The return after the break of the windows for Unicaja has brought the triumph in Lleida in a match that the Malaga team won -perhaps too soon- and that the locals were able to recover by pushing and putting a large part of the Catalan team's style book. This has allowed them to achieve victories as resounding as against Kosner Baskonia or against Barça at the Palau Blaugrana, but, at the same time, they provide them with negative record and a place in the second section of the table.
I don't know whether to call the team an author. Melvin Ejim's current squadbut the truth is that, after the appearance of this club in 2012, the coach with the most seasons and who has led the team to the ACB League is Gerard Find. Young, from the city and who has his stamp imposed from the beginning, something that for the general public is palpable since his arrival in the first category.
What is good about it is also questionable because, at least as an opinion, there is the situation of sending James Batemon, his best man numerically speaking, to the bench and not counting on him again -discussion through- exclusively for a technical issue, in summary: a coach attack.
And the fact is that, despite the talk and demand of a club culture, and a seal that defines the teams as such, regardless of who is on the bench, whoever has that place rented is largely one of the cornerstones of the project.
I am not going to mention the departure of Zeljko Obradovic from Partizan or that of Ettore Messina from Olimpia Milan because to talk about the Serbian I stand up and salute first, but seeing that now Ibon Navarro has achieved his 200th victory in the Barris Nord with Unicaja's victory in the Barris Nord. the ACB Leaguebeyond what the sensations of recent years say, the figures also open the door to the room of illustrious members of the composer's bench.
The Vitorian, who arrived in February 2022, joined Javier Imbroda, Sergio Scariolo, Joan Plaza and Bozidar Maljkovic in his own right, having become the greatest winner of titles for the Los Guindos club, without losing sight of the fact that he can still continue to increase the list. Minor titles? I will not be the one to compare the Euroleague or the ACB League with the Copa del Rey or the FIBA BCL, but you could also ask the Real Madrid of the Copa del Rey or the Canarias of the FIBA BCL whether or not they cared about losing last year's titles to Unicaja.
Is Navarro at the same level as the rest? Without getting into too much, this club of ours has always been a free path for interventionism from the bench. Any of the four coaches mentioned left situations in which their criteria prevailed over what could be said from the club. As a different situation, neither the situation of the sports management is the same (although in some cases Juanma Rodríguez coincided at the head of it) nor much less the occupant of the presidency. Perhaps for this reason, the question now is to see over time, how to support it if the evolution of the team is not what is “required” because the normal thing would be to be patient in the evolution, to be clear that the project is different by a very high percentage. Here, taking into account that the mass that comes to the pavilion has almost doubled since the arrival of Ibon Navarro, we have many who only know the last idyllic era, and who, as one of those mentioned said: “This is not Disneyland.”
And I'm not going to applaud everything that comes from the bench, but I'm not going to deny all the good that the Basque coach has done since he arrived in Malaga, with his growth from a true team coven which the previous board boasted about. To the current one I recognize the good judgment in the renewal of the coach based on sensations, not results, and what I hope is that the day the departure arrives (which will come, for sure, and we will stay here as usual), we will have grown as a fan so that we recognize all the good things it gives us.
I hope to keep away the “coach attacks” that are so favorable to the benches (in all of them, not just in Unicaja). I would like to see a rabbit come out of the hat from time to time, as we used to do before, or perhaps it is a sign of the passage of time and change in our sport.
But above all, and although I know it is something personal, I would like to see Aritz many times in photos with his father, celebrating that Once again a great victory has been achieved. Congratulations, coach. Enjoy all this and whatever comes to you in Malaga.
