The generational change in basketball brings stories from beyond the seas, the pearls are now children of immigration with familiar paths of travel, borders and difficulties. Like Usman Garuba or Yankuba Sima in the men's team, the women's team that as of this Thursday faces the Eurobasket in Israel and Slovenia -debuts against Latvia- also presents the power of genes and the integration with the rookie Lola Pendande (Almería, 2000).
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Lola has a unique physique (1.93 meters) and a future to dream of, but she also already wears the scars of racism. He suffered it in Spain, but much more so in his days in the United States, where, like so many jewels in the national basket, he chose to continue his training.. There, first in Los Angeles and later in Utah and Miami, he experienced fear and succumbed to depression.
Pendande, who has achieved the final ticket in Miguel Méndez's team partly due to the absence for personal reasons of the nationalized Astou Ndour -also due to the injuries to Irati Etxarri and María Araujo-, was born and raised in Las Norias de Daza ( Almeria). There, near El Ejido, his parents had come from Guinea Bissau, a previous passage through Portugal. Despite the difficulties, sport was an escape route for her. He soon stood out in athletics, he flew in the 100 meters, and at 12 he tried the baskets, at CD Roquetas.
Pendande, during one of the preparation matches.
Such was his evolution that he was soon packing his bags. First to the Canary Islands to pass through the hands of the guru of former coach Domingo Díaz, then directly to the United States. The initial step was a preparatory college for the University, the Ribet Academy in Los Angeles.. And soon the jump to the NCAA, first two seasons at the University of Utah and later at the University of Miami, with which this last season he has played the March Madness and where he graduated in Political Science. «I have very clear ideas, my parents are immigrants and I am the first in my family to go to university.. I have a little pressure because I always tell my mother that I am going to help her in everything I can, “he confessed a few months ago in an interview for the Spanish Federation.
After her return from America, the Andalusian has just signed for Barça CBS, with whom she already played the 2018/19 season. Dreams that come true, like that of the senior team after a long career in training categories (under 20 European champion in Sopron). Although I still remember the hardness of the road. It was upon her arrival in California, even without speaking English fluently, that Lola had the worst time.. She knew the crudest form of racism and depression took over her, still a child. «It is different in the United States than in Spain. Here I suffered it, but I did not give importance to it because I was small. There he is socialized. I was even afraid to go out into the street without being accompanied by a white person”, he admitted a few days ago in MARCA.