Welcome back, basketball fans around the world. Once again, writing you all for the last time this Euroleague season, I am Kyle Hines, forward/center of the 2012 Euroleague champions, Olympiacos. Yes, you read that right! We did what many deemed unthinkable and impossible at the beginning of the season. We traveled to Istanbul, Turkey as the underdogs of the Final Four and left as THE CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!

Wow, this season has been truly an amazing journey. As many of you know, at the beginning of the season Olympiacos was far from being considered a favorite to win the Euroleague title. We were called too young and inexperienced. They said we lacked the star power and big-name players to be considered serious contenders, that if we reached the Top 16, it should be considered a big success. We used this as motivation throughout the Euroleague season to continue to defy the naysayers and advance to where nobody thought it was possible for us to go.

I've now watched the finals game against CSKA a few times since we have won the championship. Everybody I have talked to has said that they thought it was one of the best games that they have ever seen - and not only in basketball! We were able to somehow come back from 19 points down and get the win. That game basically shows what has made our team special through the entire season. Our team's character and resilience has been the key to our success this year.

It still hasn't quite sunk in that we are the Euroleague champions. It has always been a goal of mine ¬– as I'm sure it is for many other players in Europe ¬– to win the Euroleague. I just didn't necessary think it would happen... more

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing well… I am sure that you are looking forward for the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four tip off… We sure are! We are marching towards the end of our preparations for the semifinal against CSKA Moscow. We are all ready; Mike Batiste is back after recovering from his injury and we have been spending a lot of time at OAKA.

We have spent some time watching video, but we work a lot on the court too in order to prepare ourselves for the games to come in the best possible way. Our coaches have done everything to prepare us as far as scouting goes. We have a very difficult mission ahead, but in a Euroleague semifinal there is no room for favorites.

CSKA has a full roster. Its road through this Euroleague season was steady and we know that we have to do our best in order to claim a positive result. It’s a tough mission for sure, but we are optimistic. We believe in our team and our potential and we’ll do the best we can to get to the final.

We have the chance to defend our title and we want to defend our title. We have a lot of players that have been to at least one Final Four in the past, so we know what we have to do. But we are not the only team out of the four with experienced players. CSKA has players who know well what the Final Four means and the same goes for... more

Welcome Back to all the Turkish Airlines Euroleague and basketball fans around the world. Once again, I am Kyle Hines, forward/center for Olympiacos , writing you from beautiful Athens, Greece. After impatiently waiting for the past 30 days, it is finally………FINAL FOUR TIME!!!!!!! After all the hard and long practices and tough games that have followed us throughout this Euroleague season, it is finally time for my teammates and I travel to Istanbul, Turkey to compete for the Euroleague title.

When I last wrote on this blog, we had defeated Montepaschi Siena in the Euroleague playoffs to clinch a trip to the Euroleague Final Four. Since then we had almost one month to prepare to go to Istanbul. The first step in our team's preparation for the Final Four was the Greek League playoffs. We played both the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of those playoffs. Even though we were clearly the favorites in both of those series, we wanted to use those games to help us to become better prepared for our matchup against Barcelona in the semifinal of the Final Four.

Barcelona has been the top team throughout this Euroleague season. They have one of the most experienced groups in all of the Euroleague and their core players have been together for many years. They have one of the best players in Euroleague, Juan Carlos Navarro, and a very strong and deep frontcourt. Coming into the game, they will be considered the favorites by many people, but to our team that doesn't mean anything. We are comfortable playing the role of underdogs and we all know that anything is possible one game.
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Ok, so the brass over at Euroleague.net have asked me to write a little checkup blog for you guys and I told them I would be happy to oblige. I obviously can't tell y'all about the three new players we have signed for the Final Four, or the full-court triangle-and-two defense we plan on implementing throughout the weekend, but I should be able to give you some other insight into what has been going on over in Barcelona these last couple days.

Yes, the preparation for Olympiacos is a work in progress. Our coaches have done a great job in managing the practices the last couple weeks so we can prepare for both the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four and the Liga Endesa domestic games (double-bonus for sponsor shout-outs!). And while we already have a pretty good understanding of the very good Olympiacos team we will face on Friday, we still have several days of practice to try and become even more prepared. The supremely talented Xavi Montolio has been tasked with organizing and managing the barrage of family and friend ticket requests, figuring out team and family transportation to and from Istanbul, the buses, the hotels, and the obviously large demand for CJ Wallace memorabilia. His job is not easy, but as I expected, so far it appears that everything is operating smooth and sound.

Juan Carlos Navarro, Fran Vazquez, Chuck Eidson, Joe Ingles and Victor Sada: What do these solid individuals have in common? Think long and hard. The answer is they all have recently had their hair cut. And yes, CJ Wallace will be joining this elite group of players tomorrow. My hair can no longer be... more