By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
There’s a likely scenario that the Finals of the 2020 Spanish ACB League will feature back-to-back games.
In the schedule for the 2019-2020 season that ACB announced today, the program includes the possibility that Game 1 and 2 of the Finals will be held in consecutive dates: 6 and 7 of June.
This will happen in case a Spanish team participates in the EuroLeague Final Four and at least one of the semifinal series reaches a Game 5. It’s a strong possibility since ACB reigning champion Real Madrid, for example, has missed only one of the last seven Final Four tournaments. The “Blancos” plus Barcelona are considered contenders each season and there hasn’t been a Final Four without at least one Spanish side since 2005.
ACB mentions that the schedule was planned as such due to the 2020 EuroLeague Final Four being held on 21 to 24 of May (four days later than the 2018 edition) plus the fact that the Finals will have be completed by June 12 due to the 2020 Olympic Games.
The Association of Spanish Basketball Players (ABP) reacted to the 2019-2020 ACB schedule by characterizing it as “madness.” ABP also mentions that “the overload of matches is unsustainable. It’s a problem that EuroLeague and FIBA have created with their changing and selfish calendars in which players, the main figures in this business, aren’t taken into account.”