By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
2017 was a landmark year for the EuroLeague. The top club competition grew even further in the course of this year, giving us some big emotions, and 2017 was essentially the year we really got to know the league’s exciting new format in full swing.
Eurohoops selected the 10 top events for 2017 based on their importance as well as… the extent to which we will remember them in the years to come! The highlight was definitely Fenerbahce Dogus Istanbul’s first European title, which was also the first ever in the history of Turkish basketball!
2017 was the year Ekpe Udoh became the MVP of the Final Four, and it was a year that Sergio Llull and Keith Langford will certainly remember. A year in which Luka Doncic’s star took on a glorious glow, Sarunas Jasikevicius became great as a coach and Olympiacos Piraeus reached yet another final.
Let’s take a look at them all, one by one!
Fenerbahce: The dream came true!
Fenerbahce won their first ever title in Istanbul and, as such, made 2017 a landmark year in their history but also in the history of Turkish basketball. The management worked together with Zeljko Obradovic and Maurizio Gherardini, maintainging a core group and making the necessary corrective moves every summer. First came the qualification for the Final Four of 2015, then the lost championship game of 2016. Finally, in their third attempt, Fenerbahce went all the way and picked up the “Holy Grail” of European basketball.
Led by Bogdan Bogdanovic and Udoh, together with a multitude of important players, the wild course to the final began in the playoffs. Even though they didn’t have a home-court advantage, they won the series with Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens 3-0, beat Real Madrid in the semifinal, and on May 21 became the new European champions by overcoming the last obstacle, Olympiacos, with a 80-64 win. It was the first title for Fenerbahce but also for Turkish basketball in general!
New format: The ultimate success story!
A very important event that unfolded and was completed in 2017 was the first season with the new format: 16 teams, a championship of 30 rounds, playoffs and a Final Four! The protagonists on the courts, players and coaches, the fans, media throughout the world, all agreed that this development was beneficial for the top league on every level!
Many more games, amazing thrills, endless suspense; an increase in people’s interest, in ticket sales, TV sales, revenues; growth on every level with a format that promises a lot for the future as well. The ultimate success story, and the EuroLeague together with the clubs are working to boost the popularity of the top league in the world outside of the NBA to even higher levels!
Obradovic: Only one finger still ring-less for the Lord of the Rings!
Yet another title for the most successful coach in the history of the competition since 1958, when it started, to its current form today! Obradovic won his ninth title with the fifth different team! KK Partizan (1992), Joventut Badalona (1994), Madrid (1995), Panathinaikos (2000, 2002, 2007, 2009, 2011) and, the latest, Fenerbahce (2017)!
It goes without saying that there is no other coach with as many titles and that there is only one finger left that doesn’t have a ring on it for the Lord of the Rings of European basketball. It’s worth noting that his cycle of nine titles started in Istanbul with that unbelievable winning basket that Aleksandar Djordjevic scored and, for now at least, closed in the same city with Fenerbahce after 25 years!
Udoh: Absolute domination in the paint!
2017 will be engraved in our minds because of Udoh too! It’s true that, at a time when guards usually decide the big games and titles, Udoh went against the tide with his impressive and absolute domination in the paint! His impact on Fenerbahce’s game was huge and his overall presence in the Final Four was historic!
In the two games against Madrid and Olympiacos he averaged 14 points, 10.5 rebounds, 3.5 blocks and a PIR of 32.5! The index rating of 36 that he got in the semifinal was a record, as were his 5 blocks in the championship game and his 12 assists as a center in the Final Four! What will live on in history is that Fenerbahce won the title with Udoh covering the baskets and coming up with the most dominant performances we’ve seen from a big man in many years, perhaps since those of Arvydas Sabonis in 1995!
Olympiacos: Solid, consistent and high-value
In professional sports, as in life, endurance is an important badge that shows the value of every team and every player. Olympiacos – or, the “Team of Destiny” as we characteristically started calling them after the historic upset in the final against CSKA Moscow in 2012 – continue to make history with the same philosophy, the same style and the same players as their points of reference.
In the last six seasons, from 2012 to this day, the Greek team has played in four championship games, which is certainly a big accomplishment. After the back-to-back wins in 2012 and 2013, they reached the final in 2015 and again in 2017 with a consistently strong Greek core and a unique way of becoming bigger than themselves when it counts!
The two lost finals against Madrid and Fenerbahce in 2015 and 2017 were essentially away from home for the Reds and one could say that if they had taken place on neutral ground with a different kind of balance in the stands, things might have been different. But history is not made with… ifs. What remains to be seen is whether there is still one more trophy to be won, one more all-consuming moment of success to be experienced, for Vassilis Spanoulis, Georgios Printezis and their gang.
Llull: He went through everything in 2017!
2017 is a year the charismatic Spanish guard definitely won’t forget. He was the MVP of the EuroLeague for the first time in his career! And rightly so, since in the 2016-17 season he was amazing and showed an admirable consistency in his performance. He was one of the main reasons Madrid finished in first place in the regular season. Llull averaged of 16.5 points, 5.9 assists and 1.8 rebounds while making dozens of impressive shots. Especially shots on the buzzer are now a signature move for Llull.
The Spaniard also got to see the other, sadder side of the coin. In a friendly game between Spain and Belgium on August 9, he injured his right knee. He suffered an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) rupture, he’s now going through one stage of recovery after the other, and the entire world of European basketball can’t wait for him to return stronger than ever and to make the EuroLeague shine even brighter!
Langford: Second youth, second Alphonso Ford award!
We will also remember 2017 for the great season that one of the greatest scorers in modern history, Keith Langford, had with Unics Kazan! At 34 years of age, he had by far the best season of his career, the most productive out of every one he has played in the EuroLeague or the 7Days EuroCup! Langford emerged as the top scorer in the league with an average of 21.8 points – exactly the same as his PIR – plus 3.4 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. It was his second time winning the Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy award, after his first in the 2013-14 season!
Doncic: The year he erupted like a… volcano!
2016 was the year we all understood that the Slovenian multidimensional guard is possibly the best teenage basketball player in the world. In 2017? In the course of the year that is heading to a close, Doncic erupted like a volcano and created a brilliant glow around him! The end of last season and especially what he’s doing this season in the EuroLeague, like his performances in the EuroBasket (where his country won the gold medal for the first time in its history), have taken him to another level. He’s no longer a teenage phenom. He’s already a great player who is responding impressively as a leader (in the absence of Llull) as Madrid’s ultimate floor manager. At the age of 18, as shocking as it sounds, we have to admit that his overall game and his impact on the court are rightly compared to the best players we have ever seen in the EuroLeague, regardless of age!