One is 35 years old and the other 36, but the excitement they generate is priceless. Asisa Joventut has started competing with Ricky Rubio and Nico Laprovittola, a duo that has sparked the optimism of a green-and-black fanbase eager to experience strong emotions. La Penya debuted with a loss against iLerna Lleida in the Catalan National League (89-84), but its followers have high hopes placed on this season.

Enes Kanter Freedom, the controversial former NBA player who caused an unexpected storm by declaring himself eligible for the draft of the WNBA –the women's competition–, continues to fan the flames. The Turk has filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Sky and the owners of the Wintrust Arena, who threw him out of the arena for causing a disturbance.

"He has no doubts, his ideas are very clear." The determination of Xevi Pujol, the architect who is rethinking Barça, has helped the blue and garnet club incorporate a group of players with very specific characteristics. The Catalan has opted for young, athletic signings with a good predisposition for work, three premises that he considers necessary to propose a modern style of basketball. The name of Stanley Umude had been underlined for some time in the technical secretary's agenda. Aside from his defensive capacity, the forward has a characteristic that makes him differential: his shooting mechanics, which are substantially faster than those of other perimeter players.

A renewed group of 12 players and a Galician coach, Miguel Méndez, begin the Women's World Cup this Friday in Berlin, a championship that the Spanish national team is competing in eight years after its last participation. The ambition is as great as the difficulties that a team will face that has had little time to prepare for the tournament and will have to compete against teams of the level of the United States, France, Belgium or Australia.“We arrive at the competition in good shape, but we find ourselves in a new scenario. We have important players who have been competing in the WNBA and have only had a few days to join the national team. It is the first time this has happened to us, and we have to see how we adapt to it. We have prepared the team to compete without some of the important players. We have tried to organize it in the best way possible. Unlike other national teams that are more used to this, it is a new situation for us,” acknowledges Méndez to ARA.Five of the players (Awa Fam, María Conde, Raquel Carrera, Alicia Flórez, and Megan Gustafson) will have had only three days to adapt to a team that only includes one Catalan player, Mariona Ortiz. The Spanish national team will make its debut this Friday against host country Germany (5:45 PM, TDP). Japan and Mali complete the group. "We are aware of our potential," declares an optimistic Méndez.The coach, a lover of training, participated a few days ago in the Coach's Day, which was held in Vilafranca del Penedès. “It is a day of coexistence with a great tradition. We speakers try to contribute some detail that serves to help the attendees grow. It is about creating in them the curiosity to investigate. Young coaches do not go with the intention of copying things but of receiving new inputsthat force them to think”, he says.“I don’t like giving advice, but coaches who are starting out must work throughout their entire career, just like professionals do. There are many areas that are important. From the technical to the communicative, including psychology, leadership, or physical preparation. Our training never stops. The key is to have a very open mind and look for tools that help you develop your universe. The bible, the catechism that we coaches learn, changes year by year and you have to know how to adapt to new trends,” admits the national coach.The coach has accumulated four EuroLeague titles, the last one with Fenerbahçe. “I have been lucky enough to coach great teams with the capacity to reach their objectives. This is a stroke of luck for any coach. I feel the satisfaction of having achieved success, but it is clear that I have been through projects with resources,” he admits.An unbeatable favorite

Caitlin Clark, the player who receives the most media attention in the world, leads the United States team, a squad that has not lost any of the 30 matches it has played in the last four editions of the World Cup. Her chemistry with Angel Reese, with whom she has popularized a great rivalry for years, will be key. The absence of Kelsey Plum and A’ja Wilson due to physical reasons does not prevent the main international analysts from giving the North American team the label of heavy favorite in a tournament in which France aspires to cause an upset.

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The incorporation of women into the world of sport has suffered serious impediments throughout history. The obstacles have changed according to the era and location, but some pioneers defied stereotypes and prejudices to achieve their goals. Publisher and writer Elisenda Albertí has compiled 19 of their stories in a book –Pioneers of Sport– which gathers emotions and joys, but also disappointments and sorrows.“The difficulty of the book was to make a selection, because I gathered many biographies. Athletes, both Catalan and international, appear. This allows us to compare the situations in different countries to know where we stood at each moment,” Albertí tells ARA. The role of women in the world of sport began to be claimed at the end of the 19th century in Anglo-Saxon culture. “In our context, we have to wait until the beginning of the 20th century, when there were still many reservations. The sports that were successful among women were few, but the sum of this practice with the first feminist claims served to combat hostility. In Catalonia, for example, the big change came with the Mancomunitat and the Second Republic, but then this openness receded,” he assures.Some of the pioneers had problems because of their political ideas. “If a woman opened her mouth, she had problems. When there are changes or novelties, there is always a type of person who criticizes and burdens it. They had defenders, but also many detractors. There were written media that treated them well, although others mistreated them. Some sports pioneers were insulted, caricatured, and erased from the archives. They had a very difficult time and, with Francoism, many suffered severe repression. The sports records of some of these pioneers were even erased. They disappeared and no longer exist,” she warns.

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In the summer of 2020, when he was only 30 years old, Xevi Pujol became the youngest sporting director in the Liga Endesa. The Catalan, whom Jaume Ponsarnau saw coaching in the Bàsquet Manresa youth system when he proposed he be his assistant, moved from the court to the offices with great ease. His arrival caused some surprise. "They made a few jokes, because they were a bit surprised to see someone so young, but I was lucky enough to see how the machinery works for a long time. The sporting director makes the final decision, but before that, there's a lot of discussion with the people in the offices and the technical staff", explained in an interview with ARA.

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Tight game. Growing emotion. The Minnesota Lynx and Los Angeles Sparks are battling for victory in a very close match. Kayla McBride visits the free-throw line, at which point the entire arena hears the shouts of a fan. "Rickea!", he exclaims. He says it with so much energy that the television broadcast picks it up. Oblivious to the game's score, the fan implores Rickea Jackson, forward for the Sparks, to try and score more points because he needs to win his parlay bet.

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Xevi Pujol will land at Barça next week with almost all the work done. The Barça club expects to announce the incorporation of the new technical secretary from August 3, when two months will have passed since he announced his departure to Baskonia. The Culer team, led by Xavier O'Callaghan and Mario Fernández, has made many moves in what has become the busiest summer in the entity's history.Barça has already closed nine player signings, but there will be more. Olivier Nkamhoua, Justin Robinson, Josh Nebo, Umoja Gibson, Agustín Ubal, Stanley Umude, Olek Balcerowski, Tyrese Martin, and Tosan Evbuomwan are already confirmed. In addition, the club has incorporated Aleksander Sekulic as coach. “I know what my idea is and I know how to execute it. My main desire is to convince the players to represent the club's colors with sacrifice, fight, and a desire to win titles. The team has been formed with this idea in mind. The truth is that the average age of the squad was quite high, around 34 years old. The renewal was the first logical step. Barça needed a new impulse to strengthen the club's identity and culture,” he assures in an interview with Sportklub.The Slovenian coach acknowledges that he did not expect to sign for the Barça club. “I assumed that Barça already had an agreement with a new coach, but it turned out that this information was not correct. They were interested in me, as the club had an idea to impose a new direction and were looking for a coach to undertake it. It seems that in me they have seen a coach with a similar vision”, assures Sekulic, who has already spoken with Joan Laporta. “He wanted to meet me in person”, he says.The bad news are the departures. If we add first team players, coaches and young talents from the academy, more than fifteen people will not continue with Barça. The most painful departures are those of people who had contracts, like Xavi Pascual, Juani Marcos, Will Clyburn, Toko Shengelia and Moses Wright, who paid his termination clause before the club announced his signing. The center, who will leave 900,000 euros to the coffers of the Barça club, will play for Olimpia Milan. The non-arrival of Mike James is different, as it was Barça who backed down. The player had signed his contract, but the Barça entity did not.Shengelia's departure is also very painful. Although it had not been made public, the Georgian small forward had renewed for three years just a few months ago, when he still thought that Xavi Pascual and his friend Will Clyburn would remain on the team. Despite not wanting to abandon Barça, the player has decided, after a complex period of reflection, to move to Dubai Basketball. His clause is also 900,000 euros.

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The years go by and Queralt Casas maintains her passion intact. After seven seasons at Valencia Basket, the Bescanó player will strengthen the Spar Girona project, where she arrives eager to prove herself. “I have very good feelings and I am very happy to be able to return home. I am convinced that we will enjoy this season a lot and that we will experience many magical moments at Fontajau,” admits the shooting guard, who will reunite with Roberto Íñiguez, with whom she already coincided at Sopron.Casas, who is training these days at ExtraTime in Fornells de la Selva, has now fully recovered from the fracture of the ulna and radius she had in her left arm. “Injuries are the toughest part of sports, nobody wants to go through them, but once you have them and accept them, you have to work to return as soon as possible. The truth is that I recovered very well, I have good feelings and I have already forgotten about it,” she acknowledges.

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Tired of the few future options he saw in Senegal, Awa Fam's father traveled to Alicante, where he had a friend who helped him process his papers and find work. His wife arrived shortly after and the family settled in Santa Pola. His parents, Madoumbe and Arane, ran an African craft shop, but when she was born at Elche Hospital they closed it to dedicate themselves to street vending.

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The Aleksander Sekulic era at Can Barça began this Wednesday. The blaugrana club and Sekulic have reached an agreement for the incorporation of the coach as the new head of the culer bench. The 48-year-old coach will sign a contract until June 30, 2028, and will become the first Slovenian coach in the history of Barça basketball.

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The story of Emir Sulejmanovic is one that moves. The new Asisa Joventut player was born on July 13, 1995, two days after the Srebrenica massacre, where at least 8,000 Bosnian men were murdered. From adolescents to the elderly. "My life was very complicated from a young age. What was experienced in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a tragedy. The city of Srebrenica bore the brunt, as it was bombed," recalls the green-and-black pivot.

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Barça has decided to trust Xevi Pujol and Aleksander Sekulic to revive the basketball section. The club will relocate Joan Carles Navarro, who still has two more years of contract, but the former player no longer participates in strategic decisions. The idea of the Culer entity is to rejuvenate the project and look for a style of players who can develop a more modern and dynamic style of play.

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After 23 seasons in the NBA, LeBron James faces his most difficult decision. The King, who will not continue playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, is looking for a new team with which to achieve his fifth NBA championship ring. The 41-year-old forward is one of the few players who can stand up to Michael Jordan in the debate about the greatest player of all time. His status as a free agent will allow him to choose the jersey he will wear in what will surely be his farewell season in the NBA. The Golden State Warriors, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Miami Heat, and the Minnesota Timberwolves are some of the franchises that dream of signing him. Each has its own narrative. Some have a better chance of fighting for the championship ring, while others have an emotional factor.For years his salary was prohibitive for most teams. Last season, he earned $52.6 million (about 46.1 million euros) with the Lakers. But now the player is willing to play for the veteran minimum salary, and therefore, money will carry less weight in competitive possibilities.James dominated the NBA between 2011 and 2018, when he played eight consecutive finals. His titles with the Miami Heat (2012 and 2013), the Cleveland Cavaliers (2016), and the Los Angeles Lakers (2020) placed him among the greatest players of all time, a distinction that has been fueled by his individual records. LeBron surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the all-time leading scorer.Even though he is far from his best version, LeBron James continues to be a differential player, as he combines the competitive voracity of Kobe Bryant with an altruism that he had parked during the first years of his professional career. Last season he averaged 20.9 points, 7.2 assists, and 6.1 rebounds. The Lakers, rebuilt

After the announcement that LeBron James will not play in Los Angeles, the Lakers used their freed-up salary cap to close four signings worth $261 million (approximately 228.5 million euros): Walker Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili, and Collin Sexton. The additions are meant to complete a project led by Austin Reaves and, above all, Luka Doncic. “It was a true honor to wear the Lakers colors while trying to continue the greatness and legacy of those who came before me,” James said.

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"They will go crazy." Kevin Punter opened Pandora's box with an enigmatic message on social media. A few weeks after Moses Wright announced he had signed for Barça, the center plans to pay his release clause to avoid putting on the blaugrana team's jersey. As journalist Víctor Lavagnini (TV3) explains, the good relationship with Mike James, the player who threatens to take the blaugrana club to court for breaching his pre-contract, has been key for the former Zalgiris player to have doubts about the culé project.

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On July 9, 1951, 75 years ago, the Harlem Globetrotters visited Catalonia for the first time with a game that gathered 12,000 spectators at the Pavelló de l’Esport on Llançà street in Barcelona. A testament to the event's significance was the presence in the box of José Ibáñez Martín, Minister of National Education, and Felipe Acedo Colunga, civil governor.“Rarely will we see glimpses of their hilarious exhibition again, a basketball as perfect as the one Abe Saperstein's negroes offered us,” explained the article that Mundo Deportivo published two days later, on July 11. A few weeks earlier, the sports newspaper had advertised the Harlem Globetrotters as “the negroes of the No-Do”.The invited rival of the day were the Boston Wirlwinds, who lost against the Harlem Globetrotters (47-44). Before this exhibition, another friendly match was played in which the Catalan team lost against Sewanee University (46-40).

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A study conducted with 228 basketball players warns that menstrual cycle alterations are prevalent among elite athletes and that this can affect both their well-being and their performance. The collective research, carried out by Pilar Crespo, Nuria Herranz, Víctor Estella, Esther Morencos, María Herranz, and Gil Roda, head of the medical area of the Barça Innovation Hub, concludes that more research is needed to better understand the impact on athletes' quality of life, performance, and susceptibility to injuries.More than three-quarters of the players surveyed reported dysmenorrhea (86.8%) and premenstrual syndrome (77.6%). In addition, more than half of the athletes stated they had heavy menstrual bleeding during menstruation and a quarter of the players included in the study reported having had amenorrhea at some point in their menstrual life.Previous research had shown how menstruation-related symptoms, such as abdominal cramps, tiredness, or fatigue, can limit players' training capacity, but the specific characteristics of the menstrual cycle and its relationship with performance, well-being, and injuries in athletes are not well understood. This cross-sectional study aimed to better understand the characteristics of the menstrual cycle (menarche, length, dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, etc.) and the use of hormonal contraceptives among elite basketball players.More than 70% of women experience symptoms such as mood swings, fatigue, and physical discomfort during the premenstrual phase. In addition, most suffer from primary dysmenorrhea, intense and debilitating pain. Half of the women also report intense cramps, nausea, or headaches. To avoid these types of discomfort during important moments of the season, it is not unusual for female athletes to resort to hormonal contraceptives, as they help control the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome, dysmenorrhea, and other conditions. Pills suppress ovulation and reduce the thickness of the endometrium, which decreases prostaglandin production and, consequently, uterine contractions and menstrual pain. The problem is the side effects; weight changes and breast tenderness and pain. A quarter of the study participants reported using hormonal contraceptives. The most used (23.2%) was the oral pill.The researchers' conclusion is that more research and preventive and healthcare measures are needed for female athletes, because the prevalence of menstrual symptoms is high, cycle alterations are relatively frequent and can affect performance and increase injury risk. And it is especially relevant that many players do not have regular medical check-ups.Studies designed for men

As Raúl Medina, co-founder of Drop It, warns, there is a deficit in the control of women's health in sports. “80% or 90% of sports studies are conducted excluding female physiology and, therefore, training advice is given with men's hormonal bases in mind. Many studies tell women that they have to train like men. This, fortunately, is changing, because otherwise the results are not optimal,” he says.

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As reported by 'Mundo Deportivo', Mike James does not accept Barça's retraction and threatens to take the Catalan club to court. The AS Monaco player signed a contract with the Catalan club, but the Culer entity wanted to retract the decision when they learned that Xavi Pascual would leave Barcelona. The coach from Gavà, who will pay his termination clause to move to Dubai Basket, was the main advocate for the North American player.

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A desperate Real Madrid, after closing a season in which they have spent more money in their history than ever before, has decided to make a surprising change of course. The white club will dismiss Sergio Scariolo and pay the one-million-euro termination clause to sign Pedro Martínez, the Catalan coach who has just led Valencia Basket to the ACB League title. Florentino Pérez has promised him a contract until 2029.

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The Catalan team has been left with honey on its lips against Great Britain (74-76), a much more seasoned opponent that is preparing to play the World Cup qualifying matches. Lluís Costa missed the final three-pointer that would have given victory to the team coached by Jaume Ponsarnau, who had a very complete game at the Nou Congost.

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