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9 hours ago
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Scores of fans filed past the silhouettes of cranes and construction work surrounding Barcelona’s Camp Nou last Friday night. But they weren’t there for the world famous soccer stadium. Instead, the sea of Barça jerseys was heading for the club’s basketball arena, the Palau Blaugrana. There was an expectant but apprehensive buzz in the air – the night marked a big occasion: Real Madrid were in town.
It’s widely accepted that the biggest rivalry in basketball is between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics; between them they have won almost half of all championships in NBA history. The Lakers-Celtics showdowns of the 1980s went beyond basketball and embodied different Americas: West Coast glitz versus East Coast grit; flashy fastbreak basketball versus fundamentals; and, frankly, though perhaps sometimes oversimplistically, Black versus white.
In world basketball, however, there are a few rivalries that could contend with Lakers v Celtics in terms of cultural significance, even if the standard of play does not quite match up. Panathinaikos-Olympiakos in Greece comes to mind. So too does Belgrade’s raucous Red Star-Partizan fixtures and the fierce Intercontinental Derbies between Istanbul’s Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray. Another that could compete and, in the coming years, even collide with Lakers-Celtics? Last Friday’s game: Barcelona v Real Madrid – basketball’s clásico.
You have almost certainly have heard of soccer’s clásico. It’s arguably the biggest derby in the world and attracts around 650m viewers. Like the Celtics and Lakers, Barcelona and Madrid’s football and basketball teams are also the most storied in their leagues. In basketball, they’ve won 58 Spanish league titles between them and Madrid have dominated Europe over the decades to win 11 EuroLeague titles, the most in the history of the continent’s elite competition. (Barcelona have two.)
Tension was building as tip-off approached on Friday. In the long queues snaking into the stadium, chants about Madrid’s history of cheating (in football, basketball, politics, and who knows what else) erupted. Here, basketball is inseparable from soccer and the rivalry lays bare socio-political chasms going back not just to the 1950s or 60s, as with Lakers-Celtics, but centuries into the past. Barça soccer fans still sing “in, inde, independència!” at the 17:14 minute of matches to mark the end of the Spanish War of Succession – and with it the fall of Barcelona and the abolition of Catalan political institutions under Bourbon absolutist rule – all the way back in 1714. Similarly, chants of of ¡Puta Barça, Puta Catalunya! (Whore Barça, Whore Catalonia!) are still heard at Madrid matches.
The two clubs have had roles in Spanish history that ripple through the modern day rivalry. During the Spanish Civil War, Josep Sunyol, Barcelona’s president, was executed due to his pro-Catalan independence views, and his memory lives on as the club’s ‘martyr president’. In fact, the first recorded basketball clásico was played at around midnight in Madrid in May 1942, during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, a regime that championed Real Madrid as a symbol of centralised Spanish nationalism and international sporting ambassadorship. Just a few months ago, Madrid fans chanted “Franco, Franco” when new Argentinian signing Franco Mastantuono entered the field, outraging many Catalans.
The intensity of the football clásico is also present in basketball’s version. The heyday of the on-court rivalry was arguably the Audie Norris-Fernando Martín battles of the late 1980s, where the Lakers-Celtics echoes continue. Madrid’s Martín led Spain to a silver medal at the 1984 LA Olympics, and Barcelona’s Norris, a former NBA player, made his own transatlantic comparison to El País in 2019: “I always compare it to the Lakers-Celtics rivalry. That was what made basketball grow in the US and my fight with Fernando made the Barça-Madrid rivalry grow.”
Last Friday, the Palau Blaugrana bleachers began filling up an hour before tip-off. Players warmed up, the squeak of rubber soles filling the air. Camera crews set up their equipment. The smell of hotdogs wafted through the stands. A group of excitable teenagers arrived in Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal jerseys and searched around for their seats. This clásico comes at a time of tectonic shifts in the landscape of European basketball. The two rivals face off in EuroLeague, though reports suggest they could switch to a proposed NBA-run European league in the coming years. The NBA is reportedly considering other major cities such as Milan, Munich, Berlin, Manchester, London, and Paris and targeting a 2027 launch date.
In Europe, basketball teams are often divisions of the soccer club. The Spanish Basketball Federation has itself described Madrid and Barcelona as the “heirs to their soccer rivalry”. Some clubs have different sporting divisions beyond football and basketball. Here in the arena the jerseys of retired Barcelona greats from the basketball, handball and futsal teams line the walls, and the corridors of the Palau Blaugrana are plastered with photos of star players from across the Barça brand. On court, the faint outline of futsal and hockey markings are visible on the hardwood.
This multi-sport club model may soon become more familiar to Americans. Whether by including pre-established giants like Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich, or by creating basketball teams for soccer powerhouses – reports claim Milan, Chelsea and Manchester City could be involved – multi-sport clubs would probably have a presence in any NBA-Europe league.
Last Friday, the wider Barça family were in attendance. Club president Joan Laporta arrived and started shaking hands. Players from the cities’ soccer clubs – including Real’s Jude Bellingham, Vinícius Júnior and Aurélien Tchouaméni – often attend, and several players from Barça’s handball team were present. High in the bleachers, Barça’s hardcore fans, the Dracs 1991, were already on their feet, whistling, chanting with the intensity of soccer ultras. As tip-off approached, the bleachers filled with Barça and Catalan colours, a wall of blue-and-garnet streaked with the red and yellow of the regional flag, the Senyera, and the pro-independence Estelada. There may have been as many soccer jerseys as basketball jerseys. And in Europe, many fans follow both their club’s soccer and basketball teams. Madrid are no exception: a small but loud travelling section filled up on the far side. Their muffled chants echoed across the stadium before being drowned out by Barça fans reestablishing homecourt advantage.
Tip-off finally arrived and the Palau Blaugrana erupted into ear-splitting whistles and roars. On the rosters were Madrid’s Alex Len, making his debut, as well as Trey Lyles and Facu Campazzo, all ex-NBA players. Madrid have nine former NBA players, joint highest in the EuroLeague, according to Basket News data. Barça have six, notably Tomas Satoransky and Jan Vesely.
That’s unsurprising. Real Madrid and Barça’s basketball teams have long been home to top talent. For many US NBA fans, however, their most direct association with Madrid is probably Luka Dončić, the Slovenian superstar and likely future NBA MVP who signed a five-year contract with Madrid when he was 13 years old.
The Dracs bounced up and down, urging Barça on. But Madrid came out hot, hitting five early three-pointers. Madrid’s Chuma Okeke, a five-year NBA vet, threw up a prayer from inside his own half at the buzzer and saw it sink, adding to the feeling that Madrid couldn’t miss. Nonetheless, the atmosphere stayed tense, soccer-like, deafening, and was awash with furious anti-Madrid chants as the Barça fans continue with a relentless wall of noise.
Later in the game the Madrid lead stretched to 17 and Barça fans began waving white handkerchiefs to show their discontent. Lyles in particular puts on a silky smooth performance, showcasing one-on-one skills more common in style on the other side of the pond. When the final buzzer sounded, Madrid had completed a 101-92 road win, their ninth consecutive clásico victory. But could it be one of the last in EuroLeague?
It seems likely that we could soon see clásico games under the NBA logo. Perhaps, one day, we could even see Boston and Barcelona or LA and Madrid face off in cross-continental competition. With basketball possibly heading for its biggest ever shake-up, who knows? Whatever happens, for Madrid and Barça fans it’ll be a long way from that midnight game back in 1942 but never too far removed from the history and politics of the derby – wherever they play, in whatever league, the biggest game of the season will always be el clásico.
