Fragiskos Alvertis will make his seventh Final Four appearance in Moscow, a record he holds exclusively. He also holds three Euroleague titles won with Panathinaikos.

From one basketball capital where he learned the game to another where he turned knowledge into titles, Nikola Vujcic has proven to be one of the sport's steadiest forces.

Two weeks before the most important event of his professional career, after having led CSKA Moscow to the finest season on record in Europe, the Euroleague MVP for April, Marcus Brown, asks a favor before getting off the phone with Euroleague.net. "Just tell everyone to keep the family of Alphonso Ford in their prayers," Brown says. "He was a great guy." Brown and Ford, the former Euroleague scoring champ who died of leukemia last fall, crossed paths everywhere from the southern United States, where they both grew up, to the Euroleague. You can be sure that Brown will use Ford's memory as extra inspiration as he marches CSKA to the Final Four in Moscow from May 6 to 8. Brown says he's proud of his team already, win or lose in Moscow, where he expects to take part in perhaps the greatest Final Four ever. "Everyone is really, really anticipating this one," Brown said. "Given all the factors - Maccabi won last year, we were right there the last two season, Panathinaikos is definitely a tough team, Tau is always that way - the billing for this Final Four is like a heavyweight fight."