The 54-year-old Real Madrid basketball coach, Pablo Laso, has been admitted to the Sanitas La Moraleja Hospital in Madrid as an emergency since Sunday morning, after suffering a myocardial infarction one day after leading the white team in the second semifinal match of the Endesa League against Bitci Baskonia.
The technician is stable, within the seriousness of the situation. The club has confirmed the news through this statement: “Real Madrid C.F. announces that our coach Pablo Laso is admitted to the Sanitas La Moraleja University Hospital after suffering a myocardial infarction early today.”
The coach from Vitoria had no history of heart problems, and had only missed games when he contracted Covid during the pandemic. In principle, his assistant Chus Mateo will take charge of the team in the third game of the semifinal playoff, next Tuesday in Vitoria against Baskonia.
Born in Vitoria on October 13, 1967, he has been coach of the Real Madrid first team since 2011, becoming in February 2021 the coach with the most games of the club, surpassing Lolo Sainz.
Laso came to the Whites’ bench after extensive experience as a player, with 19 seasons in the ACB for 19 years, in which he is the all-time leader in assists (2,896) and steals (1,219). He is also in the top ten with most games (624) and minutes played (17,378).
Pablo Laso made his debut as a professional basketball player at Baskonia, where he was under the names Caja de Álava and Taugrés Vitoria from 1984 to 1995. He then moved to Real Madrid, where he played from 1995 to 1998. In his last active years he played for Trieste and Unicaja Málaga (1998-99), Girona (1999-2002) and Caprabo Lleida and Valladolid (2002-03).
As a coach, he made his debut with Amics del Basket in the LEB League (2003-04), before moving on to Valencia Basket (2004-05) in the ACB and then returning to League B with Cantabria Baloncesto (2006-07). and San Sebastián Guipuzcoa Basket (2007-2011), first in the LEB and then in the ACB. In the summer of 2011 he would sign for Real Madrid.
At the white club, Laso has won two Euroleagues, five ACB Leagues and six Copas del Rey, as well as seven Spanish Super Cups. Madrid renewed him in June 2021 for two seasons, so his relationship with the whites ends, for now, in June 2023.
