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Valencia’s basketball miracle

With three straight victories within a week, Valencia shocked Real Madrid 10 days ago and won the ACB title, for the first time in the club’s history, beating the defending champions (3-1) and making history.

What a great season this was for Valencia, as the Spanish club made the surprise and won the championship, while they also reached the Final in both the Spanish Cup and the Eurocup.

The team’s former coach, Pedro Martinez (2017 Eurocup Coach of the Year), created a roster full of versatile players that could offer decent solutions on both ends of the floor as well as adapt to his playing style.

Consequently, the squad was making decent performances in all competitions and was constantly considered one of the favourites to go all the way to the end, both in the ACB and the Eurocup.

And that exactly what they did, as they lost to Real Madrid in the Spanish Cup’s Final and Unicaja Malaga in the Eurocup’s Final (in a disappointing way), respectively.

However, they stood tall and eliminated both Barcelona and Baskonia in the league’s playoffs to advance to the Finals, where they prevailed over the “Whites” to claim their first-ever championship title.

Especially in their home court, Valencia’s players were unstoppable and destroyed their opponents, who ran out of energy and couldn’t fight back.

Fernando San Emeterio (All-Eurocup Second Team), Boyan Dubljevic (2017 ACB Finals MVP, all-Eurocup First Team) and Rafael Martinez were among the club’s best players during the season, while Sam Van Rossom, Antoine Diot and Romain Sato also had a key role in Martinez’s tactics.

With San Emeterio, Dubljevic, Martinez and Guillem Vives signing new contracts with the club, Valencia looks ready to be ultra competitive next year too, as the team will return to the Euroleague for the first time since 2014.

Euroleague
Photo: Euroleague

However, the departure of coach Martinez may change the plans, with Jesus Vidoretta being appointed as his replacement. So, what remains to be seen is what changes Vidoretta’s arrival will bring to the squad’s playing style and tactics.

Although Valencia have acquired the 20-year-old Icelandic center, Tryggvi Hlinason, more changes to the active roster are expected for the new Spanish champions, who want to play even better next season, both in Spain and Europe.

That said, Valencia ended the season in a brilliant way and they now have their sights set on enhancing their roster’s quality in order to be competitive in all competitions next year.

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