Champions Unicaja receive hero's welcome in Malaga

MALAGA (Spain) - Even torrential rainfall cannot dampen the mood of newly crowned champions - and their dedicated fanbase - when they fulfil the collective dream of a city that's a European basketball hotspot.

That is really the last takeway from the 2024 Basketball Champions Final Four, even though we didn't find out in the Serbian capital but in another hoops-loving city, about three thousand kilometers away.

On Monday evening, and despite the despite the adverse weather conditions, the capital of the Costa del Sol, Malaga received the players and staff of Unicaja with a hero's welcome, after their triumph at the Belgrade Final Four.

The team boarded a custom-decorated bus and paraded the city streets that were lined with fans, waiting patiently in the rain, all the way to the centre.

Malaga mayor Francisco de la Torre and Andalucia Diputación, Francisco Salado who had accompanied the team in Belgrade and was one of the first people to congratulate them during the Sunday night trophy ceremony, received the Unicaja delegation at town hall, alongside Francisco Salado, president of the Andalusian government's provincial deputation.

The team then presented the trophy to their fans from the town hall balcony, with club president Antonio Jesús López Nieto, head coach Ibon Navarro, team captain Alberto Díaz and... usual master of ceremonies Dylan Osetkowski speaking on behalf of the team.

The Monday evening festivities followed a spectacular reception at Malaga airport in the very, very early hours of Monday morning, when the Unicaja charter flight landed back home with the beautiful, spiky BCL trophy as the latest addition to the aircraft's passenger log.