September 28, 2014... a day to be remembered in history! I can say that Flamengo basketball existed before and after this date. I'll explain why.

This was the day Flamengo's basketball team joined the ranks of World Champions, a select group comprised of teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​the Olimpiacos, the Panatinaicos, and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Only one Brazilian team had previously won this title, EC Sírio in 1979, which boasted the duo Oscar and Marcel, among other Brazilian basketball legends.

We played the World Cup final against Maccabi Tel Aviv, the Euroleague champion at the time. How did we get there? A long journey that began on November 24, 2012, in the first match of the NBB 5, when we played against the CETAF team in Vila Velha, Espírito Santo. It was the beginning of a season of significant milestones for the red-and-black basketball team.

We achieved the incredible feat of longest winning streak at the start of the competition: twenty in a row. To win this NBB title, we played 43 matches and won 37 of them. An incredible 86% success rate. A very high percentage, considering the level of the championship. The final was against Uberlândia, at Arena da Barra, on June 01, 2013. This Flamengo title took away Brasília's dominance, which had won the three previous editions.

With this achievement, Flamengo secured a spot to play in the Liga das Américas, a competition that began on February 7, 2014, in Quito, Ecuador.

On March 22, 2014, at Maracanãzinho, Flamengo won the Liga das Américas undefeated (eight wins in eight games) after defeating Pinheiros, the defending champion. It was the first time in history that Flamengo had won the Liga das Américas. 

The conquest of the Americas then gave the Club the passport to play in the Intercontinental Cup, the Basketball Club World Cup.

So, anyone who thinks we only played two games to become world champions is mistaken. The road was much longer... It took 53 games and 46 wins. A spectacular 87% success rate, rarely seen in other teams around the world.

An image that's always stuck in my mind since I started following basketball was the Sírio-Libaño title at the Ibirapuera Gymnasium. Right after the match ended, fans invaded to celebrate this historic victory with the team. For me, this was a symbol of recognition and gratitude for the achievement.

Thirty-five years later, the same thing was happening to me and my team at Arena da Barra, when we won the long-awaited world title! It was time to make a dream come true!

I will always be grateful to Flamengo, and to all the people involved, for being able to experience these moments of SUCCESS!