by:
Frank Lawlor, Euroleague.net
May 11, 2009
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You have only to read the arc of his career to know how much Vassilis Spanoulis wanted a Euroleague title. He worked his way up from his native Larissa to reach Athens in his teens and join Panathinaikos at age 23, also reaching the Euroleague for the first time. Although he played so well as to be voted All-Euroleague Second Team that first season, 2005-06, the Greens missed the Final Four. The next season, Spanoulis went to the NBA, only to watch from afar as the Greens took the Euroleague crown. He returned to Panathinaikos the following season, but again the team was knocked out short of the Final Four. Only four times all decade have the Greens missed the event, and the last two coincided with the first seasons that Spanoulis played for them. Earlier this month, however, all that would change as the Greens survived the closest Final Four in history and Spanoulis was voted MVP. With two trophies in his hands, Spanoulis had made up for a lot of lost opportunity in this, his first Final Four. "The first title is sweet," Spanoulis told Euroleague.net, "but after experiencing the joy and the pride, you just want to feel it again!"
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by:
Frank Lawlor, Euroleague.net
April 25, 2009
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By reaching the 2009 Final Four in Berlin, he has already set one distinctive record, becoming the first player to make the event with four different teams. Now, David Andersen of Regal FC Barcelona will try what no other player in 51 years of European club competition history has done before: win the continental title with three different teams. Andersen took his first crown in 2001 with Kinder Bologna and his next two in 2006 and 2008 with CSKA Moscow. A fourth title title will also put him in select company with only 10 people who have previously won more than three. Still just 28, Andersen might expect more chances in his career, but having made it this far from his native Australia without every expecting as much, he knows from experience not to let any opportunity go by. "If anyone told me when I was 15 or 16 that I would play one day in Italy, let alone go to Russia and then Spain and play at such a high level, I'd have laughed at them, " Andersen told Euroleague.net. " I've had a very interesting ride. Now, hopefully, we can bring back some hardware to this club and keep everyone in Barcelona happy."
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by:
Frank Lawlor, Euroleague.net
April 24, 2009
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One of the biggest off-season moves last summer came when Panathinaikos announced a multi-year deal with Nikola Pekovic, one of the world's top young centers. Almost a year later, it has already been a win-win situation for both. Panathinaikos is back in the Final Four for the first time since winning the title in 2007, while Pekovic has cemented his status as one of the most unstoppable big men in basketball. His development started at Partizan Belgrade under one renowned head coach, Dusko Vujosevic, and continues now under the most successful ever in Europe, Zeljko Obradovic. With Panathinaikos, Pekovic has had a similar, but more contained, role as with Partizan, where he had to be dominant every night. Now, he's still dominant - in fact, on a per-minute basis he leads the Euroleague in both performance index rating and scoring - but he's not under pressure to do so on a team full of veterans who can step up whenever necessary. "For me, it has been easier to play with Panathinaikos," Pekovic told Euroleague.net. "There are a lot of players older than me who understand basketball, and playing with them is easy. Everyone can play and score, so the responsibility is shared all the time."
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by:
Frank Lawlor, Euroleague.net
April 23, 2009
Olympiacos Piraeus is back in the Final Four for the first time in a decade and one of its major catalysts in that historic step has been center Ioannis Bourousis. The 25-year-old big man's seventh Euroleague season has been the best of his career as Bourousis led the Reds in both scoring and rebounding. He also tied for the Euroleague lead with seven double-doubles while playing just over 21 minutes per game. Despite his dominance, Bourousis is modest and level-headed, always thinking team first, but setting his personal goals very high. "I know that I have taken a small step forward, but I can still do more to become a better player for my team," Bourousis told Euroleague.net. "It would be very important for us to play for the Euroleague trophy, but it will be more important to win the title...We are going to Berlin to win the title and not only to be part of this event."
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