By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Baxi Manresa, Hapoel U-NET Holon, Lenovo Tenerife, and MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg will battle it out in Bilbao Arena. The Basketball Champions League Final Four crowning the champion of the 2021-22 season will go down in history and certainly will be decided on the basketball court. However, reimagining the season-ending stage into a European song contest has its perks.
As the BCL with 17 teams from eight countries reaching the Final Four through the six years of competition history, the Eurovision Song Contest offers the opportunity for singers representing multiple countries to shine in a fair competitive environment. When it is all said and done in Bilbao, Turin’s Eurovision will be next up.
Drawing similarities between the Champions League and Eurovision develops several interesting points.
Eurohoops connects the 2021-22 BCL finalists to songs, singers or bands that are an integral part of Eurovision’s track record through the years.
Baxi Manresa – Maneskin (Zitti e buoni)
The most recent Eurovision winner, Maneskin rocked Rotterdam and Europe entirely performing “Zitti e buoni”, just like the players guided by Pedro Martinez rocked through the competition this season.
Red-hot Chima Moneke as the lead singer in a contest-winning performance would not be such a stretch. Add Ismael Bako, Joe Thomasson, and Luke Maye to the mix, and you got a Maneskin version of a basketball team.
“I feel like this team, in ten years, people will still be talking about this team,” Moneke described his experience at the Catalonia outlet appearing on a recent episode of BCL Diaries. Expect the UC Davis product to deliver an equally strong winning speech, if Manresa gets the job done in Bilbao.
“We just want to say to the whole of Europe, to the whole world, rock and roll never dies!” Damiano David paved the way after Maneskin was named the 2021 Eurovision winner.