By Stefanos Tatsios / info@eurohoops.net
Sarunas Jasikevicius’s team shocked Olympiacos in the playoffs by stealing the qualification for the Final Four in Belgrade, where they are considered – not without reason – the big outsiders for the championship.
Of course, Zalgiris Kaunas haven’t been the only surprise in the history of the EuroLeague by taking part in the Final Four, since we’ve seen this fairytale unfolding in front of our eyes many times in the past and, without a doubt, basketball fans love when this happens since nobody likes… routine.
Eurohoops presents the teams that got into the EuroLeague Final Four as Cinderellas in the modern era of the competition (2002-2017), and their accomplishments in the big appointment of Europe’s top club competition.
Panathinaikos 2002: The epic win in Bologna with Bodiroga the MVP.
In 2002 in the EuroLeague, Panathinaikos were coming off a lost final from 2001 to Maccabi Tel Aviv in Paris and their goal was to at least get into the Final Four.
Zeljko Obradovic had an excellent team with Bodiroga, Alvertis, Kutluay and Middleton. Of course, they weren’t as strong as they had been in previous years, but they were still a strong EuroLeague team.
What they did in the Final Four: Panathinaikos’s presence in the Final Four in Bologna is considered by many one of Zeljko Obradovic‘s top coaching performances, since he won the trophy as the ultimate outsider.
To begin with, in the semifinal against Maccabi, Dejan Bodiroga’s feats (26 points, 9 rebounds) and Middleton’s excellent performance (15 points, 5 rebounds) were enough for Panathinaikos to advance to the final. There, however, the opponent was going to be Ettore Messina and Manu Ginobili’s Kinder Bologna, playing on their home court as the favorites to win the EuroLeague from the start of that season.
In the first half, the Italians had the lead (48-40), but in the second Bodiroga (21 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists), Kutluay (22 points, 5 rebounds) and Lazaros Papadopoulos (12 points, 5 rebounds) put their signatures on an historic triumph. The Greens played excellent offense, tightened up their defense and… shocked the home team and the Final Four organizers by lifting the trophy with an 89-82 win in Bologna!
Tau Ceramica 2005: They shocked CSKA, but didn’t get to lift the trophy
Tau Ceramica – currently Baskonia – are one of the most traditional forces in European basketball in the last 20 years and they have made history in the EuroLeague. The only time they got close to the European champions’ throne was in the 2005 Final Four in Moscow.
Dusko Ivanovic had created an amazing team with excellent players such as Splitter, Calderon, Macijauskas, Scola, Prigioni and Hansen, that was efficient and played beautiful basketball.
What they did in the Final Four: The 2005 semifinal between CSKA Moscow and Tau in Russia was, if not the best, then one of the greatest semifinals that have ever taken place in the Final Four. Dusan Ivkovic’s home team were the undisputed favorites to get the qualification, as they had a multitude of stars like Papaloukas, Holden, Brown, Dikoudis and Andersen, plus they were playing at home.
But the amazing Basques were unstoppable on the court and with Macijauskas (23 points, 3 assists, 3 rebounds) and Calderon (13 points), they played amazing defense and managed to pull off a miracle by beating CSKA 85-78 and got the qualification for the final.
There, however, they showed that, apart from lacking experience in finals, they were also tired, and they were defeated fair and square by Sarunas Jasikevicius’s (MVP) Maccabi Tel Aviv (back-to-back wins) by 90-78, missing the opportunity to win the EuroLeague for the first time in their history.
Partizan Belgrade 2010: They got close to the miracle of the final, but… Childress got in the way.
It was the biggest surprise of the last decade in the Final Four, without a doubt. At a time when teams’ budgets were very high, Dusko Vujosevic’s Partizan Belgrade went all the way to the Final Four in Paris with a tight-knit group that played excellent defense and had talented players in offense.
Let’s not forget that that’s where the best center in the EuroLeague today, Jan Vesely, started his career in the ‘3’ position (!), while McCalebb, Kecman and Maric were his teammates.
What they did in the Final Four: In the semifinal in Paris, the Serbs had to face the most impressive Olympiacos team of the previous years, based on their roster, a team that – together with Barcelona – were the favorites to win the EuroLeague. In Panagiotis Giannakis’s Reds, the names of Papaloukas, Childress, Kleiza, Teodosic, Bourousis, Vujcic, Beverley and Schortsanitis dominated.
The Piraeus team, despite being the big favorites, saw an inexperienced Partizan team showing up in the semifinal with an amazing squad, going toe-to-toe with them. As a result, the game went into overtime thanks to Chidress’s follow-up dunk in the final seconds of the game. In the extra five minutes, coach Vujosevic’s players paid a price for their fatigue and Bourousis’s offensive rebounds, and were knocked out by suffering a bitter 83-80 defeat.
In the end, the Serbs said goodbye to their last Final Four to this day, with a close 90-88 loss to CSKA Moscow in the third place playoff, finishing in fourth place.