By Stelios Toromanidis/ info@eurohoops.net
We have all experienced those moments when the clock is ticking down, everyone’s adrenaline spikes, eyes pop from their sockets, no one can breathe and everything hinges on a single shot. These are the moments that make basketball the most exciting game on the planet!
Since the turn of the century, the Euroleague has witnessed hundreds of great shots. Some have decided a game, others secured tickets to a Final Four and there have even been championship games with such moments. To celebrate these unforgettable moments, Eurohoops.net chose its top ten and presents them here for fans to take a trip down memory lane to re-witness some of the competition’s greatest moments.
The list includes the best game-winning shots, but not those that took a game into overtime.
Thus, for instance, Derrick Sharp’s unbelievable buzzer beater in the Top 16 finale in 2004 – which took the Maccabi Tel Aviv–Zalgiris Kaunas game into overtime, where the home team won and qualified for the Final Four in Tel Aviv – is not among our choices. The same goes for Joshua Childress’s follow in the semifinal between Partizan Belgrade and Olympiacos Piraeus in the 2010 Final Four in Paris, which gave the Reds a second chance in the extra five minutes and, in the end, the ticket to the final.
Sit back and enjoy the countdown of the greatest game-winners in competition history.
Game: Skipper Bologna 76-75 Efes Pilsen
Phase: Top 16 Round 5, 2004
Arena: Paladozza, Bologna
Perpetrator: Gianluca Basile
Time remaining: 0:02
Up until the 2003-04 season there were no playoffs and the tickets to the Final Four were issued to the teams that won each of the four Top 16 groups. So, the March 31, 2004, game between Skipper and Efes had the flavor of a final. A pair of free throws by Antonio Granger gave Efes a 75-73 lead with 10 seconds remaining. In the decisive attack, the ball went to the hot hands of Basile, who, with his sixth three-pointer in the game, sent his team’s fans to seventh heaven.
Game: CSKA Moscow 84-82 Tau Ceramica Vitoria
Phase: Top 16 Round 5, 2004
Arena: Universal Sports Hall, Moscow
Perpetrator: Theodoros Papaloukas
Time remaining: 0:04.2
CSKA and Tau were battling in the same Top 16 group for a ticket to the Final Four. With one win separating the two sides (CSKA 4-0, Tau 3-1), the game in Moscow was of particular importance. The Basques needed a win by at least 3 points and one minute before the end, Arvydas Macijauskas gave Tau an 82-77 lead, but CSKA, with an unbelievable comeback, tied the game at 82-82 with 10 seconds remaining. That’s when the Deus ex machina, Papaloukas, appeared, stole the ball from Pablo Prigioni and dunked at the other end to send his team to the Final Four.
Game: Caja Laboral Vitoria 81-83 Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv
Phase: Playoffs Game 2, 2011
Arena: Fernando Buesa Arena, Vitoria
Perpetrator: Jeremy Pargo
Time remaining: 0:01.3
Caja Laboral had home-court advantage in this best-of-five series and won the opener. But Maccabi did not want to return to Tel Aviv empty handed. With the score tied 81-81, Laboral had the ball, but after a missed layup, the visitors turned to Pargo, who took charge. The playmaker waited out the clock, and at the right moment made his move and sank a clutch jump shot to win the game. Subsequently, his team won the two games that followed and clinched their place at the Final Four in Barcelona.
Game: Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv 74-75 Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul
Phase: Playoffs Game 3, 2015
Arena: Menora Mivtachim Arena, Tel Aviv
Perpetrator: Andrew Goudelock
Time remaining: 0:09.1
For Fenerbahce its first participation in a Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four was at stake. Down 0-2 in the series, Maccabi was hoping to win its home games and stay alive. Maccabi put forth a strong resistance, but Fenerbahce claimed its coveted qualification. Goudelock scored the deciding basket with a layup shortly before the end after leaving Devin Smith behind.
Game: Tau Ceramica 66-64 Benetton Treviso
Phase: Playoffs Game 2, 2005
Arena: Fernando Buesa Arena, Vitoria
Perpetrator: Luis Scola
Time remaining: 0:42.2
Tau qualified for the first of four consecutive Final Fours thanks to Scola. In the first game of the playoffs they won in Treviso comfortably, 59-98, to steal Benetton’s home-court advantage. However in Vitoria, Benetton was particularly competitive and, as a result, the winner was decided in the details. Benetton had a 59-64 lead with only three minutes remaining. In the time remaining time, the scene changed completely with Pablo Prigioni and Scola as the chief protagonists. The latter was the one who, with a hook shot, sent his team to the Final Four.
Game: Olympiacos Piraeus 71-68 FC Barcelona Lassa
Phase: Playoffs Game 4, 2015
Arena: Peace & Friendship Stadium, Piraeus
Perpetrator: Georgios Printezis
Time remaining: 0:00
Olympiacos led the 2015 playoffs series 2-1 against Barcelona and had the first match point at its disposal. The game was a real thriller and everything was decided in the final attack. The Reds inbounded the ball with 5.2 seconds left in regulation time. After some great ball movement, the ball reached the last-minute man, Printezis, who, with a three-point buzzer beater, sent Olympiacos to its fifth Final Four in just seven years.
Game: Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv – Benetton Treviso
Phase: 5th Week Top 16, 2003
Arena: PAOK Sports Arena
Perpetrator: Tyus Edney
Time remaining: 0:00
Benetton celebrated their second consecutive participation in a Final Four thanks to a trick shot by Edney at the expiration of the game in the fifth week of the Top 16 against Maccabi! The Italian team secured their participation in the Final Four in Barcelona with Edney’s buzzer beater (second in this video) after Trajan Langdon’s assist that ended any hopes the Israelis had for an overthrow in the standings and a reversal of the qualification.
Game: CSKA Moscow 68-70 Olympiacos Piraeus
Phase: 2015 Final Four, Semifinal
Arena: Barclaycard Center, Madrid
Perpetrator: Vassilis Spanoulis
Time remaining: 0:10.5
In a close semifinal, CSKA managed to build a 9-point lead with five minutes remaining, but Spanoulis seemed destined to decide the outcome. He missed his first 11 shots up to that point, but he made the next four. In fact, the last one of those, a step-back jumper over Nando De Colo’s outstretched arms in a one-on-one situation, essentially sealed the win for Olympiacos.