The 2023-2024 season in national basketball will start with a Classic. We won’t have to wait to see a Barça-Real Madrid match. It will be at the Sports Palace of Murcia on the occasion of the Endesa Super Cup (6:30 p.m.). It will be in the semi-finals and not in the final, as has happened in the last four campaigns, where the continuing white project and a renewed Barça team will face each other.with a debutant coach, as happened just a year ago on the other side, and four signings, three of them nationals with a consolidated career, and another, Jabari Parker, recovered for basketball, which is a complete unknown, as is also the case. It is the forecast of the match.
Campazzo’s return
The Azulgranas and Blancos will start the new season as they finished the previous one, where the former won the league by a resounding 3-0. Despite this, the Madridistas, who were previously Euroleague champions, have opted for continuity. They have not made revolutions, quite the opposite. They have opted for Chus Mateo, the coach who was in the eye of the hurricane the entire campaign and who managed to earn everyone’s respect with the continental title. The return of Facundo Campazzo after passing through the NBA and Partizan Belgrade is the only new face. The ‘old guard’ continues to rule the locker room with Sergio Rodríguez and Rudy Fernández, along with those who follow Edy Tavares, the most dominant center in European basketball, Mario Hezonja, Zanan Musa, Gaby Deck and Guerschon Yabuseleamong others.
Four high-profile signings for Barça
The azulgranas will arrive with their four brand new signings, the former NBA Jabari Parker, who has not played since January 2, 2022 after being number 2 in the 2014 draft, Willy Hernangómez, Joel Parra and Darío Brizuela. The club opted for Roger Grimau, with no experience on the ACB bench, to lead a group that includes Nico Laprovittola, Rokas Jakubaitis, Tomas Satoransky, Álex Abrines, Michael Caicedo, Oriol Paulí, Nikola Kalinic, Óscar da Silva, Jan Vesely and James Nnaji .
“We always want to compete at Barça”
“At Barça we always want to compete and win. We have known this since day one for many years. We can classify the match as a test or as whatever we want. It is true that the team yesterday – Thursday for the reader – carried out the first training session together, but we are prepared“, declared the Catalan coach, who points out about his rival that “they are a great team that has been together performing at a high level for a long time. And they have incorporated Campazzo, who already knows the house. That makes everything go more smoothly at the beginning of the season. shot than normal. We will have to be at a high level to compete,” he pointed out. “Barça has to be prepared to win. I always think that Barça is the favorite to win and from here we will see what happens. We are prepared and with all the excitement in the world.”
Grimau also wants to appeal to that feeling of rivalry that always exists with the real Madrid to get the best out of your team: “We arrived a little fairer than them, but there is a large group that continues from other years and that has played many times against Madrid. That is why this feeling of rivalry is very present and there are also players with synergies generated from the national team,” he stressed.
“I worry about mine”
Chus Mateo referred to the enthusiasm with which they face the new season, full of challenges for the whites: “It doesn’t matter if we win before or not or if we manage to be champions in the last five years because it is a new title that is at stake in a season that is very exciting,” said the Madrid player, who also noted that “it is the first official tournament and the first title at stake.
We are starting the season and, although we are not yet at the level that will be reached during the year, we face this Super Cup with great desire and enthusiasm to bring the trophy home.” Regarding Barça, he pointed out that “it is a new and different team, which lost high-quality players but incorporated others who also have tremendous quality,” also pointing out that “I am interested in taking care of my own business and I am focused on our players, who also have a lot of quality, playing together and as a unit.”