By Giorgos Orfanakis / info@eurohoops.net
The Red-and-whites had a tough time overcoming the obstacle of Anadolu Efes in the playoffs of the competition but they ensured their participation in the 10th Final Four in their history, where they’ll be facing behemoths of European basketball like Real Madrid, CSKA Moscow, but also Fener, who look more ready than ever.
In fact, the situation could have been even better for Olympiacos if they had managed to be more effective the previous times they went after the title. To be precise, the Greek team counts 3 trophies in 9 participations, which is a figure of 33.3%, while they’ve played in 7 finals and have celebrated in 3 of those, that is, a 42.8% figure.
Tel Aviv 1994: 2nd place
The Greek “civil war” against Panathinaikos in the semifinals went in the most ideal way as Zarko Paspalj (22 points, 7 rebounds) and Roy Tarpley (21 points, 16 rebounds) completely dominated and got their team the qualification with 77-72.
Two days later, though, the emotions were completely different. Zeljko Obradovic pulled another miracle, Thompson scored the winning three-pointer and Paspalj proved fateful from the free throw line. Olympiacos’s first attempt didn’t have a happy ending…
Zaragoza 1995: 2nd place
In the semifinal against Panathinaikos, Eddie Johnson proved the reason why the team’s fans called him… pistol, and with 27 points he gave Olympiacos – who had now gotten the better of the Greens – the win (58-52).
However, he wasn’t as accurate in the big final and so Real Madrid of the great Sabonis forced Giannis Ioannidis’s team to settle with second place once again (73-61).
Rome 1997: 1st place
The dazzling David Rivers, the dominant Dragan Tarlac, captain Giorgos Sigalas and an excellent unit guided by Dusan Ivkovic travelled to the Italian city and made the extra step that they hadn’t been able to make the previous two times.
Olimpija Ljubljana in the semifinal (74-65) and Barcelona in the final (73-58) proved to be very low hurdles for Olympiacos who, on April 24, 1995, made history and at the same time kept Greek basketball at the top of Europe for the second season in a row.