Today's the day, Euroleague fans! In a few hours, we board a high-speed train from Madrid to Barcelona to arrive, as we've all been waiting to do throughout our careers, at the Final Four! My guys are excited, I can tell you that. For a majority of us, it's our first time at the Final Four, so that has us pumped up. We're happy it's a short, two-hour trip to Barcelona. We've got a lot of reporters and fans coming with us. We can't wait to play in a full house at Palau Sant Jordi. I know there will be a lot of people there from all over, since the Maccabi, Panathinaikos and Siena fans travel in big numbers, too. We're looking forward to seeing that huge crowd, interacting with our friends on other teams and just enjoying the moment. I've got a good friend on Siena, Deji Akindele, a former teammate of mine, who I am very happy to see going to the Final Four. We've been phoning, texting and talking on Skype over the years, and of course, in the last few weeks. I also know Jeremy Pargo and Chuck Eidson from Maccabi, so it'll be great to run into those guys. Of course, we'll be there mostly to play some serious basketball. As any team, we will want to savor the moment, but most of all, we're coming to play and to win.

Nobody has anything but the semifinal on our minds now. I have watched Maccabi a few times on Euroleague.TV this year, many of our other guys played against them before. I can tell you they have very good personnel. Jeremy Pargo, whom I mentioned, it a great point guard who can be very aggressive and play under control at the same time. He was MVP of the playoffs, so that says it all. He comes to play. Chuck Eidson does it all, David Blu shoots the lights out, Lior Eliyahu knows us from... more

Hi, everyone. Clay Tucker here, again. I and my team, Real Madrid, are headed to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four in just a couple weeks, and we are totally excited. It's not just the fact of going to the Final Four, but how we got there, overcoming obstacles and becoming a real unit when we needed to most. I know it might seem we had it easier, as we were the only team with homecourt advantage in the playoffs, but if you look at how many young guys we have and depend on, you will know what I'm talking about. One example is Nikola Mirotic, a teenager to start the season, who just won the Rising Star Trophy. He's a great young guy with a lot of upside. His skill and size are tremendous for his age. He's got great touch, knows how to play, and is not afraid to mix it up. It's great to see him win something and to have a guy with us who can play now and has so much potential down the road.

The other big thing that makes this Final Four something we earned and deserve is that ours was the only playoff series that went to five games. We knew coming in, however, that to beat Valencia it could easily take five games. That was a tough, difficult matchup for both teams, because we knew each other very well going into the series. All five games came down to the fourth quarter, and that was something we had expected and talked about as a team. Then, for us to come out and get that Game 5 victory at home, in front of our fans and thanks to their... more

Hello, again, Euroleague fans! Clay Tucker, checking in from Valencia this time, and happy to be here! That's because, as you surely know, we were able to get our first road win of the Playoffs last night against Power Electronics Valencia, putting us up 2-1 in our series. It'll take one more victory to reach the Final Four, so none of us are celebrating anything yet, but it felt good to bounce back after we lost Game 2 at home. Game 3 was a big win not just because it put us ahead in the series, but because it happened in a hostile environment, with a sellout crowd making all the noise they could against us to full effect. We withstood that, came back strong in the second half and our mindset now is to come even readier for Game 4 on Thursday, close out the series and get to the Final Four!

The series started in Madrid and right off the bat, it was what we expected, which is to say very physical. We had played each other three or four times in the Spanish League this season, so we were mentally ready for a tough series in which no team was likely to blow out the other and staying tough in the fourth quarter was going to be the difference. Thats exactly what has happened in the three games so far, too. In the first one, our young guy Nikola Mirotic hit a three-pointer from the corner with 19 seconds left to close out that victory. That game set the tone of physical play. Euroleague refs, we knew, would let the teams play more than we are used... more

Welcome to my blog, Euroleague fans. Most of you might not know me, because it's my first season in the competition, but I am Clay Tucker, shooting guard of Real Madrid, and I am delighted that our team is alive and playing for big things at this time of the season. Even better, it gives me the chance to tell you all about us!

You could say that my path to the Euroleague has been an unusual one. First of all, I am 30 years old and making my debut in this competition. Second, there is no one else at this level who wore the uniforms of the Utah Snowbears, Sundsvall Dragons in Sweden or MENT in the Greek second division on the way to the Euroleague. But you know what? All of those experiences makes me feel even better now to finally be playing at the top level for Real Madrid in the Euroleague playoffs. I would not go back and change any decision I made along the way, because all those experiences made me the player I am today. I took the best options that were in front of me and I put everything I had into making them work. I always stayed positive and told myself to just play well enough to keep opening doors. Sometimes it seemed that every time I got through one door and was ready to catch a break, another hurdle was thrown up in front of me. At times, I thought maybe the basketball life wasn't meant for me. But that was when staying positive helped most. It requires a lot of believing in yourself, but I was raised to always stay positive no matter what, that even in bad situations, something positive always comes out.

My first season in the Euroleague has been a good one so far. I'm playing for a good team, and we're on the path to reach one of the goals we set for ourselves at the... more