By Lefteris Moutis
This year was the first that Caja Laboral didn’t play in Euroleague’s Top 16. Board’s options during summer time haven’t benefited the team and coach Dusko Ivanovic has seen his players fail to lead the team in the Spanish league. Even the rebuilding of “Fernando Buesa Arena”, didn’t renew the cells of the group. The season seemed lost, because all these filled the fans only with disappointment.
The only one who didn’t believe that everything is lost was the one who always finds a way to make Caja Laboral protagonist, Jose Antonio Querejeta. The Basque president found a golden chance to give new vision to fans and members of the team, when he was informed that Andres Nocioni didn’t feel well in Philadelphia, wanted to leave the Sixers and … loves the idea of returning to Europe and Baskonia. And without losing time the Argentine forward came back again to his beloved team after 8 years.
Nocioni isn’t the best player in Caja Laboral’s history. Neither is he the most successful. Luis Scola, Tiago Splitter and Arvydas Macijauskas maybe were better. In Nocioni’s years in Caja Laboral, the club won its first championship, but then took two more and played in four consecutive Euroleague Final Four.
However, “Chapu” is still in the mind of all Basque fans. Since the summer of 2004, when he decided to continue his career in the NBA, he has expressed many times his love for the team. Even his message on twitter for his return in Caja Laboral -“I return home. A dream comes true. I relive basketball”- shows someone who is a fan and not a player.
The news of his transfer excited all the fans that saw in his face the man who would bring back Caja Laboral to the top. His arrival in Spain was scheduled for Sunday, so he would watch the match against Estudiantes in Fernando Buesa Arena. Tickets disappeared in the blink of an eye just to see him there, being between the crowd, anxious for their favorite Caja. As a modern “El Cid”. It remains to be seen whether he will confirm his role and lead Caja Laboral in winning battles!
Nocioni was applauded warmly and said on the microphone, when he entered the court wearing the jersey with number “55”: “I am happy to be here again. I feel Caja Laboral like my family”. And his… family welcomed their favorite child, “Chapu”, who was missing abroad for business!