The Hernangomez brothers - watch this space!

MADRID (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - 'Los Gasols' are the basketball brethren that have set the sports world alight the past several years.

They are extraordinary.

They are hoops royalty. 

Both started at the 2015 NBA All-Star Game, Marc Gasol for the West and Pau Gasol for the East.

Both were world champions with Spain in 2006, silver-medal winners at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics and title-winners at the EuroBaskets in 2009 and 2011.

It's hard to imagine another two brothers reaching the top of the game as they have.

There are, however, a couple of other brothers on the Spanish hardwood that people are buzzing about.

Willy and Juancho Hernangomez play in the Liga Endesa and will go up against each other this season in the Madrid derby.

Willy is 21 and back at Real Madrid after two successful seasons on loan at CB Sevilla, and 19-year-old Juancho plays for Estudiantes.

Their star is on the rise.

Willy, with Marc Gasol not making himself available for national team duty this summer, is vying for a spot in the national squad that will play at the EuroBasket in Montpellier.

The 2.10m center has already had a lot of highlight reel moments in his career, including this past season for Sevilla.

Juancho just had a very impressive U20 European Championship in the Spain jersey.

He was named to the All-Star Five after leading his country into the Final where Serbia upended them, 70-64.

Willy was selected by Philadelphia 76ers with the fifth pick in the second round of last month's NBA Draft and traded to the Knicks.

Juancho, a 2.04m forward, also appears to have a big future.

But can they become as good as the Gasols?

Willy says no.

It's impossible that you have two brothers emerging like the Gasols. - Willy Hernangomez

"I don't believe we will be a repeat of two brothers with the level they continue to show," he said.

Juancho agrees.

"It's very difficult that we will see a repetition of the Gasols," he said.

"But for the Spanish national team, it would be really good if you had two players of that level - even if it's half the level of what they have."

Whether they reach the level of Spain's most famous siblings remains to be seen.

They are showing plenty of signs of great things to come.

"Willy is a player that can do just about anything," Juancho said.

"These past two years in the ACB [Liga Endesa], he has proved that he can physically compete at this level and he is already one of the five or six best centers."

Willy also thinks Juancho has promise.

"I've been two years away from home and I've noticed an incredible physical change in him," he said.

"I know for a fact that he's had to work hard for it. He's really improved his shot and I think he's taken a giant step. He's going to become a tall No. 3 [small forward], a versatile player in which there are just a few in Spain."

Of course, it's not surprising that basketball is the profession that the two have taken up because their father, former Estudiantes and Real Madrid center Guillermo, and mother, 1992 Spanish Olympian and 1993 European Champion Margarita 'Wonny' Geuer, hit the heights in basketball.

Even their younger sister, Andrea, is playing the game.

She is a part of the Spanish U15 program.

"It's something to be proud of," Willy said.

"I started at the under-16 level and gradually went up. Then my brother began. My parents had already been players and now my younger sister is having the opportunity to start to grow...

"As a family, we are really proud that things are going well."

No doubt there will be a couple of occasions this coming season when everything will come to a stop in the Hernangomez family.

When Estudiantes and Real face off in the Madrid derby, it's going to be Juancho against Willy.

It will be a special day.

"When Willy gets the ball on the low post," Juancho said to Marca, "I have the pride in me that is much more so that someone else must score and not him.

"Then I can go home and remind him of it."

Jeff Taylor

FIBA

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