Bàsquet Girona
Girona has two basketball teams: Bàsquet Girona (male team) and Uni Bàsquet Girona (female team). Their mascot is a cocollona.[1]
Bàsquet Girona[edit]
Bàsquet Girona is Girona's male basketball team. They usually wear red.
The story of how Bàsquet Girona came to be is interesting and worthy of a Netflix documentary. It started when a guy called Marc Gasol moved from Barcelona to Girona in 2006 to play for a team called CB Sant Josep. He played two seasons and then left Girona for greater things: he went to America to play in the NBA. He was extremely successful in the NBA, and helped the Toronto Raptors win in 2019.
Meanwhile, CB Sant Josep were having financial difficulties. The company that owned the team were spending too much money buying players. They couldn't continue and the basketball team dissolved in 2013.
Marc Gasol, still living in America and playing for the NBA, heard about the closure of CB Sant Josep. The next year, 2014, he opened his own basketball club for youths in Girona, called Club Escola Bàsquet Marc Gasol. In 2017, it changed its name to Basquet Girona and created a senior squad with the aim to become the main men's basketball club in the city.
Basquet Girona immediately achieved a vacant spot in the Liga EBA, in the fourth tier, which is the worst and bottom tier. The team began working their way up the tiers. In their first year then went from fourth tier to third tier, and then in 2019-2020 they were promoted to second tier.
On November 25, 2021, Marc Gasol announced that he HIMSELF would play for Bàsquet Girona. He left his amazing life in America, where he had been playing in the NBA for twelve years, and returned to Girona, to play for his own team, the club that he founded. He played in the decisive final game of the promotion playoffs, where Girona beat Estudiantes 66–60, promoting Girona to the Liga ACB for the first time.
Marc played one more year for Baquet Girona and retired in 2024.
Another interesting thing about Marc Gasol is that he has a brother, Pau Gasol, who is even more successful at basketball than he is. The brothers have played basketball together in the 2012 Summer Olympics, among others. They both played in the NBA but for different teams, and many times actually had to play against one another, like Thor and Loki, or Venus and Serena Williams.
Together, Marc and Pau set up the Gasol Foundation in Barcelona to fight childhood obesity. https://gasolfoundation.org/
Uni Girona[edit]
Uni Bàsquet Girona or Uni Girona, officially known as "Uni Girona Club de Bàsquet" or "Spar Girona" (because Spar is their sponsor), is Girona's female basketball team. They formed in 2005. They usually wear black.
They have won:
- League champions: 2 times (2014–15, 2018–19)
- SuperCopa champions: 3 times (2015–16, 2019–20, 2022–23)
Going to see basketball games[edit]
Tickets to watch a basketball game range from €10-60 depending on where you sit and what team is playing, and if the game is important or not
- You can buy a 10-entry pack for games of the women's team for around €80
- You can buy a 10-entry pack for games of the men's team for around €120
You can also just go to see amateur children's teams playing, without needing to buy a ticket.
There are rules about bringing bottles of water with you.
During the breaks in the game, there are various things to stop the audience from getting bored:
- "Fontashow" where dancers dance on the court
- Pluja de marxandatge where the dancers catapult merchandise into the crowd with a big elastic band, while the cocollona mascot just throws it into the crowd
- Dance cam, where a camera points at members of the crowd, projecting them onto a massive screen, and the people then have to dance
Children under 3 enter for free, while children over 3 have to pay the full adult price.
Pavelló Girona-Fontajau[edit]
Pavelló Girona-Fontajau or (Pavelló Municipal Girona-Fontajau) was built in 1993[2] and is where Bàsquet Girona and Uni Bàsquet Girona play. It is on the outskirts of Girona, just past the Devesa. To get to it, you have to cross a bridge over the river Ter (which incidentally is a good place to see a rainbow when the sun is setting and it happens to be raining).
It has:
- An indoor basketball arena that can hold 5,500 spectators. All seats have good views of the court. There are special seats with red cushions for politicians or other important people.
- Another basketball court
- A food truck outside called Fans Zone, where they sell sandwiches and beer. During winter they sell hot chocolate.
- Girona's Judo association is based there.
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Uni Girona practising at Pavelló Girona-Fontajau -
Uni Girona practising at Pavelló Girona-Fontajau -
Uni Girona practising at Pavelló Girona-Fontajau -
Signs on the ground floor corridor (for players and staff) Uni Girona practising at Pavelló Girona-Fontajau -
Corridor on the ground floor for the players and staff at Pavelló Girona-Fontajau
