By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
Few days ago, Ettore Messina claimed that the Euroleague should change its format and replace the Final Four with a best of five play offs series. Do you agree?
Final Four
One of the trademarks of the European basketball is the Euroleague Final Four. Four teams in one city battling for the title in do-or-die games is the dream of every basketball fan. This event gathers the interest (at least) of the fans of the four competing teams from two, three or four countries and the local fans who would like to enjoy the Final Four in their city. Moreover, all the parallel events around the Final Four help the growth and the popularity of the sport. How irrelevant is the fact that the NCAA Final Four is one of the most popular events in the basketball world?
Best of five series
It’s true that the format would be more fair if the Euroleague would establish it until the end using best of five play offs instead of two knock out games. In the quarterfinals we enjoyed all these years some really amazing series and as always, the best team has a bigger advantage in a best of five series than in a single game. Euroleague adopted the NBA model (play offs until the end of the season) in its first edition but came back to its roots after only one season. In that case, the TV rights would be more to sell, the interest during the days of the finals would be bigger, but how wide-spread would be all this?
Our conclusion: In Europe we have Final Four
Everything that Messina said about the disadvantages of the current format are right. The winner can’t be judged in two single games within three days. It’s not fair. But this is basketball. And this is sport. Who could not remember Partizan of 1992? Joventut of 1994? Panathinaikos of 2002? Olympiacos of 2012? Maccabi of 2014? In best of five series all these teams would probably fail to win the title. But “any given Sunday” everything is possible. And in the basketball it’s nice to wait for “impossible is nothing” to happen.