With the final horn in the Paok Sports Arena, a hell on the earth that could not burn the heart of an irreducible team, the … Bilbao Basket merged into an eternal hug. The miracle had come true and the title of the Europe CUP incorporated the name of Surne as the ninth winner of the second FIBA competition. A huge prize, of a significance still pending to be calibrated, which crowned a group of sufferers accustomed to fighting for pure survival, for being one of the 16 best of the ACB, with a more than adjusted budget, installed in the most extreme humility, in systemic austerity, finally taken off from its galeotes reality to take a walk through the clouds. They did it last night in Salonica, already a holy and pilgrimage place for the whole family of the Biscayan Basket, distinguished with unprecedented success that will be sculpted in marble for the rest of the times. The Miribilla franchise proudly looks the champion poster that must change the course of the club and ennoble its goals.
This is also understood by the president of Surne, Isabel Iturbe, who in a recent interview with this newspaper dared to imagine an ambitious future that yesterday manifested in all her splendor in Greece. “We want to start winning, to win something, fight for titles.” Five weeks after these words, framed in the celebration of the 25 years of life of the club, Bilbao Basket amounted to Olympus with its first professional trophy and on top continental, something that can only boast the BSR throughout Bizkaia. Beyond the adapted sport, and to assess in its fair measure what was achieved, in Euskadi just three teams have won an international award: the Bidasoa, European champion in 1995, the Baskonia, winner of the Euro Cup in 1996, and now the men in black with the Europe Cup in the showcases. After 20 games, nine rivals and almost 40,000 kilometers traveled, the pack of Lobos has entered the history books.
A little over four months ago, Bilbao Basket was recognized by the City Council as the “Villa Ambassador” just in the season in which he turns 25. Rarely an appointment has been so appropriate. «Many feats, battles, defeats, joys, economic tightening … but always standing. Going from the box to the BEC and now to Miribilla, without lowering our heads and with the force that sometimes provides us with steps back to take impulse, ”said the mayor, Juan Mari Aburto, during the gala in which the Surne received the credentials of his new” diplomatic status. ” Just 27 days later, more than 3,000 kilometers by road from home, the Biscays gave their city a European title. They have represented their name with dignity and honor, have passed it through the old continent and now dream of entering another dimension, friendlier and less austere.
The trophy conquered in the Boiler of the Paok is a reward for so many years of suffering, institutional and sports crises, economic problems, Russian mountains that led the team to unimaginable levels – play the final of the ACB and the Eurocup and also reach the quarterfinals of the Euroleague – and then throw it into the mud and leave it to the edge of the extinction. It should be remembered that Bilbao Basket was about to disappear, which was excluded from ACB for its ruinous economy and defaults and that shortly after it went down to the LEB. Then the ‘Return Operation’ began, with an important remove of debt and a responsible work in the offices. The team returned to the elite in a record time, in that memorable F4 in Miribilla, competed in the Cup, in the play-off for the title, tied comfortable permanence and now the trophy of the Europe Cup proudly looks proud.
-Winning mentality
From simplicity, sweat and success in the preparation of the template, a bobbin lace in which each euro invested is measured, the Surne has managed to be crowned in the second continental final in its history. The first, 2013 at the Eurocup, lost it in Charleroi (Belgium) against the Lokomotiv Kuban. Now the revenge has been taken and the honeys of success, which in a humble and hardworking house know Gloria.
From now on, it’s time to step forward and never look back again. Providing the sports direction of a greater financial muscle with the aim of not suffering in the ACB – complying with 1.3 million destined for the composition of the team is something that cannot be repeated – and aspiring to goals that have nothing to do with salvation, but with noble levels. If the salary experience should serve something, it is for Surne’s mentality to be definitely winner.
Both the club and its social mass have finally swallowed a pill of happiness, accustomed to losing, falling and getting up, attending the games with anxiety paintings, calculating distances with the red zone, celebrating when they are out of reach, on the mainland. Now they have an opportunity to enjoy, to finally feel winners, dream of better times and until they are higher in the mirror. It all started with the previous one in Lithuania against the Klaipeda Neptunas and ended last night in Greece, near Mount Olimpo, where the gods sleep. There, Bilbao Basket amounted for a while, the only survivor of a race that began with almost half a hundred throne candidates. It has been left alone there, at the summit, where the winds of change blow and model the figure of a champion team. The future is here, and is black, like Miribilla’s dreams.
