This Monday the Costa Brava Girona Basket begins, and it will put together, once again, some of the best talents of international basketball academies. Nevertheless, this year it will be different, even more special, as for the first time since it began in 2014 the tournament will last for the whole week, until Saturday. During these six days 64 teams from all around the world will play and enjoy basketball, with more than 900 people enrolled in.
The Costa Brava Girona Basket (CBGB) will be structured in two categories for women and three for men, always by the age of the players (U12, only for men, U14 and U16). Girls will play from Monday to Wednesday in the courts of Sarrià and Fontajau, and then boys will come in to the courts of Sant Gregori, Salt, Quart, Palau, Vilablareix, Montfalgars and Sarrià as well. As it stands, this basketball show will reach the whole of Girona and its neighboring towns, who once again sum up with the desire of spreading sport.
International basketball
5.114 are the kilometers separating Dubai and Girona, the longest distance that a team in the CBGB will cover to get to the tournament. But Dubai Basketball is doing it. On the other side of the coin there are the all new àsquet Girona-Uni Laia Palau and Quart, who will play next to their homes.
In a land with two teams of the maximum category in the State (and in Europe, with Uni Girona), it is obvious that you don’t need to search for talent far away, but the Costa Brava Girona Basket will bring even more, with teams of international recognition. Like this, of course, the CBGB won’t be a simple basketball show (even though the players will contribute, as always, creating a great atmosphere), because it will offer matches of high quality to every basketball lover and the families of the players.
Great teams and new formats
From Monday to Wednesday, women’s categories of the CBGB will be played, with games on the courts of Sarrià (U14) and Fontajau (U16). There will be big teams, such as Zalgiris Kaunas, from Lithuania, or Araski (Copa de la Reina participants), in U16, or Gran Canaria or Bàsquet Girona-Uni Laia Palau, in U14. With every team, talent is assured.
Men’s teams won’t begin to play until Thursday, and the U16 categories raise eyebrows because of its special format. It won’t have a group phase, semifinals and final as in U14 and U12, because it will put its 24 teams face to face from the very first day with a complete knockout tournament.
But, as it always happens in the CBGB, every team, winner or loser, will end up playing the same number of games. In the end, the spirit of sport is to bring together players from whichever part of the world to any place to celebrate, all together, a passion that unites and that crosses every border. That’s what the Costa Brava Girona Basket is about.