Andrés Jiménez (basketball player)

Andrés Jiménez Fernández (Carmona, province of Seville, June 6, 1962), is a former Spanish basketball player from the 80s and 90s. He stood out as a player for F.C. Barcelona, with which he won seven ACB leagues and four Copas del Rey, among other titles, and as a member of the Spanish basketball team, with which he played 186 games, participating in the achievement of the silver medal in the Olympic Games. in Los Angeles 1984, and in the Eurobasket in Nantes in 1983. He played in the power forward position, and was 2.05 meters tall.

He retired as an active player in June 1998. On September 13, 1998, F.C. Barcelona paid him tribute by removing his shirt with his number 4, and hanging it in the Palau Blaugrana, in recognition of his merits and dedication to the club.

Career

El Cotonificio de Badalona de Aíto, Héctor Perotas, Agustín Cuesta, Jiménez, Joaquim Costa and company is a kind of Spanish basketball legend. With a ridiculous budget he established himself in the elite of national basketball, signing several campaigns of enormous merit, becoming a judge of the 77/78 league, defeating Madrid and giving the title to Zoran Slavnic's Joventut de Badalona. There are several details that made that team something unusual at the time: they trained morning and afternoon every day (it was not usual), they carried out a defense that was baptized as karate pres (the " jump and change' two years before Díaz-Miguel used it in the national team) and above all, for playing with Andrés Jiménez on the outside, something that Aíto began to use at Coto and later polished at Joventut de Badalona and in Barcelona always with the same player as the protagonist.

Jiménez's progression was constant and he became international in 1980, being part of the glorious basketball generation that won silver in Los Angeles and Nantes.

When Aíto signed for Joventut in the 83/84 season, he took his talisman player with him and together they revitalized Penya, which had just finished seventh, finishing two seasons with a third place (84/85) and a lost league final against Madrid despite the marvelous display of the Jimix (nickname with which Andrés signs the comics he draws), Jordi Villacampa, José Antonio Montero and company in the first game of the series in Madrid.

In the 85/86 season, Jiménez's path separated from Aíto's for the first time, when he signed for Barcelona. His replacement at Joventut de Badalona will be Miquel Nolis and the Badalona team will be third in the standings while Barcelona will lose the final against Real Madrid.

At the beginning of the 86/87 season, Aíto brought together in Barcelona the magical triangle of Cotonificio Badalona (Costa, Jimix and himself), which together with Epi, Solozábal, Sibilio and company results in an unapproachable team, even more so if we take into account that Joventut de Badalona is weakened by the absence of Jiménez and Madrid by that of Martín (in his brief time on the Portland bench). This team achieves all the titles at stake (League, Cup and Korac Cup) and, with the very important addition of Audie Norris, begins the era of greatest dominance that the ACB has ever known and a totally essential part of said dominance must be granted to the figure of Andrés Jiménez, who by then almost always played as a three, being practically undefendable.

His more than decent shot from 4-5 meters allows him to be a threat to his defenders at those distances and his speed and remarkable coordination mean that he is able to leave them behind with relative ease. Near the rim, his movements are fast and polished, which, together with his height, allows him to perform reliably there as well. His category of "man who makes a difference" This is evident when checking the frequency with which Lolo Sainz, coach of Real Madrid, changes American forwards in his vain attempts to stop him (neither Larry Spriggs, nor Wendell Alexis, nor Linton Townes, nor Johnny Rogers, nor Anthony Frederick will achieve in decisive moments). At that time he only had one mole: free throws. His percentage is usually more than discreet and it is something that he did not manage to correct until his career was coming to an end.

In the summer of '87 he was part of the Spanish team that placed fourth in the European Championship in Athens and his sensational work was rewarded with inclusion in the best quintet of the championship.

After four consecutive leagues and twice meeting in the Final Four with Jugoplastika, Aíto leaves his coaching position to the Serbian Bozidar Maljkovic and in that season Jiménez suffers the most important injury of his career that will keep him away for more than half a season of the fields, not being able to play in either the European Cup final or the league final (both lost, respectively, to Jugoplastika and Joventut). It is the prologue to 2 years of drought for F.C. Barcelona, which will include the worst ACB season in its history (92/93, seventh).

Jiménez's progression goes a little further with Bozidar Maljkovic and with the return of Aíto and he begins to try his luck from beyond the 6.25 line, perhaps the result of the years that make him lose speed to the point that in his last years he is practically never seen in his classic outside-in actions, focusing on the outside shot and playing in the low post, playing with the intelligence that always characterized him, making up for his physical downhill slope as a result of age.

Jiménez closes his career with three more consecutive league titles, the last of them won on the Madrid court in an extraordinary fifth game in the 96/97 season in which he has a more than worthy role despite his 35 years. On the occasion of his retirement, he was the subject of various tributes, both from his last club (which organized a disconcerting tribute match in which he did not play and took away his shirt) and from the ACB as he was the last representative. of the generation that succeeded in Los Angeles to retire.

He had a younger brother who was also a basketball player, Paco Jiménez (b. 1967), who, like Andrés, began his career at the Cotonificio Club in Badalona.

Clubs

• Cotonificio Badalona: 1978-1983.
• Club Joventut de Badalona: 1983-1986.
• F.C. Barcelona: 1986-1998.

Spanish national team

• 186 times international with absolute national selection.
• It owes with the absolute national selection in friendly party on 22/07/82 in front of the selection of Cuba in Palma de Mallorca (Spain 97 - Cuba 93).
• 17 times international with the national team Junior.
• 19 times international with the National Youth Selection.

Palmarés

• With F.C. Barcelona:

• 7 ACB League: 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1995, 1997.
• 4 King's Cups: 1987, 1988, 1991, 1994.
• 1 Prince of Asturias Cup, 1987-1988.
• 1 Korac Cup: 1987.

• With the Spanish selection:

• Silver Medal at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles 1984.
• Silver Medal at the Eurobasket of Nantes 1983.
• Bronze Medal with Youth Selection at the Youth Eurobasket in Damascus 1979.

Personal considerations

• Nominated Best Spanish Player of the season 1984-85 by the newspaper El Mundo Deportivo.
• A member of the Best Fifth of the Athens-87 European Championship.
• Nominee Gigante de Leyenda in the 1997-98 season by the magazine "Gigantes del Basket".
• 25/09/98 receives the Gold Medal to the Sports Merit.
• Participant in ACB All-Star Vigo-87.