Barcelona basketball fires Joan Peñarroya as coach after team’s free fall | Basketball | Sport

FC Barcelona announced this afternoon the dismissal of Joan Peñarroya as coach of the basketball section in which he arrived in the summer of 2024 and with which he did not win any title and did not reach any final. He will be replaced on an interim basis by assistant coach Óscar Orellana. Barça’s decision comes after Barça’s home defeat against Girona this Sunday morning (96-78) in the ACB League match and after Friday’s home defeat in the Euroleague against Real Madrid (92-101). That was his ninth consecutive defeat in a classic. The Barça fans, with president Joan Laporta present in the Palau Blaugrana area, responded: chants and chants demanding the resignation of Josep Cubells, section head. The results were the straw that broke the camel’s back, but the most worrying thing is the anti-competitive image that the team presented and its drift: this season, Barcelona has two wins and four defeats in the ACB League (eleventh position), which currently leaves it out of the positions that give access to the Copa del Rey, and five wins and four defeats in the Euroleague (ninth position).

“It’s a day to take responsibility, to grit our teeth and be closer than anyone else. It’s a tough day because we are certain that we haven’t competed. I ask the team to be more united than ever. There’s a lot of season left, but what happened on Friday and today doesn’t help us achieve anything positive. We shouldn’t look for excuses,” Peñarroya said in a press conference after the match against Girona. The post-match meeting took place in the corridors of Fontajau between Cubells, Juan Carlos Navarro, general director of the section, and his right-hand man, Mario Bruno Fernández, sports director. And in the locker room, with the players. “I will continue to function as before. I feel strong and good with my staff. I feel that the players are screwed, but I can help them,” he added to reporters. “I don’t make decisions,” he said when asked about his future.

“We need to apologize and make a very strong self-criticism. Today is a shame. The coach is trying many things and the players aren’t responding. We are all responsible. We doubt everything, many game situations, and that doubt doesn’t give us the energy we should,” Nico Laprovittola explained to Fontajau after the defeat against Girona. “Would you understand if the club decided to change course with the coach?” a journalist asked him after the player assured that the team supports the coach. “Yes, I don’t know if it’s ideal, I don’t know, but I would understand if this was the answer. We are at the highest level of demand, in a club like Barça, and anything can happen.”

Barcelona basketball has been going through a desert for years, with two empty seasons under its belt, something that hasn’t happened since 1993. The team’s drift has distant origins, with the sector bleeding financially year after year – there is a difference of around 20 million between the budget of Barcelona and that of Real Madrid – and forced to lower itself from fair play club finance. “Our budget, in net salaries, is mid-table and bottom in the Euroleague,” Peñarroya commented a few days ago to Cadena SER. In the summer of 2023 it was decided not to renew Sarunas Jasikevicius on the bench due to his high contract. The franchise player, Nikola Mirotic, also left with him, who also did not meet the club’s financial needs. Roger Grimau was chosen to lead the bench. But in June 2024, the club fired him after a blank year.

The following season without titles was already under the command of Peñarroya, a path marked above all by the number of injuries that hit the team, also by the controversies for the failure to sign Thomas Heurtel, even by defeats: Barça fell in the quarterfinals of the Cup, in the same round in the playoffs of the Endesa League and did not qualify for the Final Four of the Euroleague. The economic situation has shrunk the sector, with no star names among the signings or without success. And the team, among themselves, seems disjointed. Even with the Palau fans.

Peñarroya leaves the club with a record of 51 wins and 41 losses. This week Barça will face a double day in the Euroleague, and this Wednesday they will play against Bayern without him on the bench.