The former coach who turned Real Madrid and the Spanish basketball, meets morning 90 years. “It was an advance.”
“too Hard”. “Scathing, ironic”. A “pioneer”. “Master.” “Revolutionary”.
that morning celebrates 90 years forever changed the history of Spanish basketball. Pedro Ferrándiz, genius and figure. An essential character. “I am not a sage, but I’ve invented a lot”.
From the same Alicante where some years ago he retired to rest and take care of his health, and broke more than 60 years ago an intrepid young man with 2,000 pesetas. “He says that he had played”, remembers Lolo Sainz, the person with the most shared. “I came to see the college, in the ‘Prosperity’, and I signed for the youth of Madrid”, who would be his ward on the track and on the bench, and ultimately his successor.
“Between Forester and Saporta built an empire”. 12 Links (of 13 possible), 11 Cups (12), and four European Cups (plus three final losses). Records that today the ACB forget, because that was the National League. For example, three years and three months without a loss, a mark unbeatable of 61 wins his run-between 1971 and 1974. “Came to put an order in for the first team. There was indiscipline. He applied an iron discipline and did very well. It was something that was at the time, but he was not a dictator. Based around delivery and engagement,” admitted Sainz. “He was ahead of his time, the first coach and the first manager in a truly professional way,” admitted Pepe Laso. “With Saporta made a perfect duo. Any decision sport was traded for Pedro, but Saporta was aware of everything and was the one that made official decisions. It was a game in the style of good cop and bad cop. Ferrándiz, demanding, and distant; Saporta, close and sympathetic,” writes Corbalán in his book ‘The basketball and the life’.
Hightower, Luyk, Brabender…
If there is something that continues to impress in the path of a Forester, even beyond the crowns, was their boldness. Without knowing English ventured to the US in search of americans were changed forever, not only the entity, including the Spanish basketball. In 1961, in Philadelphia, stole to Hightower, “the first superstar american who came to Europe”, to the Globetrotters: “Only stayed a campaign, but put us into the final of the European Cup, which had not never come”. A year later, he found Clifford Luyk in New York…. “The Spanish basketball changed completely with Luyk. With him we fear. I did not know anyone who defended the colors of Spain as he. In Mexico 78 was played to the knee”, proclaims Nino Buscató. He came to Minnesota in 1967 and has not brought a wardrobe as everyone expected, but a shy blonde who at first do not put, legend white, Brabender.
“he Was a pioneer in going to the summer campus in the US. It was a Persian market. There were many scouts as americans, few europeans. Had a very good relationship with coaches USA [Lou Carneseca]”, revealed Sainz. He himself sent in summer to the USA to complete his training in the sideboard. Also those signings gave for anecdotes. “I remember a bit terrible in the locker room of Holiday Cheerful with one of them, I will not say who. Physically it was a bad beast. And he was not himself, very angry. It was to him. And Peter still, holding on, doing the Don Tancredo. When it seemed that he was going to give a punch, and gave it to the ticket office. And nothing happened. And the american ended up succeeding”.
What was the method of the success of Forester? Sainz speaks of a requirement that is without equal: “Got home at four legs”. But also a sense of almost brotherly collective. “Outside was a horny, very nice. Helping you with any personal problems, or family. Required, but then more than compensated for it. For example, poor not to go to see the companion injured to the hospital.” The legend of the Madrid expanded beyond the locker room: “Managed to make a family. Training didn’t make friends, but trying to live together, to break the difficult moments. He invited us to eat, to take the aperitif at your house…”. “On the table, the sport is not occupied it all and that was a lot of blame Ferrándiz. Knew how to separate the territories, and hung upon us always talking of baskets”, reveals Corbalán.
“now you can play as the angels…”
Forester a long time ago already that you saved the tackle, but he enjoys, suffers, and also listens to the heartbeat of this new Madrid Pablo Laso that both reminds you of yours. “He had 20 years aburriéndome of the team, not already” admitted. Which reconquered Europe, which is reconciled with the DNA that you installed, and it proclaimed the ambitious kid of a “very poor family”, who had had to leave school to lend a hand at home, and before they are delivered to the baskets was buttons and touch typist. Resume your journey on the bench, that after lengthened in the offices, his list of achievements; also his judgments: “In Madrid there is nothing that is not overcome and win titles. Everything else is secondary. Now you can play as angels, but if you don’t win…”.
it Is the only Spanish with Antonio Diaz Miguel [says Corbalán: “over the years she learned to endure that Diaz Miguel opened the trail by a little after he snuck out. He always said, he would point to the players so that Antonio successfully exploited in the selection”]- in the Hall of Fame of the NBA; one that is in the Ramiro christened ‘Pizarrín’, which did change the rules of FIBA with the autocanasta of Alocén in 1962, which he fought in a sprint, quiet and “wild” for the first row of the aircraft, which convinced the very Frank to stop him, for the first time, to compete in Moscow in a national team.
In 1975, he himself put an end to his career in the game, “because the titles I got by the ears”. Went to the offices and left a successor well molded. “I always repeated one phrase: ‘be yourself’. I was already scouting: I had to spy on the other teams. And the turn I was subjected to a total test. Then trust me, the approach to the match I did,” recalls carlos Sainz, with whom the Madrid kept gaining: two European Cups more, eight Leagues…
recently returned to see. “I with my beer, he with his white wine. As always. I love him a lot.”
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