15min has already written about the sensation in the Spanish basketball league playoffs.
Tenerife “La Laguna”, which finished eighth in the regular season, eliminated Real Madrid, which was first in the regular season, in the quarterfinals.
The Tenerife team, where Rokas Giedraitis played until his injury in early May, won the series 2-1, celebrating victories in both games in Madrid.
“Real” could not rely on injured big men Eddy Tavares, Alex Len, Usman Garuba, but the Tenerife team also lacked four important players.
Now, AS, a newspaper close to the Madrid team, writes that the future of “Real” coach S. Scariolo will be decided after the Royal Club presidential elections – Florentino Perez and Enrique Riquelme are competing in them.
“Sergio Scariolo’s future is on thin ice,” wrote the Madrid sports daily.
Last year, “Real” signed a long-term contract with S. Scariolo, who previously coached the Spanish national team and achieved impressive results with them, including the 2022 European champions title.
S. Scariolo, who previously worked in the “Toronto Raptors” staff, stated that he was coming with NBA-style working methods.
Martynas Pocius, a Lithuanian, and Sergio Rodriguez also work in the “Real” sports management division. A difficult decision also awaits them, as “Real”‘s season was turbulent.
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Despite expensive stars and many players with NBA experience, “Real” was long in the middle of the Euroleague table until they finished stronger and ended the regular season in third place, collecting one more win than Kaunas “Žalgiris”, which was fifth.
“Real” reached the Euroleague final, where they lost to Olympiakos Piraeus after a tough fight.
“Real” won the Spanish league regular season, but it ended with five consecutive losses. Out of the last eight games in the national championship, the Madrid club lost as many as seven.
The most painful setbacks came this week in Madrid, where “Real” fell to the Tenerife team, which had to acknowledge the superiority of Vilnius “Rytas” in the semifinals of the FIBA Champions League a few weeks ago.
“This is a moment when no one can have clarity or a basis to draw proper conclusions,” S. Scariolo explained after the fiasco in the league quarterfinals. “That moment must come with patience and analysis, not focusing on the result, but understanding basketball and team dynamics. We will be dealing with that in the coming weeks.”
The 65-year-old Italian also addressed the fans: “We apologize for all the mistakes we may have made. Obviously, we apologize to the group of fans who supported us throughout the year, who were always there. We are disappointed, mostly for them. This is a moment to learn, to congratulate our opponents, and also to start preparing for the next season with calm and clarity.”
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