May 8, 2011 - Dimitris Diamantidis, chosen Sportingbet MVP of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four
Dimitris
Diamantidis padded his resume as one of the great point guards in
European basketball history with his second Sportingbet MVP of the
Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four award after leading
Panathinaikos to its sixth continental title on Sunday. Diamantidis was
overwhelmingly chosen Sportingbet MVP by accredited media after
recording 16 points and 9 assists in the title game as the
Panathinaikos bested Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv 70-78. Diamantidis joins
Toni Kukoc (1990, 1991, 1993) and Dejan Bodiroga (2002, 2003) as the
only players to earn the prestigious honor more than once. He was
previously Final Four MVP when Panathinaikos won the title in 2007 in
Athens. Read more here.
May 8, 2011 - Diamantidis sets one, ties with Pargo on another assists record
The
two All-Euroleague point guards for the 2010-11 season, Dimitris
Diamantidis of Panathinaikos and Jeremy Pargo of Maccabi Electra,
etched their name into the Euroleague record books as the former’s team
beat the latter’s in a thrilling 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final
Four title game on Sunday. With 18 assists this weekend, Diamantidis
set a new Euroleague standard for assists in the Final Four. At the
same time, both he and Pargo tied the competition record for assists in
the title game with 9. Read more here.
May 8, 2011 - Panathinaikos is 2010-11 champ!
Panathinaikos
won its sixth Euroleague title on Sunday evening by holding off Maccabi
Electra Tel Aviv 70-78 in the championship game of the 2011 Turkish
Airlines Euroleague Final Four at Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona.
Dimitris Diamantidis starred with 16 points and 9 assists becoming only
the third person in history to win Final Four MVP honors twice and
setting and tying breaking a pair of assists records along the way.
Mike Batiste added 18 points, Drew Nicholas scored 14 and Romain Sato
13 to lead a well-balanced team effort. The win also adds a title for
Panathianikos’s Zeljko Obradovic, who was already the winningest head
coach in Euroleague history and now owns eight rings – the last five
all with the Greens. Panathinaikos’s six titles make it second to only
Real Madrid on the list of all-time champions. Panathinaikos controlled
the paint, blocking several shots early and keeping All-Euroleague
center Sofoklis Schortsanitis scoreless in the first half. Sofo got
going for a bit in the third quarter and gave Maccabi a 36-35 lead, but
it was short-lived. Read more here.
Montepaschi
Siena completed an outstanding Turkish Airlines Euroleague season by
beating Real Madrid 62-80 on Sunday in the Third-Place Game at the 2011
Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four at Palau Sant Jordi in
Barcelona, Spain. Ksistof Lavrinovic scored 17 points to pace the
Italian champs in a game they controlled from start to finish. An early
0-10 lead put Siena in the drivers’ seat and although Madrid never
quit, riding a standout showing from Sergio Llull, Montepaschi never
faltered. David Moss added 11 points, Bo McCalebb scored 10 and Milovan
Rakovic posted 8 points and 11 rebounds for the victors. Llull scored
23 and Felipe Reyes and Ante Tomic added 8 points apiece for Madrid.
Read more here.
May 8, 2011 - 2012 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four to land in Istanbul
Euroleague
Basketball is pleased to announce the city of Istanbul as the home of
the 2012 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four. The state-of-the-art
Sinan Erdem Arena, which opened in 2010 to host the FIBA World
Championships final stages, will host European basketball’s premier
event in early May 2012. Euroleague Basketball President and CEO was
joined by representatives of two partners in the event, Turgay Demirel,
the President of the Turkish Basketball Federation; and Firuz
Baglikaya, the President of Detur Group; as well as Istanbul Mayor
Kadir Topbas and Hamdi Topçu, Chairman of the Euroleague’s title
sponsor, Turkish Airlines, to make the announcement on Sunday at a
media conference hours before tip-off of the 2011 Turkish Airlines
Euroleague title game at Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona. Read more here.
May 8, 2011 - MVP Diamantidis heads 2010-11 All-Euroleague First Team
The
best players of the 2010-11 Turkish Airlines Euroleague season were
honored on Saturday night at the annual EFES Pilsener Euroleague Awards
Ceremony, held this year at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
(MNAC) in Barcelona. Less than twenty-four hours before a new
Euroleague champion will be crowned, a who's who of world basketball
elite came together to celebrate another exciting season in a
one-of-a-kind setting, the MNAC, that already hosted this event back in
2003. Panathinaikos point guard Dimitris Diamantidis was voted the
2010-11 Euroleague MVP after an outstanding season for the Greens and
became the first player ever to win three end-of-season awards – MVP,
Best Defender Trophy and All-Euroleague First Team – since the awards
structure was established in 2005. Diamantidis was joined on the
2010-11 All-Euroleague First Team by the MVP of last season, Juan
Carlos Navarro of Regal FC Barcelona, Caja Laboral swingman Fernando
San Emeterio, his Panathinaikos teammate, forward Mike Batiste, and
center Sofoklis Schortsanitis of Maccabi Electra. It is a first-time
honor for San Emeterio, Batiste and Schortsanitis. Navarro was named
first team for the fifth time and Diamantidis for the second time. Read
more here.
May 8, 2011 - Final Four symposium
Ettore
Messina, four-time Euroleague champion head coach, and Lluís
Martínez-Ribes, ESADE Business School Associate Professor, brought two
distinctive but complementary visions to their informal talks on
leadership in sport, called Leading to Perform: Leadership Learning
From High-Performance Sport. Both speakers emphasized key themes in
sports leadership that can be applied to management as a whole: helping
players learn how to take personal responsibility; building trust among
team members; communicating clearly and effectively and learning from
mistakes. For Messina, one of his most vital roles as a coach is to
help players learn how to play under pressure, which calls on all those
main themes. In fact, he believes the key factor behind the
Panathinaikos victory over Montepaschi Siena in the semifinal of the
2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four was exactly that. Read more
here.
May 7, 2011 - Maccabi Electra vs. Panathinaikos, game preview
“Like
Panathinaikos, we at Maccabi Electra are extremely happy to make it to
the Euroleague final. I think for the fans as well as the clubs, this
is another chapter in a great rivalry between two top level teams and
two top clubs. We have met many times before and those games have
become part of the history of European basketball. I hope tomorrow’s
game will be another. Obviously Panathinaikos is a team of great
experience, with a great coach and continuity and quality players.
These are the things that bring them to the top again and again. We
have some of the same qualities, but this team is part new. But we have
come together quickly. We have been consistent." Read more here.
May 7, 2011 - Official press conference: Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final
Representatives
of two very familiar adversaries, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv and
Panathinaikos Athens, held their last session with the media on
Saturday in advance of the final 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final
Four game to crown a new champion between them at 16:30 CET at Palau
Sant Jordi in Barcelona, Spain. The spokesmen for Panathinaikos on the
eve of the final were head coach Zeljko Obradovic, a seven-time former
champion, and Kostas Tsartsaris, who has lifted two trophies for the
Greens, in 2007 and 2009. Maccabi's representatives at the press
conference were head coach David Blatt, who won two previous Final
Fours as a head coach, and forward Chuck Eidson, who is looking to win
the Euroleague title in his first try. Read more here.
May 7, 2011 - Final Four players praise MVP host city: Barcelona
While
the players and coaches of the four teams are certainly the
protagonists at the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four, there is a
fifth co-star playing a special MVP role all its own this weekend: the
host city of Barcelona. From the first act of this four-day celebration
of basketball, the opening press conference in the ornate Salo de Cent
at the city hall, to the moment when a champion is crowned Sunday at
Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona has shown itself to be a capital of sport
and culture like few, if any, other cities in the world. It has been a
union of a second-to-none weekend of top-level basketball with a host
city that put on its own show for the many thousands of guests from all
five continents here at the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four.
Read more here.
May 6, 2011 - Chuck Eidson sets new semifinals steals record
Chuck
Eidson set a new standard for steals in a Euroleague semifinals game
with 6 in Maccabi Electra’s 82-63 rout of Real Madrid to reach the 2011
Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four title game. Eidson, this
season’s steals leader, came away with 6 steals in the game, part of an
impressive line that also included 19 points and 8 rebounds. The
previous record was 5, shared by a former Madrid player, Joe Arlauckas,
who did so in 1995 and by Theo Papaloukas, who also had 5 steals in
2007 with CSKA Moscow.
May 6, 2011 - Maccabi Electra routed Real Madrid 82-63
Maccabi
Electra Tel Aviv rocked Real Madrid 82-63 at Palau Sant Jordi on Friday
night in the second semifinal at the 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague
Final Four to book a spot in the title game. Chuck Eidson scored 19
points, grabbed 8 rebounds and set a Euroleague semifinals record with
6 steals to lead Maccabi to the final, where it will meet old rival
Panathinaikos, which defeated Montepaschi Siena 77-69 earlier Friday in
the first semifinal. With the win Maccabi, reached the Euroleague final
for the seventh time in a dozen seasons, tied Madrid for the most
appearances ever in the Euroleague title game with 14 and on Sunday
will go for its sixth continental crown, which would be second only to
Madrid’s eight. Sofoklis Schortsanitis added 16 points, Guy Pnini 14,
Jeremy Pargo tallied 13 and 7 assists and David Blu scored 10 for the
winners. Madrid led early, but Maccabi battled back and held a 32-29
lead at halftime. Maccabi then jumped out to an 8-point lead on a
spectacular Pargo slam. Madrid closed the gap to 2 and was down just 6
late in the third quarter before Maccabi went on a 13-2 charge to take
a commanding lead and coasted the rest of the way, with the lead
peaking at 23. Ante Tomic posted 17 points to lead Madrid before going
out with an injury and Felipe Reyes added 15 points and 14 rebounds in
defeat. Read more here.
Panathinaikos
started the 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four with a
hard-fought 77-69 victory over Montepaschi Siena at Palau Sant Jordi in
Barcelona to reach the Euroleague title game for the third time in five
seasons. Nick Calathes scored a career-high 17 points and Dimitris
Diamantidis came within 1 of a semifinal record with 9 assists to lead
Panathinaikos. Head coach Zeljko Obradovic, the winningest coach in
Euroleague history, will go for his eighth crown and Panthinaikos’s
sixth on Sunday against the winner of Friday’s second semifinal between
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv and Real Madrid. Siena started strong and
dominated the offensive glass to lead for the first quarter-and-a-half.
But mounting foul trouble and poor outside shooting hurt the Italian
champs and Panathinaikos battled its way back with Calathes, Antonis
Fotsis and Mike Batiste all contributing key points for a 40-36
halftime edge. A 9-2 push to start the second half put the Greens in
total control and although Montepaschi continued to fight, it never got
closer than 5 again. Batiste added 16 points and 7 rebounds and Fotsis
scored 14 for the Greens. Meanwhile Rimantas Kaukenas scored 12 for
Siena, which is now 0-4 in the Euroleague semifinals. Malik Hairston
scored 12 and Milovan Rakovic 10, while Shaun Stonerook amassed 14
rebounds in defeat. Read more here.
May 5, 2011 - 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four broadcasting worldwide
On
the heels of last season's record-setting Final Four audiences, the
2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four will continue reach a
worldwide audience just like its predecessors with a total of 42
broadcasters bringing the games to some 171 countries and territories.
Among the many broadcasters, Euroleague Basketball is pleased to
highlight the ESPN family, which will show the game in as many as 92
countries, including North and South America, the Caribbean, Africa and
Oceania; Setanta, with an audience reaching 49 countries across Africa;
Canal+, which is the exclusive rights holder for broadcasts in 11
countries in Europe and Africa and the non-exclusive rights holder in
34 more. Read more here.
May 5, 2011 - 2011 Final Four opening press conference
In
a room steeped in centuries of history, eight central protagonists to
the four teams aiming to celebrate at the end of the weekend gathered
Thursday at the Salo de Cent in the Barcelona Town Hall for the Turkish
Airlines Euroleague Final Four official press conference. The head
coach and one player representative from Panathinaikos, Montepaschi
Siena, Real Madrid and Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv sat alongside
Euroleague Basketball President and CEO Jordi Bertomeu and Barcelona
Mayor Jordi Hereu at the dais as a packed hall full of reporters and
cameramen documented their thoughts in a spectacular setting. With more
than 700 media members on hand for the Turkish Airlines Final Four, the
Salo de Cent was filled to capacity with the audience hanging on every
word. Built in 1369 and renovated in the 17th century, the Salo de Cent
is one of the city’s most storied sites. Read more here.
May 5, 2011 - Euroleague brings new court to heart of Barcelona
One
of Barcelona’s oldest districts could become a new hotbed of basketball
talent thanks to the refurbished court that was inaugurated Thursday to
coincide with the start of the 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final
Four in nearby Palau Sant Jordi. In the densely-populated and
culturally-diverse Raval neighborhood, basketball aficionados of all
ages will be able to play in optimum conditions on Aurora’s Court,
located on the west side of the city’s famous boulevard, La Rambla. To
christen the new installation, stars from each of the Final Four teams,
Panathinaikos, Montepaschi Siena, Real Madrid and Maccabi Electra, were
on hand to showcase their skills and provide a mini-clinic for the 57
kids that attended from five area schools eager to learn from the pros. Read more here.
May 3, 2011 - Final Four fun starts at the Devotion Fan Zone!
The
2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four is pleased to announce the
Devotion Fan Zone, a new addition to European basketball’s signature
event designed to further engage the fans in the happenings around the
games. A series of games, contests, eateries and shows will be set up
by several Euroleague Basketball partners at the Palau Sant Jordi
Esplanade, just outside the arena, on all three days of the Final Four.
Read more here.
May 2, 2011 - Sony becomes official Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four sponsor
Euroleague
Basketball is pleased to announce a new partnership that makes Sony,
the worldwide leader in quality electronics, an official sponsor of the
2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four in Barcelona. Under this
agreement, Sony becomes the official provider of technical equipment –
including televisions and computers – for the Final Four. Also included
in the agreement will be the promotion of Sony goods at the Final Four,
to be held May 6 to 8 at Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, and player
interaction using Sony products. Read more here.
May 1, 2011 - Euroleague for Life, Barcelona, Mondo and Gran Via 2 unite for court refurbishment
For
the second year in a row, Euroleague for Life is using basketball to
lift spirits in the host city of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final
Four with a court refurbishment in one of Barcelona's oldest and
best-known neighborhoods. On Thursday morning, May 5, superstars from
all the Final Four teams will join in the inauguration of Aurora's
Court in the heart of Raval, located on the west side of the city's
famous boulevard, La Rambla. With the support of Euroleague Basketball
official sponsor Mondo, a global leader in sports flooring and
installations, and Gran Via 2 , a well-known commercial center nearby
Palau Sant Jordi, that has offered its contribution for the celebration
of the ceremony , the court refurbishment organized by Euroleague
Basketball and the City Council of Barcelona promises local children in
Raval and the larger Ciutat Vella zone surrounding it basketball
enjoyment that will last well beyond the weekend of the Turkish
Airlines Euroleague Final Four. Read more here.
April 28, 2011 - Turkish Airlines presents the Crazy Dunkers to soar into their second Final Four!
The
high-flying Crazy Dunkers presented by Turkish Airlines have done it
before and now they are back for a second time to thrill the fans at
the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four 2011 Barcelona. The
rim-rattling French dunk squad, which was among the countless
highlights at the 2007 Final Four in Athens, will now perform their
heart-stopping, acrobatic array of slams on the courts of Palau Sant
Jordi as part of the entertainment program in Barcelona between May 6
and 8. The Crazy Dunkers have brought millions of fans to their feet
and set several Guinness World Records with their high-flying stunts
over more than 1,000 shows in 20 countries on five continents since
1988. Along the way, they earned a reputation as the best in the world
in providing a unique slam dunk show that combines basketball skills,
acrobatic exuberance, comedy, rhythm and music. Read more here.
April 27, 2011 - Fans choose Prokom squad as Official Cheerleaders of the Final Four
Cheerleaders
Prokom, the cheerleading squad that supports Polish League champion and
Euroleague regular Asseco Prokom Gdynia, will bring their dancing and
cheering talents to the 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four as
the winners of the inaugural Efes Dance Squad Talent Contest. The
Prokom dancers were chosen "Official Cheerleaders of the 2011 Turkish
Airlines Euroleague Final Four" after receiving 37% of the internet fan
vote to beat 10 other cheering squads from Euroleague teams: CSKA
Moscow, Efes Pilsen, Lietuvos Rytas, CB Cholet, Maccabi Tel Aviv,
Olympiacos Piraeus, Panathinaikos, Regal FC Barcelona, Union Olimpija
and Zalgiris Kaunas. Olympiacos’s Red Drops were runners-up with 14%. Read more here.
April 26, 2011 - Real Madrid extends Mirotic through 2016
Just
days before its first Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four appearance
in 15 years, Real Madrid has announced a new agreement with forward
Nikola Mirotic to extend his contract until the end of the 2015-16
season. Mirotic (208, 20) last week was voted the 2010-11 Euroleague
Rising Star Trophy winner in a ballot of Euroleague head coaches.
Mirotic has averaged 7 points on 44.4% three-point and 84.6% free throw
shooting, as well as 3.2 rebounds and 0.5 blocks in 18 Euroleague off
the bench this season. In nine games where he played more than 15
minutes - seven in the Top 16 and playoffs - Mirotic boosted his
averages to 11.8 points and 5.6 rebounds. Mirotic, who as born in
Montenegro but has already played for the Spanish under-20 national
team, joined Madrid in 2006 and made his Euroleague debut against Regal
FC Barcelona two years ago. Read more here.
April 26, 2011 - Final Four entertainment
Among
other things, Catalonia is famous for its art, architecture and
athletic feats. Nothing quite captures those three characteristics at
once like the ‘castellers’, the region’s traditional man-made
skyscrapers, an art form that has already been recognized by UNESCO on
the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of
Humanity. One of the area’s top groups – or colles – the Minyons de
Terrassa, will bring this unique Catalan spectacle to the 2011 Turkish
Airlines Euroleague Final Four at the Palau Sant Jordi, where they will
perform for the entertainment of the fans. Read more here.
April 25, 2011 - Meet the 2011 Final Four teams!
Be sure to check out team, coach, player and legend profiles - plus season stats, bloggers and much, much more - for Maccabi Electra, Montepaschi Siena, Panathinaikos and Real Madrid, the star-studded teams of the 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four!
April 22, 2011 - 2010-11 All-Euroleague nominees
The
wait is over, Turkish Airlines Euroleague fans. Here are your nominees
for the 2010-11 All-Euroleague team! Fans and media members have voted
to nominate 10 players to the All-Euroleague team, producing a
top-level list of nominees for what has been an incredible 2010-11
season. That list is half-filled with 5 out of 10 players who are
first-time nominees to the All-Euroleague team. Many thousands of fans
from around the world were allowed to cast votes for their favorite or
most deserving players, as did media members from each of the countries
with Euroleague teams this season. Just as last season, teams that
qualified to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four dominated the
nominations, with Panathinaikos and Maccabi Electra each having two
nominees each, while Montepaschi Siena and Real Madrid had one apiece.
Read more here.
April 21, 2011 - Real Madrid's Nikola Mirotic chosen 2011 Rising Star
After
transforming himself from little-used teenage reserve at the start of
the season to a decisive force in his team's drive to the Turkish
Airlines Euroleague Final Four, forward Nikola Mirotic of Real Madrid
has been voted the 2011 Rising Star Trophy winner in a ballot of
Euroleague head coaches. Mirotic has shown great potential since Madrid
signed him five years ago, but few could have expected the kind of
Euroleague impact he started having right before his 20th birthday on
February 11. With 16 points in 17 minutes in late January, Mirotic
sparked a huge comeback that propelled Madrid to a key group victory in
the Top 16. From that point forward, he scored in double-digits during
five out of six games, with his three-point shot deciding Game 1 of the
playoffs. Madrid went on, thanks to the homecourt advantage Mirotic
helped earn in the Top 16, to win the only Game 5 of the playoffs and
reach the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four. Read more here.
April 21, 2011 - Euroleague For Life promotes "Basketball for Everyone" at Turkish Airlines Final Four Barcelona 2011
For
the second consecutive season, Euroleague Basketball is using the
biggest stage of European professional basketball, the Turkish Airlines
Euroleague Final Four Barcelona 2011, to promote the Special Olympics
movement and the rights of people with intellectual disabilities to be
accepted, respected and included in the game of basketball. Under the
message of ‘Basketball for Everyone’, 24 Special Olympics basketball
players will share center court at Palau Sant Jordi Hall with the four
top basketball teams in Europe, Panathinaikos (Greece), Montepaschi
(Italy), Maccabi Electra (Israel) and Real Madrid (Spain), who, from
Friday, May 6 to Sunday, May 8 will battle for the title of 2010-11
Turkish Airlines Euroleague champion. Read more here.
April 20, 2011 - Dimitris Diamantidis wins sixth Best Defender Trophy
After
letting it slip from his grip for just one season, Panathinaikos point
guard Dimitris Diamantidis once again owns the Best Defender Trophy
after dominating a vote by Turkish Airlines Euroleague head coaches.
This marks the sixth time in seven seasons since its inception that
Diamantidis has won the award. What's more, since he was a rookie that
first year, Diamantidis has been voted the best defender for all except
one year that he has played in the Euroleague. The only time he did not
receive the trophy was last season, when he finished third in the
voting. This season, Diamantidis was the overwhelming top choice of
Euroleague head coaches, who gave him more than double the votes of any
other player. Although Diamantidis ranked 10th in the competition with
1.6 steals per game and was second among all guards with 3.8 rebounds,
his impact is much greater than numbers. Read more here.
April 19, 2011 - Officials for 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four announced
The
names of the eight referees who will work the 2011 Turkish Airlines
Euroleague Final Four in Barcelona have been announced by Euroleague
Basketball. The referees selected come from eight different countries
and boast a wealth of experience. Two have previously officiated in a
continental final and five have refereed the Euroleague Final Four. The
full list of referees includes: Matej Boltauzer of Slovenia, Christos
Christodoulou of Greece, Luigi Lamonica of Italy, Robert Lottermoser of
Germany, Juan Carlos Mitjana of Spain, Zoran Sutulovic of Montenegro,
Eddie Viator of France and Grzegorz Ziemblicki of Poland. Lamonica and
Mitjana will be working the Final Four for a third time each. Read more
here.
April 6, 2011 - Euroleague Basketball establishes Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four schedule
After
careful study and consultation with all clubs and partners involved,
Euroleague Basketball establishes the definitive schedule of games at
the 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four taking into
consideration the legal concerns of one of the qualified teams, Maccabi
Electra Tel Aviv. With the schedule changes the Final Four games will
be as follows:
Friday, May 6
Panathinaikos vs. Montepaschi Siena 18:00 Local Time
Maccabi Electra vs. Winner Playoff C 21:00 Local Time
Sunday, May 8
Third / Fourth Place 13:30 Local Time
Final 16:30 Local Time
The new tipoff time for the title game is 2 hours sooner than the
scheduled local time of the earliest recent final, which was 18:40 at
the 2005 Final Four in Moscow. Read more here.
Dimitris
Diamantidis padded his resume as one of the great point guards in
European basketball history with his second Sportingbet MVP of the
Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four award after leading
Panathinaikos to its sixth continental title on Sunday. Diamantidis was
overwhelmingly chosen Sportingbet MVP by accredited media after
recording 16 points and 9 assists in the title game as the
Panathinaikos bested Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv 70-78. Diamantidis joins
Toni Kukoc (1990, 1991, 1993) and Dejan Bodiroga (2002, 2003) as the
only players to earn the prestigious honor more than once. He was
previously Final Four MVP when Panathinaikos won the title in 2007 in
Athens. Read more 
Panathinaikos
won its sixth Euroleague title on Sunday evening by holding off Maccabi
Electra Tel Aviv 70-78 in the championship game of the 2011 Turkish
Airlines Euroleague Final Four at Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona.
Dimitris Diamantidis starred with 16 points and 9 assists becoming only
the third person in history to win Final Four MVP honors twice and
setting and tying breaking a pair of assists records along the way.
Mike Batiste added 18 points, Drew Nicholas scored 14 and Romain Sato
13 to lead a well-balanced team effort. The win also adds a title for
Panathianikos’s Zeljko Obradovic, who was already the winningest head
coach in Euroleague history and now owns eight rings – the last five
all with the Greens. Panathinaikos’s six titles make it second to only
Real Madrid on the list of all-time champions. Panathinaikos controlled
the paint, blocking several shots early and keeping All-Euroleague
center Sofoklis Schortsanitis scoreless in the first half. Sofo got
going for a bit in the third quarter and gave Maccabi a 36-35 lead, but
it was short-lived. Read more 
Montepaschi
Siena completed an outstanding Turkish Airlines Euroleague season by
beating Real Madrid 62-80 on Sunday in the Third-Place Game at the 2011
Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four at Palau Sant Jordi in
Barcelona, Spain. Ksistof Lavrinovic scored 17 points to pace the
Italian champs in a game they controlled from start to finish. An early
0-10 lead put Siena in the drivers’ seat and although Madrid never
quit, riding a standout showing from Sergio Llull, Montepaschi never
faltered. David Moss added 11 points, Bo McCalebb scored 10 and Milovan
Rakovic posted 8 points and 11 rebounds for the victors. Llull scored
23 and Felipe Reyes and Ante Tomic added 8 points apiece for Madrid.
Read more 
Euroleague
Basketball is pleased to announce the city of Istanbul as the home of
the 2012 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four. The state-of-the-art
Sinan Erdem Arena, which opened in 2010 to host the FIBA World
Championships final stages, will host European basketball’s premier
event in early May 2012. Euroleague Basketball President and CEO was
joined by representatives of two partners in the event, Turgay Demirel,
the President of the Turkish Basketball Federation; and Firuz
Baglikaya, the President of Detur Group; as well as Istanbul Mayor
Kadir Topbas and Hamdi Topçu, Chairman of the Euroleague’s title
sponsor, Turkish Airlines, to make the announcement on Sunday at a
media conference hours before tip-off of the 2011 Turkish Airlines
Euroleague title game at Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona. Read more 
The
best players of the 2010-11 Turkish Airlines Euroleague season were
honored on Saturday night at the annual EFES Pilsener Euroleague Awards
Ceremony, held this year at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
(MNAC) in Barcelona. Less than twenty-four hours before a new
Euroleague champion will be crowned, a who's who of world basketball
elite came together to celebrate another exciting season in a
one-of-a-kind setting, the MNAC, that already hosted this event back in
2003. Panathinaikos point guard Dimitris Diamantidis was voted the
2010-11 Euroleague MVP after an outstanding season for the Greens and
became the first player ever to win three end-of-season awards – MVP,
Best Defender Trophy and All-Euroleague First Team – since the awards
structure was established in 2005. Diamantidis was joined on the
2010-11 All-Euroleague First Team by the MVP of last season, Juan
Carlos Navarro of Regal FC Barcelona, Caja Laboral swingman Fernando
San Emeterio, his Panathinaikos teammate, forward Mike Batiste, and
center Sofoklis Schortsanitis of Maccabi Electra. It is a first-time
honor for San Emeterio, Batiste and Schortsanitis. Navarro was named
first team for the fifth time and Diamantidis for the second time. Read
more 
Ettore
Messina, four-time Euroleague champion head coach, and Lluís
Martínez-Ribes, ESADE Business School Associate Professor, brought two
distinctive but complementary visions to their informal talks on
leadership in sport, called Leading to Perform: Leadership Learning
From High-Performance Sport. Both speakers emphasized key themes in
sports leadership that can be applied to management as a whole: helping
players learn how to take personal responsibility; building trust among
team members; communicating clearly and effectively and learning from
mistakes. For Messina, one of his most vital roles as a coach is to
help players learn how to play under pressure, which calls on all those
main themes. In fact, he believes the key factor behind the
Panathinaikos victory over Montepaschi Siena in the semifinal of the
2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four was exactly that. Read more
Representatives
of two very familiar adversaries, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv and
Panathinaikos Athens, held their last session with the media on
Saturday in advance of the final 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final
Four game to crown a new champion between them at 16:30 CET at Palau
Sant Jordi in Barcelona, Spain. The spokesmen for Panathinaikos on the
eve of the final were head coach Zeljko Obradovic, a seven-time former
champion, and Kostas Tsartsaris, who has lifted two trophies for the
Greens, in 2007 and 2009. Maccabi's representatives at the press
conference were head coach David Blatt, who won two previous Final
Fours as a head coach, and forward Chuck Eidson, who is looking to win
the Euroleague title in his first try. Read more 
Maccabi
Electra Tel Aviv rocked Real Madrid 82-63 at Palau Sant Jordi on Friday
night in the second semifinal at the 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague
Final Four to book a spot in the title game. Chuck Eidson scored 19
points, grabbed 8 rebounds and set a Euroleague semifinals record with
6 steals to lead Maccabi to the final, where it will meet old rival
Panathinaikos, which defeated Montepaschi Siena 77-69 earlier Friday in
the first semifinal. With the win Maccabi, reached the Euroleague final
for the seventh time in a dozen seasons, tied Madrid for the most
appearances ever in the Euroleague title game with 14 and on Sunday
will go for its sixth continental crown, which would be second only to
Madrid’s eight. Sofoklis Schortsanitis added 16 points, Guy Pnini 14,
Jeremy Pargo tallied 13 and 7 assists and David Blu scored 10 for the
winners. Madrid led early, but Maccabi battled back and held a 32-29
lead at halftime. Maccabi then jumped out to an 8-point lead on a
spectacular Pargo slam. Madrid closed the gap to 2 and was down just 6
late in the third quarter before Maccabi went on a 13-2 charge to take
a commanding lead and coasted the rest of the way, with the lead
peaking at 23. Ante Tomic posted 17 points to lead Madrid before going
out with an injury and Felipe Reyes added 15 points and 14 rebounds in
defeat. Read more 
Panathinaikos
started the 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four with a
hard-fought 77-69 victory over Montepaschi Siena at Palau Sant Jordi in
Barcelona to reach the Euroleague title game for the third time in five
seasons. Nick Calathes scored a career-high 17 points and Dimitris
Diamantidis came within 1 of a semifinal record with 9 assists to lead
Panathinaikos. Head coach Zeljko Obradovic, the winningest coach in
Euroleague history, will go for his eighth crown and Panthinaikos’s
sixth on Sunday against the winner of Friday’s second semifinal between
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv and Real Madrid. Siena started strong and
dominated the offensive glass to lead for the first quarter-and-a-half.
But mounting foul trouble and poor outside shooting hurt the Italian
champs and Panathinaikos battled its way back with Calathes, Antonis
Fotsis and Mike Batiste all contributing key points for a 40-36
halftime edge. A 9-2 push to start the second half put the Greens in
total control and although Montepaschi continued to fight, it never got
closer than 5 again. Batiste added 16 points and 7 rebounds and Fotsis
scored 14 for the Greens. Meanwhile Rimantas Kaukenas scored 12 for
Siena, which is now 0-4 in the Euroleague semifinals. Malik Hairston
scored 12 and Milovan Rakovic 10, while Shaun Stonerook amassed 14
rebounds in defeat. Read more 
In
a room steeped in centuries of history, eight central protagonists to
the four teams aiming to celebrate at the end of the weekend gathered
Thursday at the Salo de Cent in the Barcelona Town Hall for the Turkish
Airlines Euroleague Final Four official press conference. The head
coach and one player representative from Panathinaikos, Montepaschi
Siena, Real Madrid and Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv sat alongside
Euroleague Basketball President and CEO Jordi Bertomeu and Barcelona
Mayor Jordi Hereu at the dais as a packed hall full of reporters and
cameramen documented their thoughts in a spectacular setting. With more
than 700 media members on hand for the Turkish Airlines Final Four, the
Salo de Cent was filled to capacity with the audience hanging on every
word. Built in 1369 and renovated in the 17th century, the Salo de Cent
is one of the city’s most storied sites. Read more 
One
of Barcelona’s oldest districts could become a new hotbed of basketball
talent thanks to the refurbished court that was inaugurated Thursday to
coincide with the start of the 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final
Four in nearby Palau Sant Jordi. In the densely-populated and
culturally-diverse Raval neighborhood, basketball aficionados of all
ages will be able to play in optimum conditions on Aurora’s Court,
located on the west side of the city’s famous boulevard, La Rambla. To
christen the new installation, stars from each of the Final Four teams,
Panathinaikos, Montepaschi Siena, Real Madrid and Maccabi Electra, were
on hand to showcase their skills and provide a mini-clinic for the 57
kids that attended from five area schools eager to learn from the pros. Read more 
For
the second year in a row, Euroleague for Life is using basketball to
lift spirits in the host city of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final
Four with a court refurbishment in one of Barcelona's oldest and
best-known neighborhoods. On Thursday morning, May 5, superstars from
all the Final Four teams will join in the inauguration of Aurora's
Court in the heart of Raval, located on the west side of the city's
famous boulevard, La Rambla. With the support of Euroleague Basketball
official sponsor Mondo, a global leader in sports flooring and
installations, and Gran Via 2 , a well-known commercial center nearby
Palau Sant Jordi, that has offered its contribution for the celebration
of the ceremony , the court refurbishment organized by Euroleague
Basketball and the City Council of Barcelona promises local children in
Raval and the larger Ciutat Vella zone surrounding it basketball
enjoyment that will last well beyond the weekend of the Turkish
Airlines Euroleague Final Four. Read more 
Cheerleaders
Prokom, the cheerleading squad that supports Polish League champion and
Euroleague regular Asseco Prokom Gdynia, will bring their dancing and
cheering talents to the 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four as
the winners of the inaugural Efes Dance Squad Talent Contest. The
Prokom dancers were chosen "Official Cheerleaders of the 2011 Turkish
Airlines Euroleague Final Four" after receiving 37% of the internet fan
vote to beat 10 other cheering squads from Euroleague teams: CSKA
Moscow, Efes Pilsen, Lietuvos Rytas, CB Cholet, Maccabi Tel Aviv,
Olympiacos Piraeus, Panathinaikos, Regal FC Barcelona, Union Olimpija
and Zalgiris Kaunas. Olympiacos’s Red Drops were runners-up with 14%. Read more 
Just
days before its first Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four appearance
in 15 years, Real Madrid has announced a new agreement with forward
Nikola Mirotic to extend his contract until the end of the 2015-16
season. Mirotic (208, 20) last week was voted the 2010-11 Euroleague
Rising Star Trophy winner in a ballot of Euroleague head coaches.
Mirotic has averaged 7 points on 44.4% three-point and 84.6% free throw
shooting, as well as 3.2 rebounds and 0.5 blocks in 18 Euroleague off
the bench this season. In nine games where he played more than 15
minutes - seven in the Top 16 and playoffs - Mirotic boosted his
averages to 11.8 points and 5.6 rebounds. Mirotic, who as born in
Montenegro but has already played for the Spanish under-20 national
team, joined Madrid in 2006 and made his Euroleague debut against Regal
FC Barcelona two years ago. Read more 
The
wait is over, Turkish Airlines Euroleague fans. Here are your nominees
for the 2010-11 All-Euroleague team! Fans and media members have voted
to nominate 10 players to the All-Euroleague team, producing a
top-level list of nominees for what has been an incredible 2010-11
season. That list is half-filled with 5 out of 10 players who are
first-time nominees to the All-Euroleague team. Many thousands of fans
from around the world were allowed to cast votes for their favorite or
most deserving players, as did media members from each of the countries
with Euroleague teams this season. Just as last season, teams that
qualified to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four dominated the
nominations, with Panathinaikos and Maccabi Electra each having two
nominees each, while Montepaschi Siena and Real Madrid had one apiece.
Read more 
After
transforming himself from little-used teenage reserve at the start of
the season to a decisive force in his team's drive to the Turkish
Airlines Euroleague Final Four, forward Nikola Mirotic of Real Madrid
has been voted the 2011 Rising Star Trophy winner in a ballot of
Euroleague head coaches. Mirotic has shown great potential since Madrid
signed him five years ago, but few could have expected the kind of
Euroleague impact he started having right before his 20th birthday on
February 11. With 16 points in 17 minutes in late January, Mirotic
sparked a huge comeback that propelled Madrid to a key group victory in
the Top 16. From that point forward, he scored in double-digits during
five out of six games, with his three-point shot deciding Game 1 of the
playoffs. Madrid went on, thanks to the homecourt advantage Mirotic
helped earn in the Top 16, to win the only Game 5 of the playoffs and
reach the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four. Read more 
