2020-21

27/12/2021

The 2020-21 season was a new start for competitions in a very particular setting. Due to COVID, most of the games would have to be played behind closed doors or with a very limited capacity. With these conditions, and after having been suspended or shortened the competitions of the previous year, Valencia Basket would repeat participation in each of them, including the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.

 

The squad underwent some modifications compared to the previous season. The three-way base formed by Sam Van Rossom, Guillem Vives and Quino Colom is joined by Icelandic Martin Hermannsson from ALBA Berlin. Quino Colom would leave the team just before Christmas.

 

In the outside positions, the Slovenian guard Klemen Prepelic would fill the gap left by Jordan Loyd, accompanied in this guard position by Joan Sastre and Vanja Marinkovic. In the forward position, the losses of Aaron Doornekamp and Alberto Abalde were offset by the arrival of the Serbian Nikola Kalinic, who would be accompanied by Fernando San Emeterio. A serious injury to Joan Sastre at the beginning of the year, led to the return to the group of youth squad Josep Puerto, on loan at TAU ​​Castelló del LEB Oro.

 

In the inside game, the explosive North American player Derrick Williams and the young handy Jaime Pradilla join the group, who will accompany Louis Labeyrie, Mike Tobey and Bojan Dubljevic, in a team that would once again be led on the bench by Jaume Ponsarnau in his third and final season.

 

In these strange circumstances, the season began, with the harshness of a Turkish Airlines EuroLeague in which the taronja flirted for many days with the PlayOff positions.

 

In the Endesa League, a reaction in the first round qualified the taronja for the Copa del Rey, which would be held in Madrid without tickets for sale. Valencia Basket would fall to Real Madrid in the quarterfinals.

 

Despite showing a good level in the top European competition, the Taronja were on the verge of getting their ticket for the crosses, which would have meant qualification for the following season. The ninth position, just one game away, left the Valencian team at the gates of the great goal of the season.

 

Back in the domestic competition, and already leading the PlayOff dispute for the title, the Taronja beat Baskonia in the quarterfinals 2-1, falling by a similar score against Real Madrid in the semifinals, and closing the season. With the closure, there was the end of the stage of Jaume Ponsarnau on the taronja bench, as well as the withdrawal from the world of basketball of Fernando San Emeterio, one of the great players of Spanish basketball in recent years.


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