the last three, in which you get a little nervous. That afternoon, not so much, because when there were more or less three minutes left, we won by more than 10 », explains the American, who had signed two years earlier Ramón Mendoza del Taugrés.

Also two years earlier, against Boza Malkjovic's Limoges in Piraeus, Real Madrid had strangely run out of wind in the sails in the semi-finals. Another element more than uniting anxiety, an unbearable backpack of the pressure of an entity that was never understood without the maximum continental title. "I think that was the hardest day of my sports career," admits Antúnez the general desolation in Athens. But that was also the lesson recorded on fire. The first stone of the eighth.

Limoges himself was the first step in Zaragoza (62-49). Days before, Sabonis himself had made one of the games of his life, the 66 of evaluation against Coren Orense (32 points, 27 rebounds ...), still an insurmountable record in the ACB. But Madrid had also lost calamitously in Girona against Valvi. “The days leading up to the final were difficult. We beat Limoges and we were 40 minutes away from winning the European Cup ... », remembers Arlauckas. For Antúnez, the key was the mentality, the week of previous concentration in the old Sports City, a defense without gaps, all studied in detail by the magician Obradovic, who as a good recent base there was nothing that escaped his mind.

But the day before the big date, Zeljko himself suddenly took off another genius that was going to be left for the history books. "Suddenly, without warning, he knocked us out of concentration. He took us to eat at a restaurant in Zuera [Las Galias], a few kilometers from Zaragoza, oblivious to everything. For a while we thought about something else, it took pressure off us, ”recalls Antúnez of that walk among orchards, as a year earlier Zeljko had taken Joventut to the Tel Aviv zoo just before the final.

That Holy Thursday, with a white majority in the stands of Zaragoza, the final was not a walk, but almost. From 20-8 (38-28 at halftime), with Sabonis dominating, with Santos deranging Johnson (best sixth man in the NBA in 1989) ... "We left convinced that we won." "That group of players and coaches were a family," acknowledged Sabas himself, who had conquered one of its summits. 73-61 final, with that imperishable mate from Cargol that closed the event. "It was not a nice game, but it's the least of it," summarized Miguel Ángel Martín on TVE. "It goes to Mariano Jaquotot , an impressive man," Obradovic dedicated to the man who had signed him, who died of cancer before the start of the season. The genius had conquered, again the first time, his third European Cup with the third different team. He had just turned 35 then.

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