B2 · Upper Intermediate
11 min
sportsbasketballcultural historyglobalization
Down Twenty-Nine and Somehow Winning
Veintinueve puntos y un milagro
The New York Knicks pulled off the largest comeback in NBA Finals history last night, erasing a 29-point deficit to beat the San Antonio Spurs 107-106 on a tip-in by OG Anunoby with 1.2 seconds left. Fletcher and Octavio dig into what this means for two franchises with very different legacies, and why basketball stopped being just an American sport a long time ago.
Los New York Knicks lograron anoche la mayor remontada de la historia de las Finales de la NBA, superando un déficit de 29 puntos para derrotar a los San Antonio Spurs 107-106 con un mate de bandeja de OG Anunoby a 1,2 segundos del final. Fletcher y Octavio analizan qué significa esto para dos franquicias con historias muy distintas, y por qué el baloncesto lleva décadas siendo algo más que un deporte americano.
5 essential B2-level terms from this episode, with translations and example sentences in Spanish.
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| remontada | comeback; the act of overcoming a significant deficit | La remontada de los Knicks anoche fue la mayor en la historia de las Finales de la NBA. |
| remontar | to come back, to overcome a deficit or difficulty | El equipo logró remontar una desventaja de veintinueve puntos en el último cuarto. |
| ventaja | lead, advantage | Los Spurs tenían una ventaja enorme a mitad del tercer cuarto. |
| pabellón | indoor sports arena | En los pabellones de baloncesto estás mucho más cerca de los jugadores que en un estadio de fútbol. |
| juego colectivo | team play, collective game | Los Spurs eran famosos por su juego colectivo y su disciplina táctica. |
Twenty-nine points.
I want to just let that number sit there for a second.
Twenty-nine points down, in the NBA Finals, and they won.
Mira, yo no soy un fanático del baloncesto americano, lo admito.
Look, I'm not a die-hard American basketball fan, I'll admit it.
Pero cuando vi el marcador esta mañana, tuve que releer el artículo tres veces porque pensé que había entendido mal.
But when I saw the score this morning, I had to reread the article three times because I thought I'd misread it.
That's exactly the right reaction.
That's the reaction a rational person has.
A twenty-nine point lead in the Finals doesn't evaporate.
Except last night it did.
Para los oyentes que no conocen bien la NBA: las Finales son la serie por el campeonato, y normalmente cuando un equipo lleva una ventaja tan grande, el otro equipo simplemente acepta la derrota.
For listeners who don't know the NBA well: the Finals are the championship series, and normally when a team has that big a lead, the other team essentially accepts the defeat.
Es casi una cuestión de protocolo.
It's almost a matter of protocol.
Right, and the previous record for a Finals comeback was twenty-four points, set by the Boston Celtics back in 2008.
That stood for almost twenty years.
The Knicks didn't just break it, they shattered it.
Y lo que más me llama la atención no es solo la remontada en sí, sino cómo terminó.
And what strikes me most isn't just the comeback itself, but how it ended.
Un jugador que se lanza hacia el balón en el último momento, lo toca apenas, y ese contacto mínimo decide el partido.
A player launching himself toward the ball at the last moment, barely touching it, and that minimal contact decides the game.
Es casi poético, ¿no?
It's almost poetic, isn't it?
OG Anunoby.
Born in London, Nigerian parents, plays for New York, wins it on a tip-in with 1.2 seconds left.
That sentence alone tells you something about what the NBA has become.
Eso es lo que más me interesa del baloncesto americano hoy en día.
That's what interests me most about American basketball today.
Ya no es un deporte de una sola cultura.
It's no longer a sport of one single culture.
Es completamente global, y lo ha sido durante décadas, aunque los americanos tardaron un poco en darse cuenta.
It's completely global, and has been for decades, even if Americans were a little slow to notice.
You're going to bring up Pau Gasol at some point in this conversation, and I want you to know I'm fully prepared for that.
No voy a hablar solo de Pau Gasol, Fletcher, aunque podría hablar de él durante horas.
I'm not going to talk only about Pau Gasol, Fletcher, though I could talk about him for hours.
Pero tienes razón en que España tiene una relación especial con el baloncesto.
But you're right that Spain has a special relationship with basketball.
No es un deporte secundario aquí.
It's not a secondary sport here.
Es una pasión real.
It's a genuine passion.
Before we get into all of that, walk me back through what happened last night, because I think there's a story inside the story.
Being down twenty-nine isn't just a number.
At some point in that game, people in that arena were leaving.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
A mitad del tercer cuarto, los Spurs dominaban con tanta claridad que era difícil imaginar un escenario diferente.
Midway through the third quarter, the Spurs were dominating so clearly it was hard to imagine a different scenario.
Pero el baloncesto tiene algo que otros deportes no tienen: el tiempo nunca se acaba de verdad hasta que se acaba.
But basketball has something other sports don't: time never really runs out until it does.
There's a kind of compressed drama to basketball that I've always found fascinating.
You can have ten lead changes in the final two minutes.
Football, soccer, you wait.
Basketball just keeps coming at you.
En España decimos que el fútbol es religión, pero el baloncesto es pasión de otra manera, más íntima.
In Spain we say football is religion, but basketball is passion of a different kind, more intimate.
Los pabellones son más pequeños, estás más cerca de los jugadores.
The arenas are smaller, you're closer to the players.
Puedes ver sus caras cuando cometen un error.
You can see their faces when they make a mistake.
Es casi incómodo.
It's almost uncomfortable.
Now, the Knicks.
I have to talk about the Knicks, because for a certain kind of sports fan this is not just a win, it's almost a theological event.
This franchise hasn't won a championship since 1973.
Más de cincuenta años.
More than fifty years.
Es mucho tiempo para una ciudad como Nueva York, que en todo lo demás está acostumbrada a ganar.
That's a long time for a city like New York, which in everything else is used to winning.
Para los aficionados de los Knicks, esto debe sentirse como algo que ya no creían posible.
For Knicks fans, this must feel like something they'd stopped believing was possible.
Madison Square Garden has hosted some of the great moments in American sports history.
Ali fought there.
The Rangers won the Stanley Cup there in '94.
But the Knicks have been, to put it charitably, a study in sustained disappointment.
Eso lo entiendo perfectamente.
I understand that perfectly.
En España tenemos el Atlético de Madrid, que durante décadas vivió a la sombra del Real Madrid.
In Spain we have Atlético de Madrid, who spent decades living in the shadow of Real Madrid.
Los aficionados del Atlético tienen una forma de querer a su equipo que es diferente: más intensa, más dolorosa, porque saben lo que es perder.
Atlético fans have a way of loving their team that's different: more intense, more painful, because they know what it means to lose.
That comparison actually lands, because there's a kind of identity built around suffering.
And then when the moment comes, it hits completely differently than it does for a team that wins every decade.
Por eso me parece importante hablar también de los Spurs.
That's why I think it's important to talk about the Spurs too.
Porque esta derrota no es solo una estadística para ellos.
Because this defeat isn't just a statistic for them.
Los Spurs han sido durante treinta años uno de los equipos más respetados del deporte americano, y ahora están en un momento de transición.
The Spurs have been for thirty years one of the most respected teams in American sport, and now they're at a crossroads.
The Spurs dynasty, the Tim Duncan era, was something I covered tangentially when I was living in the States.
It was the opposite of everything New York is.
Quiet, systematic, almost boring to watch if you didn't understand what you were seeing.
Y eso es precisamente lo que admiraban los europeos de los Spurs.
And that's precisely what Europeans admired about the Spurs.
El juego colectivo, la disciplina táctica, la paciencia.
Team play, tactical discipline, patience.
Era un baloncesto que los europeos reconocíamos porque se parecía a la manera en que nosotros jugamos.
It was a basketball that Europeans recognized because it resembled the way we play.
Which brings us to the thing I find genuinely remarkable about this era of basketball.
The style that the NBA finally embraced, movement, spacing, ball rotation, that didn't come from nowhere.
A lot of it came from Europe.
Completamente.
Completely.
Y Pau Gasol es parte de esa historia, pero también lo son Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Manu Ginóbili.
And Pau Gasol is part of that story, but so are Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Manu Ginóbili.
Estos jugadores no solo triunfaron en la NBA.
These players didn't just succeed in the NBA.
Cambiaron la manera en que la liga entiende el juego.
They changed the way the league understands the game.
And Parker and Ginóbili both won with the Spurs.
So there's an irony there: the franchise that built itself on international, European-influenced basketball just lost a game for the ages to a team that finished it with a player born in London.
Es que la globalización del baloncesto ya no es una tendencia, es simplemente la realidad.
The globalization of basketball is no longer a trend, it's simply reality.
Cuando yo era joven y veía la NBA por primera vez, los jugadores internacionales eran una rareza, una curiosidad.
When I was young and watching the NBA for the first time, international players were a rarity, a curiosity.
Ahora son parte esencial de los mejores equipos.
Now they're an essential part of the best teams.
When did you first start paying attention to basketball?
Because I remember the 1992 Dream Team as the moment the world truly sat up.
Barcelona 92.
Barcelona 92.
Yo tenía trece años y vi a Michael Jordan y a Magic Johnson jugar en mi ciudad.
I was thirteen years old and I watched Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson play in my city.
Eso fue una experiencia que no se olvida.
That's an experience you don't forget.
Pero al mismo tiempo, el equipo español llegó a las semifinales, y eso también importó mucho.
But at the same time, the Spanish team reached the semifinals, and that mattered a great deal too.
You watched the Dream Team play in Barcelona.
I'm genuinely envious of that.
Era algo imposible de describir.
It was something impossible to describe.
Pero lo interesante es que después de aquellos juegos, España no dejó de jugar al baloncesto.
But the interesting thing is that after those Games, Spain didn't stop playing basketball.
Al contrario.
On the contrary.
Esa generación de niños que vio el 92 se convirtió en la generación de Pau Gasol y de la selección que ganó el Mundial en 2006.
That generation of children who watched '92 became the generation of Pau Gasol and the national team that won the World Championship in 2006.
There's a through line there that I hadn't thought about.
One hosted Olympics plants a seed, and twenty years later you have one of the dominant basketball nations on Earth.
Y volviendo al partido de anoche, hay algo que quiero señalar sobre OG Anunoby, porque su historia es parte de ese mismo fenómeno.
And going back to last night's game, there's something I want to point out about OG Anunoby, because his story is part of that same phenomenon.
Un jugador formado en el sistema universitario americano, con raíces en Nigeria, nacido en Inglaterra.
A player developed in the American college system, with Nigerian roots, born in England.
El baloncesto es probablemente el deporte más verdaderamente global que existe.
Basketball is probably the most genuinely global sport in existence.
More global than football, you'd argue?
A ver, el fútbol llega a más países, eso no lo discuto.
Look, football reaches more countries, I won't argue that.
Pero la NBA tiene algo especial: concentra el talento mundial en una sola liga de una manera que ninguna liga de fútbol ha logrado.
But the NBA has something special: it concentrates global talent in a single league in a way no football league has managed.
Messi y Ronaldo nunca jugaron en la misma liga al mismo tiempo.
Messi and Ronaldo never played in the same league at the same time.
That's a genuinely sharp observation.
The NBA is essentially the only league where the answer to 'who are the best players in the world' and 'who plays in this league' is almost exactly the same list.
Y eso lo hace muy diferente a cualquier otro deporte de equipo.
And that makes it very different from any other team sport.
Ahora, sobre lo que viene para los Knicks: ganar el partido de anoche es enorme, pero liderar 3-1 en una serie no significa que hayas ganado el campeonato.
Now, about what comes next for the Knicks: winning last night's game is enormous, but leading 3-1 in a series doesn't mean you've won the championship.
Los Spurs todavía pueden recuperarse.
The Spurs can still come back.
Statistically, teams that go up 3-1 in the Finals win the title something like ninety-six percent of the time.
After the night they just had, I'd be nervous to bet against the Knicks on anything.
Oye, Fletcher, hay algo que dijiste antes que me quedó dando vueltas.
Hey, Fletcher, there's something you said earlier that's been bouncing around in my head.
Usaste la palabra 'remontar' cuando describiste lo que hicieron los Knicks, y me parece que es una palabra que vale la pena explorar.
You used the word 'remontar' when describing what the Knicks did, and I think it's a word worth exploring.
I did, yeah.
I caught myself using it.
It just felt more precise than 'comeback'.
Does 'remontar' mean something broader than that in Spanish?
Sí, bastante más.
Yes, quite a bit more.
'Remontar' viene de 'montar' más el prefijo 're', que implica volver a subir algo.
'Remontar' comes from 'montar' plus the prefix 're', which implies going back up something.
En el deporte significa superar una desventaja, pero fuera del deporte puedes usarlo para situaciones mucho más serias: remontar una crisis económica, remontar una enfermedad.
In sport it means overcoming a deficit, but outside sport you can use it for much more serious situations: coming back from an economic crisis, recovering from an illness.
So it carries genuine weight.
In English 'comeback' can mean anything from winning a championship to releasing a pop record after two years away.
'Remontar' sounds like it actually means something was steep.
Exacto.
Exactly.
Y el sustantivo es 'remontada', que en el fútbol español tiene un significado casi mítico.
And the noun is 'remontada', which in Spanish football has an almost mythical meaning.
La remontada del Barça contra el PSG en 2017, por ejemplo.
Barça's remontada against PSG in 2017, for example.
No es solo una victoria.
It's not just a victory.
Es una historia de resistencia y de no rendirse cuando todo parece perdido.
It's a story of resistance and of not giving up when everything seems lost.
I'd say last night was a remontada by any standard.
Twenty-nine points, one point margin, 1.2 seconds remaining.
If that word didn't exist, someone would have to invent it for last night.
Y fíjate que en inglés necesitas tres palabras para decirlo: 'historic comeback win'.
And notice that in English you need three words to say it: 'historic comeback win'.
En español tienes una sola: remontada.
In Spanish you have just one: remontada.
A veces la lengua sabe más que nosotros sobre qué cosas merecen tener su propio nombre.
Sometimes language knows more than we do about which things deserve their own name.