Laia Palau, the farewell to the commander of the women's basketball revolution: "Then everything was precarious"

• Games "My head is going to explode with emotions"

• Lucas Mondelo "These false accusations not only harm me, but also many women who are really abused"

"This is going to give," says

, holding back tears, betting on smiles on the day of the end of a life, not basketball. Because there was no one like her in the national team, two decades, 314 games, a legend without a hint of exaggeration. And under his precise passes and a unique competitive character, the entire transformation of women's basketball, the 'commander of the revolution' as he wanted to be baptized yesterday in his tribute. So, back in the late 90s, "everything precarious" - "there has always been a distance between them (the male) and us that is being equated" -; now, even failures (and controversies) are on the front pages: "We have put ourselves on the map."

In his farewell act at the FEB Museum in Alcobendas, because he said goodbye at the Saitama Super Arena on August 4, a bitter Olympic elimination that, were the members of the team that this week face the qualifying matches for the next Eurobasket, in the first call for

as a new coach after the

. Those who shared so much with Laia (

...), those who inherited the captaincy (

) and the calls to take over, the 'daughters of the revolution'.

Because when they were born and Palau started, their sport was so hidden that they had no references.

“For many years the FEB said that you had to bet on women's basketball and a long road has led to things very well done and to successes that have rebounded us all.

There is now a level of professionalism that is a great pleasure and that is a job well done.

Building is very complicated and destroying is very easy, let's keep adding things ”, claimed the Catalan.

Rodrigo JiménezEFE

In 1997 Laia played her first games with the Universitari de Barcelona.

At the time, there were 78,395 women's basketball licenses and only 12 clubs in the national category.

A cornered baby who today is an ambitious teenager, with almost twice as many federated (130,539, by far the most popular women's sport in Spain; football, for example, does not reach 80,000), a competition like the Endesa Women's League with 16 clubs, to which we must add the other 16 from the Women's Challenge League and 28 from the Women's League 2. And those matches that then had to be made adventures to watch, can now be followed nationally live on television ( one by Teledeporte, another by Twitter and the rest in streaming on CanalFEB every day).

Position in FEB

When Laia debuted in the national team, back in 2002 (preparation tour for the 2002 World Cup in China, her first major tournament), in the national record she looked like an oasis, comparable to the men's Olympic silver in Los Angeles, the continental gold of Perugia 93, in addition to the bronze of 2001. "When I arrived the competition was there, but the visibility and the repercussion were not so much and then the conditions were less", he explained about his beginnings. In these 19 years, Laia has won 12 medals: three European golds (2013, 2017 and 2019), three silver (the Rio 2016 Olympic, the 2014 World Cup and the 2007 EuroBasket) and six bronzes (two World Cups and four Europeans). ). She, however, stays with the experiences, with "the companions, with the people who are worthwhile": "Winning is very cool, but if you really know how to share it, it is what you have left.And it doesn't always work out. To think that the dragon is there and that there are many of us, makes it less scary ».

Laia, 42, is not retiring from basketball.

He will continue to play for Spar Girona at the first level.

But the national team, "my team par excellence", was his corner of glory.

No one has played with more matches (74) in the history of the European women's championships and with 10 appearances, they share the

historical record

with the mythical

(USSR).

"She is the person who has best understood being a basketball player," closed

, who wants her by his side in the Spanish Federation.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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