The other clásico: Barcelona and Real Madrid’s rivalry thrives on the basketball court too | Basketball
SGroups of supporters marched past the silhouettes of cranes and construction works surrounding Barcelona’s Camp Nou last Friday evening. But they weren’t there for the world-famous soccer stadium. Instead, the sea of Barca jerseys headed towards the club’s basketball arena, the Palau Blaugrana. There was a buzz of expectation but apprehension in the air – the evening marked a big event: Real Madrid were in town.
It is widely believed that the greatest rivalry in basketball is between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics; between them, they have won almost half of all the championships in NBA history. The Lakers-Celtics showdowns of the 1980s went beyond basketball and embodied different Americas: West Coast glitz versus East Coast grit; flashy fastbreak basketball versus fundamentals; and, frankly, although it is perhaps sometimes too simplistic, blacks against whites.
In world basketball, however, there are a few rivalries that could rival the Lakers and Celtics in terms of cultural significance, even if the level of play isn’t quite up to par. I am thinking in particular of Panathinaikos-Olympiakos in Greece. The same goes for the raucous encounters of Red Star and Partizan in Belgrade and the fierce intercontinental derbies between Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray of Istanbul. Another one that could rival and, in years to come, even collide with the Lakers-Celtics? Last Friday’s match: Barcelona vs Real Madrid – basketball classic.
You have certainly heard of football classic. It is arguably the biggest derby in the world and attracts around 650 million viewers. Like the Celtics and Lakers, the football and basketball teams of Barcelona and Madrid are also the most famous in their league. In basketball, they have won 58 Spanish league titles between them and Madrid has dominated Europe over the decades to win 11 EuroLeague titles, a record in the history of the continent’s elite competition. (Barcelona has two.)
Tensions were rising as the denunciation approached on Friday. In the long lines that snaked around the stadium, chants about Madrid’s history of cheating (in soccer, basketball, politics and who knows what else) broke out. Here, basketball is inseparable from football, and the rivalry lays bare sociopolitical chasms that stretch back not just to the 1950s or 1960s, as in the case of Lakers-Celtics, but centuries in the past. Barça football fans are still singing »in, india, independence! » at 17:14 minutes of the matches marking the end of the War of the Spanish Succession – and with it the fall of Barcelona and the abolition of Catalan political institutions under the absolutist Bourbon regime – from 1714. Likewise, the songs of de ¡Puta Barca, Puta Catalonia! (Damn Barça, Damn Catalonia!) still ring out during Madrid matches.
Both clubs have played a role in Spanish history that carries over into the modern rivalry. During the Spanish Civil War, Josep Sunyol, president of Barcelona, was executed for his Catalan independence views, and his memory lives on as the club’s “martyred president.” In fact, the first recorded basketball classic was played around midnight in Madrid in May 1942, during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, a regime that championed Real Madrid as a symbol of centralized Spanish nationalism and international sporting ambassador. Just a few months ago, Madrid fans were chanting “Franco, Franco” when new Argentine signing Franco Mastantuono took to the pitch, outraged many Catalans.
The intensity of football classic is also present in the basketball version. The peak of the on-court rivalry was arguably the Audie Norris-Fernando Martín fights of the late 1980s, where the Lakers-Celtics echoes endure. Madrid’s Martín led Spain to a silver medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and Barcelona’s Norris, a former NBA player, made his own transatlantic comparison to El País in 2019: “I always compare it to the Lakers-Celtics rivalry. That’s what made basketball grow in the United States and my fight with Fernando made the Barça-Madrid rivalry grow.”
Last Friday, the stands at the Palau Blaugrana began to fill up an hour before the announcement. The players were warming up, the squeaking of rubber soles filling the air. The film crews set up their equipment. The smell of hot dogs wafted through the stands. A group of excited teenagers arrived in Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal jerseys and looked for their seats. This classic comes at a time of tectonic shifts in the European basketball landscape. The two rivals compete in the EuroLeague, although reports suggest they could move to a European league proposed by the NBA in the coming years. The NBA is reportedly considering other major cities such as Milan, Munich, Berlin, Manchester, London and Paris and is aiming for a 2027 launch date.
In Europe, basketball teams are often divisions of club football. The Spanish Basketball Federation itself described Madrid and Barcelona as the “heirs of their football rivalry”. Some clubs have different sports divisions beyond football and basketball. Here in the arena, retired jerseys from Barcelona’s basketball, handball and futsal teams line the walls, and the corridors of the Palau Blaugrana are covered with photos of star players from across the Barça brand. On the field, the faint outlines of futsal and hockey marks are visible on the hardwood.
This multi-sport club model may soon become more familiar to Americans. Whether by including pre-established giants like Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich, or creating basketball teams for soccer powerhouses – reports claim Milan, Chelsea and Manchester City could be involved – multi-sport clubs would likely be present in any NBA-Europe league.
Last Friday, the whole Barça family was present. The club’s president, Joan Laporta, arrived and started shaking his hand. Players from the city’s football clubs – including Real’s Jude Bellingham, Vinícius Júnior and Aurélien Tchouaméni – are often present, and several players from the Barça handball team were in attendance. High in the stands, Barça’s die-hard fans, the 1991 Dracs, were already on their feet, whistling and chanting with football intensity ultras. As the alert approaches, the stands fill with the colors of Barça and the Catalan, a blue and garnet wall streaked with the red and yellow of the regional flag, the Senyeraand the independentists Estelada. There were perhaps as many football jerseys as there were basketball jerseys. And in Europe, many fans follow both their club’s soccer and basketball teams. Madrid is no exception: a small but noisy traveling section fills up on the other side. Their muffled chants echoed throughout the stadium before being drowned out by the Barça fans restoring home advantage.
The alarm finally came and the Palau Blaugrana erupted in breathtaking whistles and roars. Among the players were Madrid’s Alex Len, who was making his debut, as well as Trey Lyles and Facu Campazzo, all former NBA players. Madrid has nine former NBA players, the most in the EuroLeague, according to Basket News data. Barça has six, including Tomas Satoransky and Jan Vesely.
This is not surprising. The Real Madrid and Barça basketball teams have long been home to top talent. However, for many American NBA fans, their most direct association with Madrid is probably Luka Dončić, the Slovenian superstar and likely future NBA MVP who signed a five-year contract with Madrid at the age of 13.
The Dracs bounced back, pushing Barça to continue. But Madrid came out hot, scoring five early three-pointers. Madrid’s Chuma Okeke, a five-year NBA veteran, issued a prayer from inside his own half at the buzzer and saw it sink in, adding to the feeling that Madrid couldn’t miss. Nevertheless, the atmosphere remained tense, football-like, deafening and awash with angry anti-Madrid chants while Barça fans continued with a relentless wall of noise.
Later in the match, Madrid’s lead expanded to 17 and Barça fans began waving white handkerchiefs to show their displeasure. Lyles, in particular, delivers a silky smooth performance, showcasing one-on-one skills more common across the pond. When the final buzzer sounded, Madrid had secured a 101-92 away victory, its ninth straight victory. classic victory. But could he be one of the last in the EuroLeague?
It seems likely that we may soon see classic games under the NBA logo. Perhaps one day we could see Boston and Barcelona or Los Angeles and Madrid face off in a transcontinental competition. As basketball heads into perhaps its biggest upheaval, who knows? Whatever happens, for Madrid and Barça fans, it will be a far cry from the midnight match of 1942, but never far from the history and politics of the derby: wherever they play, in whatever league, the biggest game of the season will always take place. the classic.
