Javier Imbroda, the coach who opened the door to the Spanish basketball legend

"Turning the game around, like so many times,"

(Melilla, 1961) used to reply when they were interested in the battle of his life, the one he waged against cancer, with the good face he always kept for every complicated moment.

Just a few weeks ago, during the break of the Copa del Rey final, the coach received a heartfelt tribute, with the absolute dedication of the Granada stands, the one that housed all of Spanish basketball, of which he was a benchmark.

An epilogue of pure emotion.

Because although politics and his beloved Andalusia attracted all the good things of his conciliatory character in his last years, Imbroda was eminently a man of basketball, of sports.

History of Unicaja de Málaga, whom he began training, after his journey at Colegio La Salle, when it was still Maristas, in 1984, and ended up leading to the ACB runner-up a decade later, with that non-triple by

.

Also coach of Real Madrid, in a terrible year, the 2002-2003 season and, before that, Spanish coach at the beginning of what was the golden age, bronze in the Eurobasket in Turkey and fifth in the 2002 World Cup in Indianapolis, the first

tournament

, that of the imperishable victory against the USA Team.

Perhaps the simplest task of his entire career will remain forever, that of making way for talent.

The merit of him, doing it without trauma, with the naturalness of someone who surrenders to the blessed audacity of the generation that was going to change everything.

Imbroda was the man with whom Pau Gasol,

and company landed in the senior team -only

, in the 2000 Games with

, of whom Imbroda was an assistant, advanced to his generation-, a privileged task that he knew how to channel with mastery.

With the support of veterans like

, aware of what was coming, they integrated those who would soon be world champions.

After that medal, on the crest of his wave, Imbroda landed on the then turbulent Real Madrid bench to replace

.

At that time galactic only in football, marked by recent failures, a limited budget and the continuous comparison with his history.

It was

the person in charge of presenting it, but soon things went wrong until the final catastrophe: the whites finished 10th in the ACB, not even in the playoffs.

It was the worst season ever, also falling in the first round in the EuroLeague.

He ended up dismissed -"I felt lynched", he said- and did not return to training until 2006 -during that time he worked as a commentator on TVE- to save Valladolid from relegation, something he could not do later with Menorca, in his last journey as a technician.

The legend of Imbroda speaks of 605 games in ACB -he had had another stage in Caja San Fernando, with which he reached the final of the Copa del Rey in 1999 and was runner-up in the League, for 17 seasons, of 29 as national coach and of some bizarre brushstrokes, such as when he was an assistant to

's Lithuania at the Barcelona Games.

That bronze was cemented in his good relationship with

and a Sabonis who already lived in Malaga: Imbroda was recruited to be

's second .

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• Real Madrid

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