By Arale Weisberg/ aralos10@gmail.com
“Over the years it became less significant, but yes – I had never won the European champions cup and I sure regret it. I’ve reached four finals and lost all of them, sometimes due to things that weren’t up to me.”
The speaker: Israeli legend Doron Jamchy. Today he is 53 years old, and just recently became a grandfather. And he is still considered as one of the deadliest shooters in the history of European basketball. 25 years ago he scored nine three pointers in the Final Four and this record (which he holds along with Greek legend Panagiotis Giannakis) is yet to be broken.
Maccabi Tel Aviv was the second – and last, so far – team that lost three finals in row, from 1987 to 1989. Jamchy was there in those losses, but you can’t put the blame on him. He scored 15, 24 and 25 points. But even when he returned to the big stafe, at the age of 39, in year 2000, he was unlucky and lost again – this time to Oded Kattash and Panathinaikos.
Jamchy is not alone. Here are the greatest players who never won the Final Four:
Kevin Magee. The late big man also lost three times with Maccabi. He committed 13 personal fouls, and in his last appearance was helpless against a young talented guy named Dino Radja.
Nick Galis. This man is the biggest scorer in all times. He reached the Final Four three times with Aris Thessaloniki, scored 32.1 points per game and never made it to the final. Later on, Galis moved to PAO, but unlike his teammate Giannakis, he finished his career too soon and didn’t win the trophy in 1996 with the Greens.
Marcus Brown. He is ranked second in the Euroleague’s scoring list. Played for six different clubs, participated in three Final Fours – but fell in the semifinal every time. He was the main reason for CSKA’s heartbreaking failure in the 2005 Final Four in Moscow – from 21 wins in 22 games during the season to a surprising home loss vs TAU Vitoria in the semi final.
Juan Antonio San Epifanio. Legendary “Epi” is the person who is identified with Barcelona’s image as an eternal loser – along with coach Aito Garcia Reneses. He played in the Blaugrana for 16 seasons and won every title but the European champions cup, despite participating in four finals.
Milos Teodosic. The Serbian guard will reach his fifth Final Four in the last six years this weekend in Milan. The number of trophies for him is still zero. He exploded when he was still playing in Olympiacos, but actually helped the Reds only when he played against them with CSKA – in the 2012 final and the 2013 semis.
The list is long and may contain many other big names: Luis Scola, Zarko Paspalj, Mirsad Turkcan, maybe even Sofoklis Schortsanitis and Rudy Fernandez…
So who’s gonna step up this weekend?
*originally published on Israel Hayom daily newspaper