Nothing is left to chance. He demands precision in every small thing.
Dos entrenadores nacidos el mismo año, separados por décadas y por caminos muy distintos, se reencuentran en la cima del baloncesto europeo. Pedro Martínez, elegido mejor entrenador de la Euroliga, lleva a Valencia Basket a las Semifinales del Final Four de Atenas con la ambición de escribir historia para un club que nunca ha ganado este título. Frente a él, su viejo conocido Sergio Scariolo conduce a Real Madrid, y lo que comenzó como un duelo juvenil en una final menor hace treinta y seis años se convierte ahora en el enfrentamiento más cargado de sus carreras. La trayectoria de Martínez —larga, discreta, construida lejos de los grandes focos— encuentra en este momento su mayor prueba y su mayor recompensa.
- Martínez llega al Final Four como mejor entrenador de la Euroliga tras eliminar al favorito Panathinaikos en cinco partidos de una dureza sin precedentes para el club valenciano.
- El reencuentro con Scariolo, su rival de juventud en la Copa Korac de 1990, convierte la semifinal en algo más que un partido: es el cierre de un arco biográfico que abarca toda una vida en el banquillo.
- Valencia Basket, un club que nunca ha ganado la Euroliga, se planta en Atenas con un juego de ataque fluido y demoledor que ha hecho que toda Europa se fije en ellos esta temporada.
- Martínez ha provocado ya a Scariolo antes del salto inicial, encendiendo una rivalidad que promete traspasar el terreno de juego y convertirse en el duelo más comentado del fin de semana.
- El entrenador barcelonés, que nunca dirigió al Madrid ni al Barça, demuestra que la grandeza puede construirse también desde la periferia, con paciencia, exigencia y un proyecto sólido.
Pedro Martínez y Sergio Scariolo nacieron en 1961 y se cruzaron por primera vez hace treinta y seis años en una final de la Copa Korac. Martínez, con apenas veintiocho años al frente del RAM Joventut, ganó los dos partidos a la Scavolini Pesaro de Scariolo y se llevó su primer título europeo. Ahora, a los sesenta y cuatro años, ambos se reencuentran en el Final Four de Atenas: Martínez con Valencia Basket, Scariolo con Real Madrid, en la segunda semifinal del viernes.
El camino hasta aquí no fue sencillo para Martínez. Entrenó a trece equipos españoles distintos, acumuló más partidos en la Liga ACB que cualquier otro técnico salvo Aíto García Reneses, y vio cómo las puertas de los grandes clubes permanecían cerradas. Pero en Valencia construyó algo duradero: el primer título de Liga ACB del club en 2017, y esta temporada una campaña de Euroliga que culminó con la eliminación del poderoso Panathinaikos en cinco partidos brutales, la batalla más exigente en cuatro décadas de historia valenciana.
El reconocimiento llegó en forma de premio al mejor entrenador de la Euroliga, un galardón que refleja no solo los resultados sino también el carácter de un hombre que no calla. Martínez ha denunciado públicamente el genocidio en Israel pese a las complicaciones que eso conlleva, y se enfrentó abiertamente a Ergin Ataman durante la eliminatoria con Panathinaikos en un choque que trascendió el parqué.
Su método es de una exigencia casi obsesiva: nada se deja al azar, los jugadores aprenden a anticiparse a sus demandas o se marchan. El resultado es un baloncesto de ataque, fluido y demoledor, que hace levantarse a los aficionados de sus asientos. Ahora, con el título continental al alcance de la mano, Martínez ya ha lanzado el primer dardo a su viejo rival antes del salto inicial. El duelo está servido, y los dos hombres que se midieron de jóvenes en una competición menor se juegan hoy la gloria máxima del baloncesto europeo.
Pedro Martínez and Sergio Scariolo were born in the same year, 1961, and met as young coaches thirty-six years ago in a Copa Korac final. Martínez, then barely twenty-eight and fresh from taking over at RAM Joventut, faced Scariolo's Scavolini Pesaro squad. The Spanish coach won both legs—98-99 in Pesaro, 96-86 in Badalona—and claimed his first European trophy. Now, at sixty-four, Martínez arrives at the Euroliga Final Four in Athens as the competition's coach of the year, and his path crosses Scariolo's once more. This time, Scariolo brings Real Madrid. Valencia Basket will face them in Friday's second semifinal, after Olympiacos plays Fenerbahçe.
Martínez has traveled a long road since that youthful victory. He has coached thirteen different Spanish teams and accumulated more Liga ACB games than any coach except Aíto García Reneses, whom he will likely surpass next season. The doors of Real Madrid and Barcelona never opened for him, and he never won another European title in the decades that followed. But he built something durable in Valencia. In 2017, he delivered the club its first Liga ACB championship. This season, he guided Valencia through a remarkable Euroliga campaign—they finished second in the regular phase and then dismantled the heavily favored Panathinaikos in five brutal playoff matches, the fiercest battle the club has waged in four decades of existence.
The recognition came swiftly. Martínez was named the Euroliga's best coach, an honor that caps a trajectory marked by both sporting success and something less tangible but more resonant. He has become a symbol for Valencia, and for European basketball itself, not merely because of the attacking, fluid style with which he has conquered the continent, but because of who he is as a person. He does not stay silent. He has denounced the genocide in Israel despite the political complications it creates. He clashed openly with Ergin Ataman, the celebrated Panathinaikos coach, in a confrontation that sent sparks flying across the court and into the press.
His method is built on an almost obsessive attention to detail. Nothing is left to chance. He demands precision in every small thing, and the players have learned to meet him there. When Martínez calls a meeting for eight o'clock, everyone is ready five minutes early. The club's general director, Enric Carbonell, and sports director Luis Arbalejo have given him the trust to build something larger than a single season. He has assembled a group of young players willing to surrender themselves completely in training and in every rotation. They know what he wants, and they either accept it or they leave.
The basketball itself is beautiful to watch—attacking, demolishing, the kind of game that makes fans lean forward in their seats. But it is also the product of relentless work, of a coach who has spent decades learning his craft in places where the spotlight rarely shines. Now, at the Final Four, Martínez faces Scariolo again. The two men who met as boys in a minor European competition now stand at the summit of the sport. Martínez has already begun to needle his old rival, throwing down a challenge before the ball is even tipped. A new confrontation is underway, and this time, the stakes could not be higher.
Citações Notáveis
He has denounced the genocide in Israel despite the political complications it creates and clashed openly with Ergin Ataman, the celebrated Panathinaikos coach, in a confrontation that sent sparks flying.— Reporting on Martínez's character and willingness to speak out
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
How does a coach spend thirty-six years between two meetings with the same rival and arrive at the second one as a completely different person?
Time teaches you things. Martínez won that first final because he was sharp and hungry. Now he wins because he understands the game at a depth most people never reach. He's built something in Valencia that didn't exist before—a culture, a way of playing, a city behind him.
But he never got Real Madrid or Barcelona. Doesn't that sting?
Maybe it did once. But look at what he built instead. He won Valencia their first league title. He's made them feared in Europe. Sometimes the path that doesn't look like success on the surface is the one that matters most.
What's different about him compared to Scariolo?
Scariolo is brilliant, but Martínez is willing to say things that cost him. He speaks about politics, about morality. He fights with other coaches. He's not trying to be liked by everyone. That takes a different kind of strength.
The players seem almost afraid of him.
Not afraid. Respectful. There's a difference. When someone demands excellence and actually knows how to teach it, players will run through walls for you. They show up five minutes early because they want to, not because they have to.
What does he want from this Final Four?
History. Valencia has never won the Euroliga. He's given them everything else. This is the last piece.