The Spanish basketball federation shared this Saturday on social networks a video in which Sergio de Larrea, Izan Almansa, Rafa Villar and Mario Saint-Supery, four of the great Spanish promises, talk between laughter and mockery about their ways of being, their musical tastes and how much time a day they use their mobile phone. The men’s coach, Sergio Scariolo, points to that generation as the best hope to experience another stage of success and titles when they advance in their basketball and personal maturity with the 2028 Games as a starting point. And to that group of fearless kids, Rubén Domínguez also belongs, the 1.97m forward born in Puerto Real (Cádiz), who will turn 22 on January 23 and who this Saturday entered the encyclopedia with his recital with the Bilbao Basket shirt against Leyma Coruña (Basque victory 79-100).
Domínguez scored 35 points, with eight triples from 10 attempts, four rebounds, two recoveries and one assist in 23 minutes on the court to complete a PIR of 34 in a performance that broke a handful of records. It was the highest score by a player under 22 years of age in the ACB since Rudy Fernández in 2006; the best individual mark by a Bilbao Basket man in history, surpassing Axel Bouteille’s 34 points in 2019; The eight triples equal the best record of the Basque team (Luke Recker in 2006 and Alex Reyes in 2024), and make the Cadiz native the fourth basketball player aged 21 or younger to reach that level, after Alberto Herreros, Álex Abrines and Mario Hezonja . Domínguez raised his inspiration to those 35 points when in his seven previous games with Bilbao Basket this season in the Endesa League he had scored 22 points in total.
“It’s because of the daily work, there is no other secret, neither on days like this are you so high nor on others, so low, you have to continue,” explained the protagonist, cited by Scariolo as one of the guests for the last call with the absolute, in which Jaume Ponsarnau, his coach, expressed: “He has already demonstrated this ability to score in Europe. Defensively he has to improve, especially from experience, but in concepts he is very applied. And in attack he has that gift of shooting, and today he took great advantage of it. The team has believed in him, it was very cool to go to the locker room and have all the players chant his name.”
Domínguez debuted in the ACB in November 2020 with Movistar Estudiantes after coming through the youth ranks of Unicaja and has returned to the elite with his signing for Bilbao Basket last summer and after his time in the LEB Oro with Tau Castelló. At the age of 15, he won silver in the 2018 U-16 European Championship and the following year he won the gold medal (in the final against France in Wembanyama) and was the MVP of the continental championship in the category. He repeated at the top of the podium in the 2022 U-20 European Championship and now hopes to hook on to the new great generation that is knocking on the door of the absolute team.
