Vicenç Palmer Estates (Palma, 1977) was his father, former player and former president of the CB Molinar, who inoculated the basketball poison. His family’s group of companies had always maintained a close relationship with sport and in those ties, mostly in the form of sponsorship, is the origin of Palmer Basket Mallorca. A project that was born in 2022 in Llucmajor, with a team in the EBA League, and that last weekend, in a Palau de Son Moix in Flames, went up to second Feb, the prelude to an ACB that has never penetrated in Mallorca. Only a few days after the ascent, announces that the machinery of the next season is already on and that in the medium and long term there are reasons to dream.
Has the great jump arrived earlier than expected or has it been easier than they expected?
“Fácil, at all.” Last year, for a long time, and even for many minutes in the last game we were in the EBA League. That capacity for resilience, adaptation and learning helped to understand what worked badly. There are no studies to be a good president. You have to surround yourself with a series of things and extraordinary people. From the first moment we were clear that there was a key piece in the gear that was the coach. We wanted leadership. To hire Marco Justo, rather than analyzing I knew technically and tactically, who presupposed yes, I soaked myself from all his press wheels, which helped me a lot to understand his philosophy. Last year in preseason we looked like the Lakers and then our American was injured and everything worked badly and manage the concern was very difficult. This year we lost several games in preseason but the coach was very clear that we were going to grow 1% more a day and little by little it started to roll and the season has evolved from ten.
Talk about Marco Justo. Have you let you rest after the rise?
“The office rests little.” I always tell you that things are to celebrate and since Saturday, that we celebrate it, we have already been in contact precisely to start rethinking key aspects of next season, because there is a bigger jump from second to first than from first to ACB. You have to professionalize areas and create a solid structure to accommodate more sponsors and fans. It is a great responsibility.
Will there be many changes?
—There are players with a contract in force and there will be a base that will continue. If we want different results we have to make changes yes or yes. Not for nothing, but because it goes with the category in which you develop. That will be in charge of sports management and coach, who are already glimpseing what we have to change to improve. I different two major areas that must be segment. One is business and the other is sports, and I can contribute much more in the first than in the second. We must work so that the team has a wrapping that attracts people. There is much to do there, and this does not stop.
Can you dream that Mallorcan basketball breaks that roof that has never overcome and has an ACB team?
“We are very dreamy and we dream of your eyes open.” It is a human condition. I always say in our presentations that the cathedral was built in 400 years and that we do not have to take so long. Anyway, we know where we are, where we come from and what are our obligations. I want a sustainable project, that is not a day flower, that we do things consistently, with sanity, that we know where we are. I always speak of the third rule: the institutional part, that of the sponsors and that of the partners. With that you have to support 90% of the budget. Money must be created. And we need a lot of help at all levels. In the case of the sponsor, it has to be a friend and if you do not understand and live the project it is difficult for you to have it in the long term. And without them, they give you that lung, it is not sustainable.
The ACB, is it a dream or a goal?
“when a climber starts up the mountain the top has it clear.” The Mallorcans who love basketball know that we have lacked that. Menorca has had it, the Canary Islands have two … we must also say that we have failed the lucky factor, such as the prohalation with Cáceres or Iberojet in 2019 in Bilbao. What is clear is that the island wants basketball. From here, with depersonalized projects, integrators and with the ability of the island, tomorrow, without a doubt, there may be an ACB project.
How many times had I imagined seeing the Palau as was on Saturday?
“Honestly, never … not only because of how full she was, but because of the environment.” I was recently invited to Palma Futsal-Barça and told my wife and son: what cool, right? What this energy should be in the pavilion. And since we left Cáceres, partiards because they painted our face a little, we knew we had to reverse it and start moving so that Moix won the second leg. That looked like a Greek field. It was a unique, magical atmosphere. We enjoy it very much. That is what we have to get. We won the game, which was the important thing, and we verified that Mallorca wants basketball.
They recently had an act with Rudy Fernández. Is there no option to get involved in the project?
-Hopefully. He has been one of the most important athletes in the history of Balearicas and hopefully he could do it in some way altruistic, selfless, management. It is something that happens more and more. We have a very good relationship with your family for a long time because we have been sponsors of your campus and hopefully help us to take another step, to be as in an ambassador of a project to reach the top. Marc Gasol already did in Girona, for example. That positions you on the map and would be very important.
The palmer has climbed and now the fibwi can do it. Does Mallorca have capacity for two clubs in such a high category?
“I think so.” Burgos has two, Canary Islands two in ACB. The competition is very good when it is known to generate correctly. This year there have already been two in the second and it has gone well. And in the first, if the Sant Antoni also goes up and maintains the Menorca can be up to four of Balearic Islands. Everyone has to maintain their philosophy and give it normality.
Did anyone congratulate him from Fibwi Palma for ascent?
“Yes, yes.” Its president congratulated me, Guillem (Boscana), Jordi Mulet, also did it in networks … In the end, this is sport and if we want to move values, integration and others, the first we have to do it are the leaders. The elbows, on the track. And beyond sports rivalry, which is obvious, relationships are cordial. We wish you good luck, such as Sant Antoni or Menorca.
If there is an Fibwi-Cáceres final, who would it go with?
“I’m always going with Mallorca’s team, although Cáceres also has a record and has fought a lot.” That wins the best.
With Mallorca, which has a property that has maintained a close relationship with basketball, has no possibility of collaboration?
“We have the doors open for everyone.” And if something better comes so that there is a more ambitious project, Palmer and the Palmer family have no problem taking a step to the side. But it has to be better because I’m not going to release the helm if there is no really serious behind. In my case, I don’t close anything.
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