Even if you’ve never set foot in Spain and are not an ardent soccer fan, you’ve likely pondered whether you are more Barcelona or Real Madrid. World-renowned clubs with distinct, opposing identities.
There’s Barcelona’s homegrown approach to developing players versus Madrid’s squad of Galacticos; the Catalan club versus the one from the capital. When it comes to contests between the two, there are no neutrals in El Clásico.
But El Clásico isn’t just restricted to soccer. On Sunday, the clubs’ basketball teams will face each other for the last time in the domestic league’s regular season, Liga ACB, and with NBA Europe looming in 2027, how — and in what league — the fixture could play out in the future is uncertain.
This is a unique rivalry, one with a completely different history to its soccer equivalent.
“It’s not the same for us to play against any other Spanish team,” former Barcelona basketball great Andrés Jiménez told The Athletic. “The expectation was not only from basketball followers, but also the soccer supporters wanted their team to win. That’s why it is very important. It is more than the basketball environment.”
The teams first met in 1942. Sunday’s game will be the 348th between the two rivals, and just one win separates them, the overall record of 173-172 in Barcelona’s favour, although Madrid are historically the most successful in Europe and domestically.
Defending Liga ACB champions Madrid have won nine of the last 10 Clásicos and are 11-time EuroLeague winners, the continent’s premier competition. They are currently third in the EuroLeague standings, basketball’s equivalent of soccer’s Champions League, and in the automatic play-off positions in the 20-team competition. Barcelona, meanwhile, two-time EuroLeague winners, are 10th, the bottom playoff qualifier spot.
With 12 games remaining in the Liga ACB regular season, league leaders Madrid are currently Spain’s strongest team entering the playoffs. Led by Mario Hezonja’s 16 points per game, they are five wins ahead of third-placed Barcelona and four wins clear of second-placed Valencia.
“They (Clásicos) are very exciting when you are a player. You don’t need extra concentration because you are up for it,” said Jiménez, who played for Barcelona for 13 years, from 1986 to 1998, and won seven league titles. Such is the 63-year-old’s standing in Barcelona, his No. 4 jersey has been retired by the club.
“When you play one of these games, adrenaline is at the top,” he said. “Most of the time, it’s better to relax, because sometimes you can be nervous.”
Real Madrid’s Croatian forward Mario Hezonja drives the ball at Movistar Arena in Madrid on January 22, 2026. (Thomas COEX / AFP via Getty Images)
Los Ojos del Tigre (“the eyes of the tiger”) are one of the largest Madrid basketball fan groups with more than 500 members, around 400 of whom are season-ticket holders.
“Two top teams, the biggest rivals in Spanish history and the influence of the football rivalry. Everything leads to a big-match atmosphere. Players and benches live it differently from a normal match, and that passion is spread across the fans,” Felipe Sanchez, a Los Ojos del Tigre member, told The Athletic.
“We all want our team to beat our biggest rival, and we’ll try to help our team from the stands, but we are lucky that basketball is not as ‘problematic’ as football. You can see that before and after the match, at least in Madrid city, where fans of both teams share the same spaces and bars with no incidents.”
Sunday will be the fourth time the teams have played each other this season, but Barcelona and Real Madrid can potentially play each other up to 16 times a campaign — twice in the domestic league and the EuroLeague, as well as possibly in the play-offs of those competitions and the cups, the Copa Del Rey and the Supercopa.
Jiménez conceded that fans can get “fed up” if the rivalry is played out too many times across a season. “We want to see this game when you are playing for a title or something like that,” he said.
The Barcelona great knows about title-winning games against Madrid. He won the Liga ACB for Barca in Madrid’s arena, Sports Palace, in the 1996-97 season. In a deciding Game 5, with the final series tied 2-2, Barcelona led by three at half-time. An airhorn and drums dictated the rhythm of the hostile crowd in white jerseys.
Andrés Jiménez during a Barcelona win against Real Madrid (FC Barcelona | Author: Seguí)
Though Madrid, historically the dominant team in Spain with 38 titles to Barcelona’s 20, had topped the standings that season and were the pre-series favourites, Barcelona won 82-69 for a memorable and surprising title win. The victorious visiting players fell over each other in celebration and quickly headed down the tunnel, ushered by police in helmets after objects were thrown onto the court.
“In Madrid, there is Cibeles Square, where teams celebrate their titles with supporters,” Jiménez said. “So, they had this place ready to enjoy the title with everybody. They didn’t expect us to be able to beat them in the last game, and we took the title back to Barcelona.”
In European basketball, players often move from one team to another, hoping to progress. Teams can also be ruthless in the name of cost-cutting.
“Now, teams change players very often. It’s not good for players because they don’t understand the characteristics of each club the same way,” Jiménez said. “You have to be integrated in a team for at least a few years. If you ask a supporter to name four people on the team at the beginning of the season, they would not know them very well.”
But on the current Madrid roster, team captain Sergio Llull, 38, has been with the club since 2007. He was drafted to the NBA in 2009 but never played in the league. Argentine guard Facundo Campazzo, 34, is another long-serving Madridista, having played for the club between 2014 and 2020 before returning in 2023 after NBA stints with the Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks.
“Madrid have had a great group of players. Especially on the domestic side, their Spanish guys are the core of the team,” said Maciej Lampe, a player who has represented both clubs. “They’ve also signed good players. (Edy) Tavares is a problem.”
Tavares, 33, has been dominant since signing in 2017. The 7-foot-3 centre from Cape Verde has earned eight Liga ACB Defensive Player of the Year awards and is the all-time EuroLeague leader in blocks and rebounds.
Edy Tavares of Real Madrid and Luka Dončić, then of the Dallas Mavericks, during exhibition play in 2023 in Madrid, Spain. (Borja B. Hojas / Getty Images)
Lampe isn’t the only player to have played for both teams. More than 25 players have done so, with Barcelona’s current roster consisting of three former Madrid players. But unlike Luís Figo, who had a pig’s head thrown near him after he had moved from Barcelona to Madrid for a world-record soccer fee in 2000, the players aren’t greeted with such hostility on their return to their former clubs.
Lampe was Real Madrid’s youngest appearance maker in the EuroLeague before Luka Dončić, now with the Los Angeles Lakers, broke his record. The 41-year-old, who signed for Madrid aged 15, was one of Madrid’s first international youth prospects.
“They were one of the first to take it to the next level by bringing international guys,” Lampe said. “They started early, so I signed with them back in 1999 to 2000. They have scouts all over the world and want to develop players.”
Barcelona have developed players, too, such as the Gasol brothers, Marc and Pau, the first set of brothers to both win NBA championships.
Luka Dončić enjoyed a stellar career with Real Madrid before moving to the NBA. (Andrej Isakovic / AFP via Getty Images)
In the 2025 draft, the Boston Celtics took Hugo González, a Spanish prospect from Real Madrid, with the 28th pick. Fernando Martín blazed the path to the NBA for Spanish players in 1984 when he joined the Portland Trail Blazers from Madrid.
Spanish academies are known to preach team basketball and game intelligence, rather than a reliance on individual qualities. It has seen the country, in which basketball is considered the second sport, collect three Olympic silver medals.
The ability to produce such talent has been a factor in the NBA’s European venture, with NBA Europe planned to launch by late 2027.
Barcelona and Madrid are both target cities for the project, with representatives from both clubs present at an NBA meeting in London with stakeholders and possible investors in January, laying out what the league could look like.
Pau Gasol attended the meeting and is under consideration for a top role in the new league, The Athletic’s Joe Vardon reported.
Pau Gasol won NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers and was a six-time NBA All-Star (Lluis Gene / AFP via Getty Images)
Barcelona agreed to a 10-season EuroLeague extension in 2025, but there is a reported $11.6 million buyout, according to AS. Real Madrid are yet to confirm their extension in the league.
“We decided to support the Euroleague for now, because we had to say now whether we wanted to keep our license as founders of the competition. That’s what we chose,” Barcelona’s newly re-elected club president Joan Laporta told Catalan radio station RAC1 on Tuesday. “In case we want out, there is a penalty clause that eventually, if the NBA is so fantastic, possibly they will work to solve this issue because they want Barca in their competition.”
There are still plenty of unknowns about NBA Europe and hurdles to overcome — and one significant one for Madrid if they were to join. Unlike Barcelona, Madrid doesn’t own their arena. Barcelona own the Palau Blaugrana, which holds 7,585 and share it with other sections of the multisport club: handball, futsal and roller hockey. The club has plans to build a new, larger indoor arena across the street from the current venue in the coming years.
Madrid’s Movistar Arena is owned by the regional government. It is shared with another Madrid-based club, Club Estudiantes, with a capacity of 13,000 for basketball games. If they are to be part of the project, they would need to have their own NBA-level arena in the long term.
But the power of Barcelona and Madrid brands are undeniable.
“What’s really interesting is that those clubs come with centuries of tradition over many decades. Those brands are, in many cases, global brands and have appeal and fans all over the world,” George Aivazoglou told The Athletic in September when speaking about multisports clubs who could join the league.
Although this rivalry is the heartbeat of Spanish basketball, should both teams one day play in NBA Europe their brand appeal, combined with NBA marketing, could help this version of El Clásico attract an even wider audience — and perhaps even see it become as highly anticipated as its football equivalent.