Euroleague.net's editorial director, Frank Lawlor, has spent most of his career as a basketball journalist in Europe and his native United States, writing about and interviewing the top players in the world on both continents for more than two decades. In terms of practical basketball experience, he was a head coach in the Spanish second division for one fortuitous season in the late 1990s. Frank's blog will draw on all that background to enhance the Turkish Airlines Euroleague experience for you, the fans.

The same words kept echoing into the magic Istanbul night.

"Incredible!"

"Unbelievable!"

Just as the same text message ricocheted around the continent.

"Wow!"

And the same questions were repeated at the Efes Champions Party, by people with no voices left, trying to shout above the Turkish dance music wafting up toward the Bosphorous Bridge to Asia.

"Are we dreaming?"

"Did that really happen?"

"Can you believe it?"

The answer: only if you believe in miracles. That's almost not too strong a word for how Olympiacos changed basketball history on Sunday.

Losing by 19 points with 12 minutes to play in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague title game, nobody but nobody thought the Reds could do much more than avoid embarrasment against CSKA Moscow.

They had missed 10 out of 20 free throws during the game's first 28 minutes and only three Olympiaccos players - three! - had scored in the game until then: Vassilis Spanoulis, Kostas Papanikolaou and Pero Antic. Worst of all, with the... more

Euroleague.net's editorial director, Frank Lawlor, has spent most of his career as a basketball journalist in Europe and his native United States, writing about and interviewing the top players in the world on both continents for more than two decades. In terms of practical basketball experience, he was a head coach in the Spanish second division for one fortuitous season in the late 1990s. Frank's blog will draw on all that background to enhance the Turkish Airlines Euroleague experience for you, the fans.

One of the questions sent this week for our Fan Mail segment on players from the Turkish Airlines Final Four teams made me stop and think. A Panathinaikos fan asked Nick Calathes if he and the team were ready for the "this difficult - maybe the most difficult - Final Four." Of course, it's always risky comparing one Final Four to the next, let alone this one to others held five, 10 or 20 years ago. So many factors converge at a Final Four between talent, emotion, tactics, inspiration, preparation and luck - both bad and good - that I, for one, can't say that one year's champ would have prevailed over another's. And I or anyone else saying so would never prove it anyway. That's why the games are played, to decide a champion, and that's what makes it so compelling, that you never know until the players and coaches do. This particular sporting opera, the Euroleague, truly is never over until the fat lady sings Devotion.

But apart from the obvious strength of all the teams heading to Istanbul this week, there are several factors that argue for this Final Four as being yet... more

Euroleague.net's editorial director, Frank Lawlor, has spent most of his career as a basketball journalist in Europe and his native United States, writing about and interviewing the top players in the world on both continents for more than two decades. In terms of practical basketball experience, he was a head coach in the Spanish second division for one fortuitous season in the late 1990s. Frank's blog will draw on all that background to enhance the Turkish Airlines Euroleague experience for you, the fans.

There is a certain poetic justice to Panathinaikos vs. Maccabi having the stage to itself tonight as the only Game 5 in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Playoffs this season.

We have spoken before about what makes this the best rivalry in world basketball this century.

The five Final Four meetings since 2000, a modern record. The three title games between them, ditto. The most successful team of the century, Panathinaikos. The only repeat champion in two decades, Maccabi. The only team this century to beat Maccabi in a semifinal, Panathinaikos. The only team to beat Panathinaikos this century in any Final Four game at all, Maccabi.

The list goes on now that they have reached Game 5 in their first playoff series ever. This is just the third Game 5 among the 16 series played since the best-of-five format came to be in 2009. The overtime win by Maccabi in Game 2 is just the second out of 105 playoffs games since 2005 - when the playoffs started as best-of-three series - to reach OT.

Both of those overtime games were... more

Euroleague.net's editorial director, Frank Lawlor, has spent most of his career as a basketball journalist in Europe and his native United States, writing about and interviewing the top players in the world on both continents for more than two decades. In terms of practical basketball experience, he was a head coach in the Spanish second division for one fortuitous season in the late 1990s. Frank's blog will draw on all that background to enhance the Turkish Airlines Euroleague experience for you, the fans.

The prospect of Game 5 in the playoffs has taken on mythic status in the sport of basketball. Game 5 is the end of the road, where there's no turning back, no second chances, for either team. It defines do-or-die with a finality that could not be more of a contrast. One team dances around, thrilled to be going to the biggest basketball party anywhere, the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four. The other team has to watch the celebration right after its own season is cut short despite taking it all the way to Game 5 of the playoffs. If you are a basketball fan only, and not a supporter of either team, it's a bittersweet moment. A great duel has ended.

Which is why I like Game 4 so much. Game 4 is a celebration, just like Game 5, for one of the teams. But the other is not dead yet. Far from it. Both teams have beaten each other already by the start of Game 4. Anything can happen now. Even that Final Four qualification celebration. But if not, we have a 2-2 series. And the duel is not over.

Game 4 is upon us. Tonight, the spotlight falls first on... more