The historic Real Madrid basketball coach, who led the white team for thirteen seasons, died on Thursday at the age of 93 | The man from Alicante was one of the most relevant coaches in the history of Spanish basketball
Sitting on the second stone bench that opens the Retiro Statues walk along Alfonso XIII avenue, the tormented thought led him to swear: “If I don’t win I kill myself“. Shortly before, he had met Raimundo Saporta, Santiago Bernabéu’s confidant, who during a trip to Alicante had no choice but to bow to the insistence of a short young man and promise to find him some hole in the Real Madrid basketball section the day it appeared in the capital of Spain.
It was the 50s and that short man with tan skin who answered to the name of Pedro Ferrandiz not only had he fallen in love until the exhaustion of basketball after running into an impromptu game in the hall of the Avenida cinema, in the middle of Rambla de Alicante, but from that moment he insisted on learning all its secrets of that sport to become a coach and stand out in all the local tournaments he played.
Alicante soon outgrew him. He collected two thousand pesetas borrowed and he packed his bags to travel to Madrid trusting that Saporta would keep his promise. While the Madrid manager sought accommodation for him, he entered as secretary of Manolo Martínez, a Spanish swimming champion who, after finishing his sports career, was managing threads in Education and Rest.
Finally, Raimundo Saporta gave him an opportunity as organizer and youth basketball tournaments sponsored by Cervezas Mahou, a position that helped him position himself waiting to find a hole on some team.
The sky opened shortly after. The unexpected loss of the coach of the children’s team served him the opportunity to train on a plate. And from that moment he did nothing but win.
To do this, climbing a step each year until reaching the first team, he not only limited himself to training, but also acted as sports director signing the players who trained under his discipline.
That is how he came to the top, accumulating success after success with the confidence of the Bernabéu and Saporta, who were increasingly enthusiastic about a coach who, at the end of his career, placed four European Cups and twelve league titles in Real Madrid’s showcases, numbers that no other coach had until the moment has been able to reach.
From his hand came figures such as Emiliano, Brabender, Morrison, Lolo Sainz, Luyk, Cabrera, Cristóbal, Corbalán, Walter Sczerbiak and many others who, like him, ended up becoming legends of madridismo.
All in all, Ferrándiz, the most successful coach in the history of the white club, not only stood out for his numerous titles (a total of 27 including the Spanish Cups) but also for his innovative spirit and for being a basketball visionary.
His was the invention of the autobasketwhich forced FIBA to change the regulations, when on January 18, 1962, he ordered an action to be carried out on the court that days before the match he believed could be crucial in the result of a European tie. That happened in Italy, in a first leg of the round of 16 of the European Cup against Varese. The end of the match came with a tight result (tie at 80 with two seconds to go). Ferrándiz had lost his best men due to injury or exclusion (Highwer, Morrison, Emiliano…) and a more than likely extension could serve up a lethal result in favor of the Italians. Given this, the coach called a time-out and ordered the plan outlined in advance to be executed: Lolo Sainz would deliver the ball to Alocén and he would put it in his own basket to give Varese a minimal advantage that would avoid extra time and serve the comeback in the second leg to be held in Madrid a week later.
The stunned Italians, who began laughing at what they considered a unheard of mistakeit didn’t take long for them to realize the ruse, but when that moment came, the entire white team was leaving the track in the direction of the locker room.
The self-basket gave the long-awaited result: Madrid won by 18 in the second leg and reached the final, losing to Dinamo Tbilisi. The FIBA prohibited, from then on, that action, under a fine of 1,000 dollars and expulsion of two years. But like so many times throughout a fruitful career that would see him win four European Cups, Ferrándiz had been the smartest.
Included in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame of the NBA, he led the white basketball team in 490 games, during 13 seasons that were spread over several stages between 1959 and 1975.
Shortly after retiring, he received an offer from FC Barcelona, but his loyalty to Madrid led him to reject the offer with a certain amount of sarcasm. “He called me a director of Barça and made me an offer. When I heard the amount – exorbitant at the time – I asked him: But that is per month or per yearso he hung up the phone on me and I never heard from him again,” recalled Ferrándiz, showing off his uncompromising Madridismo.
In addition to occupying the merengue bench in its most glorious stage, Pedro Ferrandiz also came to be coach of the Spanish team, in a brief period between 1964 and 1965.
Being a baby of a few months, he entered the arms of his mother with a fever of forty in the Co-Cathedral of San Nicolás during one of the bombings that Alicante suffered during the Civil War. After leaving the religious complex alive, smiling and in good condition, the mother considered him blessed.
And, obviously, he did not have to fulfill his suicide oath in the Madrid Retreat either. Throughout his sporting life, Ferrándiz did nothing but accumulate successes.