At the same time as the Cup, it will be played in Malaga starting Wednesday the Endesa Mini Cup, another of the attractions of this week of pure basketball in the capital of the Costa del Sol. The most promising 12 and 13 year olds from the Spanish clubs’ quarries will once again attract the attention of European fans and scouts and of the same NBA, that is already beginning to follow the evolution of these players.
Dabone, star to follow
Many players have gone through this tournament who have later reached professional basketball. Ricky RubioLuka Doncic or Domantas Sabonis are three good examples of world basketball stars who cut their teeth in this tournament when they were children.
On this occasion there is a name that resonates above the rest for this Málaga 2024 event: Mohamed Dabone. The player born in 2011 in Burkina Faso He arrived last summer at the Barça youth academy and has not taken long to arouse the interest of scouts from all over the world, including the NBA itself.
Despite his young age, only 12 years old, It is already 2.08 m tall. and is demonstrating qualities to be one of the stars of the future. This same season, at the end of 2023, he was already the MVP of the Leukemia Foundation Tournament, where he scored a PIR of 40 in the final against Real Madrid. He was also the MVP of the final of the Spanish Cadet Championship of regional teams, which Catalonia won against Andalusia, while he was still pre-infantile.
Dabone has a privileged and unusual physique in boys his age, which makes him dominate under the boards at will in matches of his category. For this reason, he has already played matches with cadet and the junior of Barça, to fight with rivals theoretically superior to him.
Without a doubt, it will be one of the attractions of the Endesa Mini Cup 2024 that starts on Wednesday in carranque. If the stands are already usually full to watch these matches of the young promises of Spanish basketball, the expectation will be maximum when Dabone jumps onto the hardwood. The NBA scouts They are already very aware of the center of Burkinabé origin.
tournament bracket
On the same day that the draw for the ‘seniors’ took place, the teams participating in the Mini Cup also knew their rivals. In this case, the eight qualified clubs are divided into two groups of four and the best two from each side will advance to the semi-finals.
He Unicaja Andalusia was placed in Group A along with Real Madrid, Joventut Badalona and BAXI Manresa. Manolo Bazán’s team will debut on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. against Manresa; On Thursday at 12:00 they will have a tough match against Madrid and they will close the group stage on Friday at 12:00 against Penya. Group B is made up of Valencia Basket, Barça, Basquet Girona and Casademont Zaragoza.
The semifinals and the fight for 5th and 6th and 7th and 8th place will be played on Saturday, leaving for Sunday (10:30 a.m.) the 3rd and 4th place and the grand final (1:00 p.m.). All matches will be played in the José Luis Pérez Canca de Carranque pavilion, except for the final, which will be at the Martín Carpena, next Sunday morning.