The weekend of the 18th and 19th of October, FC Barcelona will take part in a four way tournament with the Lakers, the Raptors and the Clippers. It will be the fourth time the Barça basketball team faces an NBA team.
The first time Barça played against a team from the North American professional league was in the
McDonalds’ Open against the Denver Nuggets in 1987. The object of that tournament was for
teams from the NBA and the FIBA to play together. FC Barcelona, along with Real Madrid, is the
European team most invited by the NBA. To be exact three times, but sometimes the rival was another
European team.
The second game with an NBA flavour was more recent. It was in 2003, when the Barça squad
faced the Memphis Grizzlies. The third time Barça shared the court with a North American team was
two years ago, in 2006, against the Philadelphia 76ers. This game also made history, as FC
Barcelona became the first European team who managed to defeat a team from the NBA (104-99).
Below are more details of all Barça’s participations in the McDonalds’ Open:
Rome, 1989
The Italian capital is where the Denver Nuggets, Split Jugoplastika,
Philips from Milan and Barça met. The Barcelona players made their debut against Alex
English’s Nuggets. Barça, however, had no chance against the NBA team and ended up losing
137-103. FC Barcelona finished fourth, after losing to Philips from Milan too (136-104). The Denver
Nuggets won the tournament.
Barcelona, 1990
The Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona held a new edition of the McDonalds’ Open. This time
the NBA team that took part were the mythical New York Knicks. The other teams were POP 84 from
Split, Scavaloni de Pesaro and FC Barcelona. This time though, Barça didn’t play any NBA
teams, as they lost in the semi-finals against POP 84 (102-97). The Knicks beat the Croatian team
in the final (117-101).
París, 1997
The Omnisports in Paris was the venue for the eighth edition of the McDonalds’ Open.
Barça played again but with a slightly different format to the previous occasion. Now there were
six participants: Chicago Bulls, Racing from Paris, Benetton from Treviso, Athens Sporting
Association from Argentina, Olympiacos and of course Barça.
The Barcelona team didn’t play against an NBA team, as PSG Racing Paris eliminated them
by 97-84 and later by Benetton from Treviso by 106-103. The tournament was won, as expected, by
Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.
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