REAL MADRID PRESIDENT Florentino Perez dreams of seeing the club’s basketball team playing in the NBA.
Madrid are one of the dominant forces in European basketball, winning a record 10 EuroLeague titles. Their most recent success was in the 2017-2018 season, while they were losing semi-finalists earlier this year.
They have also won the Spanish league four years out of the last five, with Perez suggesting Madrid’s players deserve to test themselves against the best by joining the Eastern Conference.
“In basketball we play many insignificant games,” Perez said. “It’s better to play less, but better.
“We have explored the option of a European League and I have the dream of seeing Madrid in the NBA.
“I have asked us to be included in the Eastern Conference, but they say that’s far away.”
Perez suggested an alternative option could be to include Real Madrid in a new European Conference that would be part of the NBA.
“The other teams in Spain don’t have as much interest,” Perez added.
“But there are Greek and Turkish clubs with which we could have a European Conference.
“There are only two teams in the NBA with more followers than us on social networks.”
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What Shane Ross has done for athletes in this country is just amazing. By country I mean his parish and by athletes I mean hockey players
@Bungee Aky: players been funding their own dreams for long enough fella. It’s only fair that the time of club president’s having to remortgage their houses to facilitate club renovations should be long past.
@Bungee Aky: And whos going to get the job of installing this pitch….like the rest of ‘our’ national sporting campus built by companies from the North?
Shane Ross loves a good expensive hockey pitch!
Pitch at UCD set to replaced early in the new year with the new year with the plan that it hosts the Hockey Series Final
I’m surprised he hasn’t fined them for being on the new pitch.
@Ed: in fairness, the facilities in general at abbotstown now are outstanding. Thank god we swerved the Bertie bowl and got what is there and being built instead. Alternative would have been a worse money pit that pairc ui chaoimh
@alan doyle: correct Alan. Unprecedented year of success for Irish International sport (bar footy) , no fluke that regional centres of excellence are in place and of course the national campus. The €800m that the 80k Bertie Bowl would have cost has gone into bolstering a huge range of Irish sports instead. And it’s fantastic that young Irish sportspersons don’t have to head across the Atlantic now to reach their potential…
It’s long overdue but very welcome news. Both senior teams have been punching above their weight for years and it’s the very least they deserve.