[lptitle title=”Begin the countdown”]
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By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
Real Madrid are in danger of becoming the first European champions to be disqualified from as early as the regular season of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague. What have the teams that have won the trophy done in the very next season? Eurohoops.net looks back.
How long does the… aura of the European champion last? Does winning the Euroleague trophy give an extra boost to those teams in the very next season so they can have a good start and also an ideal finish to the year?
Prompted by Real Madrid, who have made by far the worst start of a European champion in the last 15 years, Eurohoops.net searched to find what has taken place in the past, revealing that, until recently, the gold dust from winning the Euroleague had been enough for most teams.
From 2000-01 champions Kinder Bologna, to the Real team of the 2014-15 period, only two have won back to back Euroleague titles (Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv in 2005 and Olympiacos Piraeus in 2013), and another five have qualified to the Final Four but didn’t win. Furthermore, three European champions have been disqualified during the playoffs and four during the Top16!
Read on for more details!
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[lptitle title=”Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv“]
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2014-15
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv
Regular period: 7-3 wins (2nd)
Top 16: 9-5 wins (3rd)
Playoffs: Disqualification in 3-0 wins from Fenerbahce Istanbul
A year after their triumph against all odds in Milan, Maccabi reached the Euroleague Playoffs with many ups and downs throughout the season. In the 2014-15 season they were knocked out easily from the Final Four in 3-0 wins from Fenerbahce, which is normal considering the big changes in the roster that team had compared to the one that won the trophy. David Blatt moved to the NBA, while the protagonists of that year, Ricky Hickman, Tyrese Rice and Shawn James, also left Tel Aviv.
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[lptitle title=”Olympiacos“]
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2013-14
Olympiacos
Regular period: 10 wins (1st)
Top 16: 8-6 wins (3rd)
Playoffs: Disqualification in 3-2 wins from Real Madrid
The team that had two consecutive Euroleague trophies didn’t manage to reach the Final Four for the fifth time in the last six years. Olympiacos had an impressive start to the season with a 10-0 record during the regular period, but “paid for” the injuries of Vassilis Spanoulis, Georgios Printezis and Stratos Perperoglou in that same period midway through the Top16 when they suffered four defeats in a row. This was preceded by the loss of Acie Law with a serious injury after Christmas as well as the summer departures of Kyle Hines, Pero Antic and Kostas Papanikolaou. In any case, the red-and-whites succumbed in the fifth game of the Playoffs.
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[lptitle title=”Olympiacos“]
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2012-13
Olympiacos
Regular period: 8-2 wins (2nd)
Top 16: 9-5 wins (2nd)
Playoffs: Qualification in 3-2 wins over Anadolu Efes Istanbul
Final Four: Winners (69-52 win over CSKA Moscow, 100-88 win over Real)
The Olympiacos team of the 2012-13 season is the only team after Maccabi in 2004-05 that celebrated back to back wins in the last 25 years. Despite changing the coach (Georgios Bartzokas replaced Dusan Ivkovic), the red-and-whites retained the biggest part of their core unit and won
the Euroleague again, despite often playing a different style of basketball. Apart from the excellent Final Four Games with the excellent defensive game against CSKA Moscow and the great offensive game vs Real Madrid, the turning point of the season was the fifth Playoffs game against Efes.
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[lptitle title=”Panathinaikos Athens“]
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2011-12
Panathinaikos Athens
Regular period: 7-3 wins (2nd)
Top 16: 4-2 wins (2nd)
Playoffs: Qualification in 3-2 wins over Maccabi Tel Aviv
Final Four: 4th place (64-66 defeat by CSKA Moscow, 69-74 defeat by FC
Barcelona Lassa)
Panathinaikos qualified for the Final Four in Istanbul the following season after they won the title in Barcelona, which was also Zeljko Obradovic’s last one on the team’s bench. The greens kept the biggest part of the roster that won the 6th European title in the team’s history (except Antonis Fotsis and Drew Nicholas) and in this way, despite the ups and downs, the qualification to the Final Four was seen as meeting the objective of the season. They couldn’t go the extra mile in the semifinal against CSKA though, which was decided by details.
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[lptitle title=”Barcelona“]
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2010-11
Barcelona
Regular period: 7-3 wins (3rd)
Top 16: 6-0 wins (1st)
Playoffs: Disqualified in 1-3 wins by Panathinaikos
In 2011 Barcelona had a golden opportunity to bring off the repeat at home but they missed the opportunity as Panathinaikos knocked them out in the Playoffs of the competition despite having the home advantage. The “blaugrana” won the title in 2010 in Paris and the next season they were the big favorites. Besides, Barcelona’s course leading up to the playoffs was excellent. However, the absence of Pete Mickeal, who departed midway through the season, really hurt Xavi Pascual.
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[lptitle title=”Panathinaikos“]
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2009-10
Panathinaikos
Regular period: 8-2 wins (2nd)
Top 16: 2-4 wins (3rd)
For the second time after 2008, Panathinaikos, having the title of the European champion, weren’t able to go any further beyond the Top16. The greens had a very bad start in the Top16 and with four consecutive defeats (two from Barcelona and one each from KK Partizan and Maroussi B.C.) they bid the tournament farewell prematurely, despite the fact that the roster Zeljko Obradovic had at his disposal was almost the same to the one that had surprised Europe a year earlier in the Final Four in Berlin. The injuries that hit the greens at a crucial point in the season created insurmountable obstacles.
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