Yesterday's dreams, tomorrow's hopes

So much has been said about it that the analogy of the train that passes through our lives and does not return has lost its strength. Quotations are to fill our minds with false convictions, for there is one for every state of mind and will that one wants to pursue. It is true that opportunities in human life do not abound, but there are loves that return, jobs that return and congruencies that repeat themselves cyclically. Basketball does not escape this truth and although it is difficult to achieve dreams, they can leave and return.

To do this you just have to be constant, persist in the attempt with work, faith and humility and sometimes life will reward you with that train that you thought will never return. At least three of the players who participated in the ACB Academy by AEEB believe so, they are Luis Ferrando, Carlos Martinez and Emil Savic, three young people who have been able to feel what is high competition basketball playing in Europe and Endesa League and now continue fighting to make this is not a passing dream. The three of them are looking for opportunities like those offered by the academy created by the ACB and the AEEB to progress in their careers. They know that what they have experienced is as beautiful as it is complex, in a certain way they feel the fortune they have already experienced, but they are young and their ambition is comparable to their talent, so they want to experience again the sensation they felt one day.

Just as no one forgets their first time, no player forgets their first match as a professional. It's a special feeling that usually lasts a few seconds and the sporting result is an anecdote, but what you experience those moments last forever. Moment that is even more special if you have the fortune to debut Euroleague and Liga Endesa, the two main competitions in Europe. Carlos Martínez knows that he will never be able to stop visualising the day in which Buesa Arena applauded his entry to the parquet. "I remember the Buesa Arena of the big events: full, cheering as always and against the team that at that time was the reigning Euroleague champion, the Olimpiacos. It was very special. It's like the first big step, although you know it only means that and that the road ahead will be long and complex, putting on the first team jersey is something you've been dreaming about since you started. I remember with intensity the moment when Ibon Navarro came up to me and told me to get ready, that I'm going out.

With the same emotion, but with a very different atmosphere, Luis Ferrando remembers how he made his debut in Europe. It was when he didn't think about it and almost preparing the Fallas of 2017. However, he changed a few days of celebration and firecrackers in Valencia for nothing more and nothing less than playing a Eurocup semifinals and in front of thousands of Hapoel Jerusalem fans who never chanted his name ... rather the opposite happened. "From that match I remember coming out of the tunnel and listening to thousands of Hapoel fans booing us, the atmosphere was deafening and from the first wheel of entries the fans at the foot of the track insulting us and shouting among other things "Fuck you Rafa" and "Fuck you Fernando". Then the game began and went on the same, Pedro had to take us almost to half track for the dead times because nothing could be heard on the bench and even the medical body had to ask for security so that nothing would happen. Then the moment arrived, we had already given the game for lost when, suddenly, Pedro turns, points to me and tells me to enter the track. I reacted in such a mechanized way that we have to get you up right away and go to the table, but when time stopped and I saw Sam come to me, I realized for the first time that he was really going to enter the court. It reminded me of that Nike announcement about football where you see everything in the first person, I remember coming in and seeing Sam walking towards me with the background out of focus and the feeling that everything was throbbing, it seemed like a dream, that image that you repeat in your head at night when it's hard to sleep and you start imagining things. "

Luis, a player with personality and who cared little that his player's card barely counted miles in the can competition and days later had the virtue that always accompanied him to fight each ball with indifference of the opponent, something that did not like Curtis Jerrells, his opponent that day. "It was the third game of the semifinal and Pedro took me out at the end when everything was decided, debut in Fonteta was spectacular and more with an atmosphere like the one that had that day, if you add everything to a kid who nicknamed the racket on top of his team ... happens what happens. First defense and Curtis Jerrells turns his back to me to protect the ball, I had clear that I had to try to make one of mine: I put the hand and I pitaron foul, but I still think I touched the ball perfectly. The "chicken foul", he says. "Once the foul blew, Pierre and Romain came to cheer me up because they liked me to go out and squeeze like I did on the coaches, and it was a tremendous feeling that Fonteta was wrapping me up by reproaching the referee for having whistled the foul. But of course, Curtis was stung that a "chicken" didn't respect him, so to speak. He didn't lack motive, so in the next play he took the free side of the block and made a tackle and then squeezed me during the ball climb. When the game was over he hit me in the hand and nodded his head for approval... or so I think. I'll never forget that first night at the fonteta."

That same day was special for another Valencia Basketball player and it was Emil Savic's turn to make his debut, who also saw another dream come true. "It was the last match of the semifinal. Being this an important match I did not expect much and had no hope, so I only enjoyed the front row trying to learn as much as possible. One thing I remember perfectly is the pre-match training. I was doing a shooting session and as soon as I finished I went to stretch under the basket. When I got up and turned around, Amare Stoudemire, one of the stars of the NBA, who was playing there at the time, appeared. He said: 'I like you, you're going to be a Great player just keep working'. Something unforgettable."

                                                                                                                                           (ACB Photo/J. Juárez)

THE LONG ROAD THAT FEW KNOW

Obviously talent and work would be at the top of this pyramid of success, but no one can forget that without a pinch of luck nothing of what they lived could have existed. For Emil Savic, if anything, the road was longer and quieter, because it was part of his native Croatia, where so many children dream of emulating one of the great names that illustrate the history of Croatian basketball. "In Croatia I played for KK Rudes, a small club made up of almost 12 players who lived in the same part of Zagreb. We went to a tournament in Spain where Estudiantes, Fuenlabrada, Torrelodones, Real Madrid and ourselves participated. That's where the Torrelodones coaches saw me. As soon as I arrived in Croatia I got a call from the Serbian coach who was working there at the time. They told me they were interested and would like me to play with them. I thought it was a good opportunity. When we arrived in Torrelodones the first year was quite hard because basketball was different: faster and more physical. Even so, we were fifth in Spain," he says. The following year he continued his projection when he beat Real Madrid and was elected MVP of the Madrid championship. From that year the newspaper library, which is Internet, keeps one of his baskets turned into a highlight and which also served to attract the eyes of many scouts who already had his name in their notebooks. He signed for Valencia Basket where I will recognize that "I learned a lot but it wasn't my moment yet because the level of players there was incredible". This season he travelled to Burgos hoping that his hard work would bear fruit and finally make his debut in the Endesa League. Curiously, it was against Real Madrid and although it was only 15 seconds, Savic will never forget the moment and the jokes with which the veterans usually give away to every newcomer. "Epi put me in and I took two shots. After the season, I'm still hesitating that nobody will beat my record in shots per second". Despite the lack of opportunities, Savic appreciates the year lived and the memory that leaves him living with players and coaches. "Epi has done a great job being his first season in the elite, having a lot of pressure from the Burgos. He has taught me how not to make mistakes and how to take advantage of my potential and my physique", he says.

Without so many kilometers, but with the same feeling of emigrant, Carlos Martinez has lived his brilliant career as a basketball player. As a youngster he had to leave his native Coruña attracted by the sports project offered by Baskonia, a happiness within reach of few but that hides a back that does not always throw the lights of fame. "It's complicated, especially at first. You leave your family, your friends, your city... you always have what we say there, but you have a dream and dreams are not easy nor do they come alone; you have to go out and look for them. I always had it very clear and my parents, my sister and close people always supported me and supports me to get it. I am very lucky and I am and I will be very grateful".

In Vitoria, Carlos had a master's degree in basketball teaching with some of the best recent coaches. Scariolo, Ivanovic, Navarro ... the list is long, and of each and every one of them, the eaves can not, but save great lessons that will accompany him in his immediate future. "All the coaches I have worked with have contributed to a greater or lesser extent to my incipient sporting career. I have been lucky enough to learn from great people and names in basketball, such as Ibon Navarro, Sergio Scariolo, Dusko Ivanovic, Moncho Lopez, .... but I have always learned from the experience and know-how of everyone. With no intention of excluding anyone, Carlos remembers with special affection perhaps the lesser known, but those who worked most in their training. "I remember my first team coach Luis Albeniz and his daughter, the great Iñaki Iriarte who has always been, is and will be like a "best friend" from whom to learn constantly, Juan Pedro Cazorla was always when needed, Alfredo Salazar with his always good advice...".

Luis' path was a two-way one because, trained in the Valencian basketball quarries, he emigrated to the United States for a year before becoming impregnated with the industrial character of Puerto de Sagunto and finally seeing his dream of playing in the Endesa League and Eurocup with Valencia Basket, the team of his youth, come true. "As the season began, I would have taken you for crazy if you had told me that everything that happened would happen later. I was very lucky and I managed to get into the dynamics of the first team the last months of competition, the whole team looked like a family in the locker room and felt like everyone treated me like one more, not just the "young man who comes to help". While inside, I could see the fall in Eurocup, as we all ended up destroyed after that fateful game, but I could also see how that group of friends did not stop believing and how we were, little by little, winning everyone to get the league. In the dressing room was lived in a brutal way and to celebrate with them as if it were the same squad, is one of the most incredible moments of my life today." It is an unforgettable memory and he is especially grateful to "Pedro, Jaume and Juan as coaches and the players, with special mention to Sam, Pierre, Romain, Luke and Antoine".

Luis Ferrando has not lacked teachers and mentors in his short doctorate among professionals and puts special mention in the figure of Pedro Martinez and Sam Van Rossom. "Pedro has been the one who has marked me the most. He gave me confidence from the first training, where I came simply because they needed players, but I ended up going to train, even if it was already 12 because he wanted it to be. Even during the playoffs he told me to be on the bench with the others even though I wasn't called up, because I was already one of them. But, above all, I will always remember the moment after winning the league in the hallway before entering the dressing room, I thanked him for everything he had done for me to which he replied: 'you are part of this too, so be very proud because you have helped us a lot to achieve this'. After a coach of that calibre tells you that, I can assure you that at that moment as a player you can't aspire to more." Less protocol was the relationship with the Belgian Sam Van Rossom who even gave him some real professional shoes in his first season. "Thanks to him I've felt in the group every year and thanks to him I've learned a lot on the pitch. He's been the one I've faced the most in training and thanks to that he's made me improve a lot, making me see what a complete all-terrain base should look like," he says.

The three players have had experiences to tell their children and grandchildren, they feel fortunate because they all know that besides being good, a player must be lucky to know the reality that they lived first hand ... and yet their journey is not over. Rather, it is beginning and in one way or another they want to return to those moments of maximum happiness.

Luis Ferrando has lived two years between the charter flights of the first team and the family car or the EBA league bus. He has taken lessons from great bases like Antoine Diot, Sergi García and Guillem Vives and now wants to put them into practice. "After passing through the ACB Academy I hope to find space in some team in LEB to continue playing at the highest level and try to gradually move up the category. You have to always aim for the highest, otherwise you'll never have a chance to get there," he says.

In LEB Gold is where this year has been able to see Carlos Martinez. Along with Jenaro Diaz suffered and enjoyed a complex season in Clavijo that, despite everything, has served to enjoy the minutes and opportunities that every young person needs. "The LEB Gold is always a competitive and tough league. On a collective level was not as good as we would have liked, the bottom was very even. At the individual level I have taken a step forward. In the middle of the second round a small injury slowed me down a bit the good pace I was, but I would value the season in positive individual," he says. Aware of the opportunity that was the ACB Academy by AEEB squeezed the experience to the maximum because he understands that "being able to enjoy the know-how of Pablo Laso, Txus Vidorreta, Nestor Garcia and Gustavo Aranzana is a luxury for any player." On the other hand, the treatment has been excellent and the organization unbeatable. With his talent and acquired knowledge he knows that "now I have to prepare myself as best as possible to start next season, I will work hard as always to make another small leap and dedicate effort to improve physically before the start of the season."

Emil Savic's destiny will surely be different, but the goal will be different from that of his two team mates. "After participating in the Academy I think I have taught my talent and my abilities as a player. I took a lot of the opportunity I was given, especially in the games and I hope I will continue to grow to show my highest level in the elite," he says. Being in the Endesa League is every player's dream, they've tried it, but they still close their eyes today and dream of reliving those moments again. "It's something that would make me very excited, I want to be and remain prepared for when the time comes to show that I can play with the best. With effort, work, confidence and patience I hope it arrives," says Martinez. "I think that all young people want to be in an ACB team simply because it is the highest level of basketball that exists in Spain and also in Europe. I think I'm on the right track and I won't be able to make a difference in the ACB at all," Savic concludes. The pride of his words, the conviction of his intonation and the strength of his assertion represent the best endorsement of the ACB Academy by AEEB; a place of learning for new promises, but also a place for dreams.