By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
In Stankovic’s words: Another Final Four is around the corner and what a wonderful way to crown a champion it is! Since the format was permanently adopted in 1988, I have seen all of them. Some 25 of them I experienced in person and the rest I watched on TV.
These are my memories of the most exciting moments that have marked the tournament, in my opinion. There has been a bit of everything: drama, emotion, heroes and tragic figures, great games, great stars and great coaches. Of the Final Fours I did not witness live, from Ghent in 1988, I remember Bob McAdoo, one of the best Americans to ever play in Europe. From Munich in 1989, I remember the talents of Toni Kukoc and Dino Radja; from Paris in 1991, the great duo of Kukoc and Zoran Savic sparked the Jugoplastika three-peat; and from Munich in 1999, the traditional Lithuanian power Zalgiris lifting the trophy with the help of genius playmaker Tyus Edney.
Long live the Final Four!
10. 2004 – THE MIRACLE!
If someone were to look at the final score of the 2004 championship game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Fortitudo Bologna, 118-74, one might think: Where is the miracle in the largest win in the history of the competition? This is a bit of a trick question, because the miracle was to be found weeks earlier in the Top 16 finale, when Maccabi was almost eliminated by Zalgiris Kaunas. A three by Derrick Sharp in the last moment allowed Maccabi to force overtime in the decisive game and then roll in the extra session to make the Final Four in its own city. That was a great team with Anthony Parker, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Nikola Vujcic, Maceo Baston, Tal Burstein, Gur Shelef, Sharp, David Bluthenthal… but they were championns thanks to a miracle. Never had a title won in May been, in fact, achieved in April, three weeks earlier.
9. 1993 – THE SURPRISE
If someone asked me about the biggest surprise ever in the Final Four, I’d say it took place in Athens when Limoges defeated Real Madrid and Benetton Treviso to lift the title. The titles by Jugoplastika and Partizan in earlier years were also surprises, but those were talented teams. Limoges had will and hard work. Of course, it also had a couple of great players, especially Michael Young and Jure Zdovc, plus the experience of Richard Dacoury. Coach Boza Maljkovic led that team and got the best from his group of players. They played basket-control (62-52 against Madrid in semis and then 59-55 in the title game with Benetton) and that earned them some enemies, but those players won the title showing that a coach’s biggest virtue is to make the best use of the players at his disposal.
8. 1989, 1990 and 1991 – THE TALENT
The Jugoplastika team that took continental basketball by storm at the beginning of the 1990s was an eternal source of talent and young stars like Radja and Kukoc. The team also had experience in captain Dusko Ivanovic and young jewels-in-the-making like Velimir Perasovic, Savic, Luka Pavicevic and Goran Sobin. They were coached by the same Boza Maljkovic, who had led his players to back-to-back wins in 1989 and 1990. Pure talent also won a third straight title in 1991, already without departures like Radja, Ivanovic and Maljkovic, but with a great Kukoc.
7. 1996 – THE CONTROVERSY
Fans in Barcelona still believe to this day that they were robbed in the 1996 final against Panathinaikos. It’s true that Stojan Vrankovic’s block of Jose Antonio Montero was illegal, but nobody in Barcelona will want to hear anything about how Montero’s steal and dash towards the Greens’ basket was also an illegal play. It was another bad job by the table officials, like the one in Tel Aviv 1994 where the clock stopped with 4.8 seconds to go. We don’t know if those mistakes were intentional to help somebody in particular or not, but the fact is this: all of Montero’s play happened with the clock stooped, therefore, it didn’t really happen. There’s no doubt that Barca got the bad end of the deal, but that was not an illegal block because it was not a live play. As a fun fact, Zeljko Obradovic lost in the Final Four for the firat time that year, with Real Madrid.
6. 2003 – THE MOST DESIRED
After so many frustrated attempts, FC Barcelona finally managed to realize the dream and win the EuroLeague title at Palau Sant Jordi, in Barcelona. The team coached by Svetislav Pesic, in his first year on Barca’s bench, used the home-court factor in the tourney to get rid of CSKA Moscow in the semis, 76-71, and then beat Benetton Treviso in the final, 76-65. It was a great team with MVP Dejan Bodiroga, Jasikevicius, Juan Carlos Navarro, Gregor Fucka, Anderson Varejao, Rodrigo De la Fuente, Roberto Dueñas and Patrick Femerling… Without a doubt, the most-desired title.
5. 2006 – EXCITEMENT
The eternal Russian champ, CSKA Moscow, won its fifth continental title… 35 years after the previous one! The fourth had come in 1971. A few months before the CSKA triumph at the Prague Final Four, CSKA president Aleksandar Gomelskiy, a coaching legend in Europe who dominated the competition in the 1950s and 1960s, had passed away. He was at the helm of the new CSKA project that took the team back to the top, but it had falled short three times – in the 2003, 2004 and 2005 semis – of taking the trophy . CSKA finally climbed to the mountaintop, but did so without Gomelskiy. The title was dedicated to him.
4. 1992 – DRAMA
Never before in the history of European competitions had a team played as many games on the road as Partizan Belgrade in 1991-92. Due to war in Yugoslavia, Partizan played 20 of 21 games away from its permanent home, with Fuenlabrada, Spain as its adopted home for EuroLeague games. The team reached the quarterfinals from fourth place in its group, but eliminated Virtus Bologna in their playoff series to reach the Final Four in Istanbul. Partizan won the title after beating Milan in the semifinals and Joventut Badalona in the final behind the famous three-pointer by Sasha Djordjevic with just a couple seconds to go, 71-70.