The president of the FEB takes stock and looks to 2023 with the optimism of the good health of Spanish basketball
MADRID, 1 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB), Jorge Garbajosa, took stock of the year just ended and highlighted the good moment of basketball and his “home”, a Federation that wants to be the “best in the world” in a 2023 that it becomes a centennial
“The centenary is a perfect and wonderful excuse. First, to look back and recognize that if we have reached where we are in 100 years, it is thanks to so many, many, many who have made the effort they have made. And second, for basketball to break a roof”, he said in a video published by the FEB.
“We have a lot of activity, let’s say ordinary, we have to prepare for the World Cup, the women’s European Championship but we want everything to have a playful, eye-catching, promotional look like has never been seen before in sports in our country,” he added in the interview published on new Year’s Day.
Garbajosa recalled the challenge they have to be the “best federation in the world”. “I proposed a quite important challenge, which was to reach the centenary year as the best Federation in the World. And we arrived with significant economic stability, a commitment from our sponsors that allows us to be very balanced, very stable and ambitious with respect to the future. With a united basketball, respecting each one of the decisions and discrepancies of the whole world”, he said.
“With our leading teams in training, with a hopeful future, our growing competitions, with the largest number of referees with FIBA ??licenses in history. And the centenary is coming. It is very ambitious, it will be very stressful for the entire team of the FEB, but I would love it if on December 31, 2023 we could say that Spanish basketball has taken a step forward through the centenary ‘platform’,” he added.
In addition, the president of the FEB highlighted an “exceptional” relationship with the ACB. “With the ACB League, the relationship is exceptional. Here there are no clubs and Federation, here there is basketball, and we have to make it grow together, each one contributing from their own responsibility. As its president, Antonio Martín, likes to say, and I make his words my own, there is only one basketball, and as long as we follow this maxim, I am convinced that we are going to grow and grow”, he commented.
Garbajosa, who also thanked the sponsors for their commitment, hoped to act as a driving force for basketball to continue to grow. “We have to try to be driving forces, by collaborating with all the organizations. I’m not looking for any personal recognition, but for me to be a member of the executive committee of the Spanish Olympic Committee, of FIBA ??Europe, of the FIBA ??Central Board, of the Competitions Commission , that all our managers are in different commissions of any organization, it is not a matter of ego, it is a matter of collaborating”, he stated.
“If the FEB, as a benchmark for sport in Spain and basketball in the world, can help or contribute to growth, we will be there. We only compete on the field, in everything else we are partners in pursuit of a common good” he added.
In addition, Garbajosa referred to the U-19 Women’s World Cup that Madrid will host. “We want to make a U19 Women’s World Cup that draws everyone’s attention. We want it to be a World Cup that is similar to the U17 in Malaga in terms of public attention, impact. And I am convinced that WiZink is going to be that extra point that sometimes we need to call the attention of our fans, apart from the daily work with our competitions”, he commented.
Lastly, the top leader of Spanish basketball valued the withdrawal of Pau Gasol’s Lakers jersey, which will take place on March 7. “The withdrawal of Pau’s shirt by the Lakers could not be more deserved. Pau, apart from his performance on the pitch, and I won’t be the one to find out, he has left his legacy in all the places where he has passed, a very deep personal legacy,” he said.
“Seeing a Spaniard in the dome of the Lakers pavilion is very exciting, I’m not going to miss it, for the pride of the president, of a friend, of a teammate. All of Spanish basketball, all of the players, the boys and girls who wear a jersey to play basketball, they will feel the greatest pride to see one of their representatives at the top of the Mecca of basketball, such as the Lakers pavilion,” he concluded.
