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March 20, 2010
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Vladimir Stankovic, Euroleague.net
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Veteran sportswriter and Euroleague.net collaborator Vladimir Stankovic has been following the best basketball on the continent longer than almost anyone journalist, writing for decades about the sport in major publications in both Serbia and Spain. For the new 2009-10 season, he offers a series of opinion blogs about what's happening on and off the court in the Euroleague.
Well, as it should be in any well-planned and organized competition, we are facing the most thrilling weeks of the Euroleague's 10th season. Yes, we will still have an even more spectacular weekend ahead, during the 2010 Final Four in Paris, but there will be plenty of time later to talk about the season finale. With the start of the Playoffs, however, we delve into these series of five games. I am not going to analyze all the matchups (a job that has already been done, and very well at that, by Euroleague.net) or the possibilities of one team or another making the Final Four. I'd just like to give my opinion on each of the eight quarterfinalists.
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Vladimir Stankovic, Euroleague.net
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March 13, 2010
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Vladimir Stankovic, Euroleague.net
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Veteran sportswriter and Euroleague.net collaborator Vladimir Stankovic has been following the best basketball on the continent longer than almost anyone journalist, writing for decades about the sport in major publications in both Serbia and Spain. For the new 2009-10 season, he offers a series of opinion blogs about what's happening on and off the court in the Euroleague.
The Top 16 ended just like it had begun: with excitement, drama, overtimes, surprises and score changes. The Euroleague showed its maturity and complete trust in its teams with the decision not to play all the games at the same time, and the teams responded with fair play. Congratulations to everyone. The saying goes that history is written by the winners. Therefore, the glory of the playoffs will be for Top 16 group winners Regal FC Barcelona, Olympiacos, Maccabi Electra, CSKA Moscow and their second-place followers Partizan, Caja Laboral, Real Madrid and Asseco Prokom. Especially for the Serbian and Polish champs, the accomplishment is grand because of their limited...
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POSTED BY
Vladimir Stankovic, Euroleague.net
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March 6, 2010
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Vladimir Stankovic, Euroleague.net
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Veteran sportswriter and Euroleague.net collaborator Vladimir Stankovic has been following the best basketball on the continent longer than almost anyone journalist, writing for decades about the sport in major publications in both Serbia and Spain. For the new 2009-10 season, he offers a series of opinion blogs about what's happening on and off the court in the Euroleague.
Olympiacos, Regal FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Maccabi Electra, CSKA Moscow and Asseco Prokom are already in the Quarterfinal Playoffs. Congratulations to all of them, but my first lines today I want to dedicate to the outgoing champs, Panathinaikos. They arrived in Belgrade this week already out of the race for the playoffs with a 0-4 record, but were willing to show it all had been an accident, just a bunch of circumstances that sometimes fall into place. In the Greek League against Olympiacos last weekend, the Greens already showed that they are going up again, especially in the backcourt. And in Belgrade, even without Nikola Pekovic, they defeated his former team,...
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POSTED BY
Vladimir Stankovic, Euroleague.net
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February 27, 2010
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Vladimir Stankovic, Euroleague.net
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Veteran sportswriter and Euroleague.net collaborator Vladimir Stankovic has been following the best basketball on the continent longer than almost anyone journalist, writing for decades about the sport in major publications in both Serbia and Spain. For the new 2009-10 season, he offers a series of opinion blogs about what's happening on and off the court in the Euroleague.
It's official: The 2009-10 Euroleague will have a new champion. The last one, Panathinaikos, left the throne up for grabs after four straight losses in the Top 16, something new in its Euroleague history, and even more rare in the career of its legendary coach, Zeljko Obradovic. Since the Split teams of 1989 to 1991 ended their three-year reign, only one club in amost 20 years has been able to repeat as European champion, Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2004 and 2005, which needed a miracle shot to reach the first of those titles. All of which shows very clearly that the Euroleague is a strong, balanced and umpredictale competition. In other words: the competition we all want.
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POSTED BY
Vladimir Stankovic, Euroleague.net
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