101 Greats of European Basketball

The 8 who was a
perfect 10
December 22, 1997, was a day to celebrate
a basketball great. Thousands
of loyal fans packed Pavello Olimpic in
Badalona, Spain, to pay homage to Jordi
Villacampa, one of Joventut Badalona’s
biggest legends. With the club’s ecstatic
fans, and in the presence of his many friends and most
influential coaches – including Lolo Sainz, Zeljko Obradovic
and Alfred Julbe – the great Penya captain scored
his last baskets as an active player. With a three-way
tourney between Joventut 1997, Joventut 1994 and FC
Barcelona, Villacampa’s No. 8 jersey was retired and a
brilliant career came to an end.
Today it’s almost impossible for an elite player to
spend his whole career with the same club. Those types
of relationships simply do not exist anymore. But Jordi
Villacampa would not have had it any other way. He was
a Joventut player for life, from the junior teams to his
debut in the first team at age 16 until he retired at 35.
He left behind 17 seasons, 506 games in the Spanish
League and 8,991 points scored. That still stands as
the second-best points total all-time in Spain, behind
Alberto Herreros and his 9,759 points, although Villacampa’s
scoring average of 17.77 points per game was
better and ranks seventh in Spanish League history.
A Korac Cup champion at 17
As a teenager, Villacampa worked his way into the
Joventut rotation and into club history. On March 19,
1981, at the Palau Blaugrana – the home of FC Barcelona
– Joventut played for a continental trophy in the
Korac Cup final. The opponent, Reyer Venezia of Italy,
was led by the fearsome duo of Drazen Dalipagic and
Spencer Haywood. After a very close duel that saw a
92-92 tie lead to overtime, Joventut won by the slimmest
of margins, 105-104. That was the first trophy for
a very young Villacampa, who was not yet 18, having
been born on October 11, 1963, in Reus, Spain. Villacampa
didn’t score in the four minutes he played in the
final, but his head coach, Manel Comas, knew that he
had a star in the making. Earlier that season, Villacampa
had cracked the rotation and was getting minutes
every game. He scored his first 4 points in the Korac
Cup on January 21, 1981, in a Joventut win at Villeurbanne.
Later he scored 8 against Sunair Oostende and
2 points against Crvena Zvezda.
Seven years later, on March 16, 1988, in Grenoble,
France, Villacampa lost a European final. Joventut
came up short 96-89 after overtime in the Saporta Cup
final against Limoges. Villacampa led his team with 19
points, Reggie Johnson added 18 and veteran Josep
Maria Margall had 14 points. The Limoges trio formed
by Don Collins (28 points), Stephane Ostrowski (23
points, 11 rebounds) and Clarence Kea (22 points, 8
rebounds) destroyed Joventut’s European dream.
One year later Joventut reached the Korac Cup finals
against a Scavolini Pesaro side coached by a young
Sergio Scariolo and led by Walter Magnifico, Ario Costa
and the excellent American duo formed by Darwin Cook
and Darren Daye. Joventut managed to score two wins:
99-98 in Pesaro and 96-86 in Badalona. In the first duel,
Villacampa scored 29 points and in the second 22.
He was backed by Jose Antonio Montero (21 and 28)
and Lemone Lampley (21 and 17). Through these three
101 greats of european basketball
Jordi Villacampa
V