Lliga Catalana? Yes you read it correctly. In fact, every year, and this since 1980, four of the best ACB teams from Catalunya compete for this symbolic but highly important trophy. This year, the four teams (DKV Joventut, AXA FC Barcelona, Akasvayu Girona and Ricoh Manresa) played in Badalona.
In the semis, Joventut and Akasvayu had dominated largely their respective opponents. I had the possibility to see the match-up between AXA FC and “la Penya”. The young guns from coach Aito dominated this game easily behind a great performance of Rudy Fernandez who is coming back from his two last games in the Eurobasket where he suffered a bit. But what was the most intriguing about this game was the fact that Badalona played at one moment during several minutes with a back-court composed of Ricky Rubio, Pere Tomas and Josep Franch. Nothing special? I think yes, as these guys are born in 1990, 1989 and 1991. This was probably one of the youngest back court’s ever in professional basketball.
On Sunday, the Final was also a easy win for Badalona. The Final’s MVP Rudy Fernandez scored 25pts and had also 3 assists and 4 steals. And again, we could see the very young and talented back court in action, even if the three were not aligned any more at the same time.
The weekend was also a possibility to see for the first time Jan-Hendrik Jagla in game action with his new team. After a nice game on Saturday, he seems already to become a fan favorite as you could see some Jagla “messages” in the crowd.
