FERNANDO MARTIN - 101 Greats of European Basketball

Fernando
Martín
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A pioneer gone
too soon
Under the name of Fernando Martin,
there are not many numbers in the
NBA data storage. He played 24 games
with the Portland jersey for a total
146 minutes and had 22 points and
28 rebounds. Looking only at those
numbers, it’s difficult to call the man behind them a
“pioneer in the NBA”, but the case of Fernando Martin
is justified when we look at the year we are talking
about: the 1986-87 season.
Martin, who was born March 25, 1962, in Madrid and
died December 3, 1989, was just the second European
player in the NBA. Nowadays, only the veteran connoisseurs
of European basketball and the NBA know that
the honor of being the first belongs to Georgi Glouchkov
of Bulgaria. In the summer of 1985, Glouchkov
signed a guaranteed contract with the Phoenix Suns for
two years, thus making the history books.
Fernando Martin was the next one but had double
bad luck. First, a constant flurry of injuries prevented
him from playing at his best and, second, he suffered
from a total lack of trust for European players on the
part of his coaches. That is something that many
others like Vlade Divac, Alexander Volkov, Sarunas
Marciulionis and Drazen Petrovic suffered later, too,
even though they got more opportunities to show
their skills.
The signing of Martin by Portland changed the way
the NBA was treated in Spain. Until then, newspapers
published very little content about the league, television
didn’t even air games and the best-known NBA
players were nobodies in Spain. With Fernando Martin,
everything changed.
A star in Damascus in 1979
I remember the name of Fernando Martin well because
I heard it for the first time at the U16 European
Championship 1979, which took place in Damascus,
Syria! The Middle East was then part of FIBA Europe.
Luka Stancic, the Yugoslav head coach, led his team
to victory in the final against Italy by the score of
103-100. However, Stancic talked to me about “some
Fernando Martin,” the big man of the Spanish team
which, coached by Aito Garcia Reneses, won the bronze
medal. In the first game, which Yugoslavia won by only
one point, 89-88, Martin scored 23 points and overwhelmed
all the big men of the Yugoslav team. With
a total 123 points (17.6 average), Martin was the best
Spanish scorer and one of the outstanding players in
the tourney that gave European basketball other greats
such as Antonello Riva (Italy), Valeri Tikhonenko (USSR),
Uwe Blab (Germany), Zoran Cutura (Yugoslavia) and
Andres Jimenez (Spain).
One year later, at the U18 European Championship
in Celje, Slovenia, I could see the enormous potential
of Martin with my own eyes. In the first game
against Israel, he scored 37 points, against Belgium
18, against France 11, against Czechoslovakia 34,
against Bulgaria 25, against the USSR 33. He would
put up 30 points against Bulgaria in the game for the
bronze medal that Spain lost 96-90. He was a dominant
center despite being just 2.05 meters tall. His
broad shoulders, long hands and rebounding abilities
made him play bigger than his height. His phys-
101 greats of european basketball
Fernando Martín
M

Vladimir Stankovic
ical power went hand in hand with good technique,
a solid mid-range shot and, most of all, his winning
character. He was a natural-born fighter, a man who
never surrendered and never acknowledged a loss
before the final buzzer.
Born and raised in Madrid, Martin started playing in
the Estudiantes basketball school, which has produced
so many other great players. He was one of those kids
with a talent for just about any sport. He excelled at
handball, table tennis and swimming. In 1980, he made
his debut on the Estudiantes first team and starting in
1981 he was a staple in the starting five. It was clear
that Spanish basketball had its new jewel. Many clubs
put their eyes on him. It is normally said that he had a
pre-agreement with Joventut Badalona, but an offer
from Real Madrid together with the fact that he would
be able to stay in Madrid made him sign for the Whites
in the end.
He made his debut with the Spanish national men’s
team, coached by Antonio Diaz Miguel, on May 13,
1981, in Bordeaux against France and scored his first
2 points with the red jersey that he would wear a total
of 86 times. After playing in the World Cup 1982
in Colombia (13.1 points per game), Martin was also
a very important man in the Spain team that won the
silver medal at EuroBasket 1983 in France. I saw him live
there once again, as I did at the Los Angeles Olympics in
1984, where Spain won the silver again and where Martin
averaged 16.6 points. That summer, in the qualifying
tournament for the Olympics, played in France, Martin
led his team with 23.6 points. As always, he played
each and every game with maximum effort, fighting
with much bigger men than him. He was a coach and
a fan favorite. He was an example and a leader on the
court. In the 1985 EuroBasket in Germany, Martin also
had good numbers (16.6) as he did in the 1986 World
Cup in Spain (15.3).
With Drazen, against Drazen
During his first stint with Real Madrid, Fernando
Martin won four Spanish League titles, two Spanish
King’s Cups and one Saporta Cup. The latter came in
1984 in Ostend, Belgium against Dino Meneghin’s Simac
Milano by the score of 82-81, with Martin posting
12 points and 10 rebounds. On April 3, 1985, he played
his only EuroLeague final against Cibona Zagreb, but
Madrid lost 87-78. Drazen Petrovic was the executor in
that game with 36 points, while Martin had 14.
After a year in Portland, Martin went back to Real
Madrid in 1987 and in the Korac Cup final, a two-game
series, Real Madrid got some revenge against Cibona.
In Madrid, the Whites won 102-89 and in Zagreb they
lost 94-93 (47 points by Petrovic), but Martin did not
play the games due to a serious injury that had him
away from the courts for a long time. One of the few
games he played that year was in Belgrade, against
Crvena Zvezda, in February of 1988. Madrid won 89-82
with 11 points from Martin.
In the summer of 1988, Real Madrid signed Drazen
Petrovic and the old rivals became teammates. In
November of that year, Real Madrid won the Spanish
King’s Cup. In the quarterfinals, it defeated Huesca
easily 88-64 with Martin’s 17 points. In the semis,
against Joventut, Real Madrid won by 26 points, 90-74,
as Martin scored 11. In the title game, the victim was FC
Barcelona by the score of 85-81. Martin scored another
11 points and Petrovic led the way with 27.
The highlight of that year was a win in the Saporta
Cup final against Snaidero Caserta in Athens on March
14, 1989. It was the same stage on which Martin lost
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Nobody could imagine that was the last trophy Fernando
Martin would lift.
On December 3, 1989, Fernando Martin left his
house to drive to a home game against CAI Zaragoza
– a game which, by the way, he was not going to play in
due to some back problems he had been dealing with
for some time. On the M30 highway that circles Madrid,
he lost control of his Lancia in the middle of the afternoon
and he died in the accident. Martin was only 27
years old and still had a long career ahead of him. The
game was suspended, and his funeral drew the presence
of many big names in Spanish sports, including
his on-court rivals like Epi and Audie Norris. Real Madrid
retired his jersey number 10 and in 2007 he was inducted
into the FIBA Hall of Fame.
The Martin name was present for a few more years
in Spanish basketball through Antonio, Fernando’s little
brother, who followed his footsteps in Estudiantes, Real
Madrid and the Spanish national team. Also, Jan Martin
played for a few years in Estudiantes, Real Madrid and
Fuenlabrada. Jan, the son of Fernando and Petra Sonneborn,
an Israeli model, also played in several clubs in
his mother’s country.
So, the Martin saga lives on – if not on the courts,
then surely in the memories of all of us who were lucky
enough to enjoy the game of Fernando Martin.
Fernando Martín
the European crown to Petrovic in 1985. It was an unforgettable
game that Madrid won 117-113, with overtime
included after the fourth quarter ended 102-102. In an
offensive festival, Petrovic shined with 62 points (8 of
16 threes in 45 minutes) while on the other side, Oscar
Schmidt had 44 points in 44 minutes (6 of 11 threes).
101 greats of european basketball
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