Paris confirmed its dominance in the Eurocup by winning the title, in the Euroleague the playoffs started last night, while in the FIBA Champions League the final four will be held in Belgrade next weekend.
The season in this competition was marked by Spanish teams, so three teams from the Pyrenees will play for the title - Murcia, Unicaja and Tenerife. The fourth team is the Greek Peristeri. The semi-final pairs are Tenerife - Peristeri (Friday, 18) and Murcia - Unicaja (Friday, 21).
Tenerife is the trademark of this competition. Since the establishment of the FIBA Champions League (the first season is 2016/2017), this team has played in the final tournament four times, was in the final three times, and won two titles. In the capital of Serbia, the Spanish team has the opportunity to be the first with three titles in this competition. Another Spanish team - San Pablo Burgos - has two cups.
The team from the Canary Islands is a real example of how another basketball competition gave European clubs the opportunity to progress and achieve good results. Tenerife is a standard first division player in the Endesa League, so this season after 30 rounds it is in sixth place with 19 wins and 11 losses.
Tenerife started this year's campaign in the Champions League in a group with France's Cholet, Turkey's Darusafak and Latvia's VEF Riga. Ćus Vidoreta's team won first place with four wins and two losses.
The first place in the group guaranteed a direct passage to the second stage, where the two-time champion also won first place, with a score of 4-2, and in addition to Karsijaka and Hapoel from Jerusalem, the rival in the new group was Peristeri. In Spain, Tenerife won (89:68), while in Greece it was for Peristeri (90:82). By winning the first place in this group, the team of Ćus Vidoreta secured the advantage of the home field in the quarter-finals, in which it was better than the Turkish Tofaš.
The rival in the semi-finals is Peristeri, on whose bench sits the legend of European basketball - Vasilis Spanulis. Tenerife has played against Greek clubs six times in the Champions League, and the balance is four wins and two losses.
But, on the eve of the final tournament, the Spanish team has problems with injuries. Aron Dornekamp will probably miss the upcoming final four due to a foot injury, while Jaime Fernandes had surgery on his right knee and ended the season.
The first star of the team is the veteran and legend Marcelinho Uertas. At the end of March, the Brazilian basketball player became the best assistant in the history of the Endesa League, and he won the Champions League two years ago, when he was also the MVP of the final tournament, which was hosted by Bilbao.
"We know how Peristeri plays, what their style is. We will prepare well and try to neutralize their good sides. We are ready for any scenario," said Uertas, who is averaging 15,8 points in the Champions League this season, with 7,9 assistance.
In his career, Uertas fought with Spanulis on the field, and now he will play against the team led by the legendary Greek.
"Spanulis is a legend of European basketball. The respect is mutual," said the Brazilian.
Uertas will try to stop Joe Ragland. The former basketball player of, among others, Olimpia Milan, Cantu, Crvena Zvezda, Karšijaka averaged 14,8 points and 9,2 assists this season. Uertas and Ragland played against each other precisely in the final four in 2022, when the Spanish team was better than Hapoel Holon in the semifinals (78:71).
Uertas is a veteran, but not the only one on this team. The winner of the Euroleague with Panathinaikos in 2009 and Olympiakos in 2013, the Georgian national team member Shermadini won the Champions League two years ago, and in the jersey of the club from the Canary Islands he was the MVP of the Endesa League twice - in 2021 and 2023. This season in the Champions League, he is averaging 11,6 points and 4,7 rebounds.
Therefore, Uertas and Shermadini were part of the team that won the Champions League two years ago. Apart from them, Sasu Salin (8,3 points this season in LŠ), Đoan Sastre (7,1 points), Bruno Fitipaldo (4,5 points) and Fran Guera (6,9 points) are also in the team at that time, as they are today.
And the member of the championship team in 2017 was Tim Abromaitis. At the end of that season, he went to Zenit, then played in Unikah, then returned two years ago.
Therefore, Belgrade could witness the writing of history this coming weekend. And Huertas, Shermadine and teammates will do everything to make that happen.
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