How much does 1st place mean: Buducnost is the last champion without being the league leader

The team from Podgorica confirmed its leading position in the league section of the AdmiralBet ABA League with a victory against FMP - in total, since the 2014/15 season when the final four was replaced by the playoffs, only twice has the champion not been the best team in the league section

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The blue and white team is heading into the playoffs in first place, Photo: KK Budućnost Voli/Filip Roganović

Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

29.04.2025. 11:52h

The long and tiring league part of the season in the AdmiralBet ABA League for the basketball players of Budućnost Volija ended one round before the end, and in the most beautiful way - by confirming 1st place ahead of the playoffs.

The previous 29 rounds brought many unforgettable matches for the "blue and white", a total of 26 wins, three big ones against Euroleague teams and only three defeats - against Red Star, Spartak and Mega.

Andrej Žakelj's team thus secured home-field advantage until the end of the playoffs, and the previous five seasons have shown how significant 1st place in the league can be.

First place ✅️ Podgorica will celebrate the whole 🔵⚪️😎🥳#kkb #aba #hukmorače pic.twitter.com/4ZQWeuFHMR
— KK Buducnost VOLI (@KKBuducnostVOLI) April 28, 2025

The team that has been the leader after the league stage since the 2018/19 season has always lifted the ABA League championship cup, of course with the exception of the Covid season when Partizan was in first place, but the competition was interrupted and did not continue due to extraordinary circumstances at the time.

All of this means that Buducnost is the last club to reach the ABA ring without being the leader after the league stage.

It all happened during the unforgettable 2017/18 season when first-placed Red Star Belgrade and second-placed Buducnost met in the final. Aleksandar Džikić's team at the time made a break in the first of two matches in Belgrade, levelling the series 1-1 in Podgorica and not missing a chance in front of their home fans.

How difficult it was to repeat everything, Buducnost felt during the next two seasons that were played to the end (2018/19 and 2020/21), when the final series with Red Star was decided in the fifth match in Belgrade.

In the seasons that followed, the champion was always the leader in the league - in 2022, Red Star was better than Partizan after five final matches, a year later the "black and white" took revenge in the same way, while last season the "red and white" had no problem regaining the title after just three matches.

It seems that pole position this season could bring a lot to Buducnost, but the Podgorica club also knows that it is sometimes difficult to justify first place in the playoffs. They learned that lesson in the 2015/16 season when they entered the playoffs as the leader, only to be eliminated by Mega in the semifinals.

In total, since 2014/15, when the ABA League Final Four was replaced by the playoffs, only the aforementioned two times the champion was not the best team in the league, and interestingly, both times the protagonist was Buducnost.

It is difficult to predict what the new play-off season could bring due to the high competition, but Buducnost has shown in many matches - especially against Partizan and Red Star, which they also won in Belgrade - that the cup could return to Podgorica after seven years.

ABA League, first place and playoffs

Season 2014/15