PANATHINAIKOS 73-71 CSKA MOSCOW
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Panathinaikos Athens is the Euroleague Basketball champion for 2009! Panathinaikos lifted its second crown in three years by beating last season’s champion CSKA 73-71 in a thrilling final at o2 World in Berlin on Sunday night. One of the most exciting basketball title games in history went to the wire and wasn’t decided until Ramunas Siskauskas's attempted three at the buzzer bounced out. That allowed Panathinaikos to celebrate its fifth Euroleague title and the seventh for head coach Zeljko Obradovic, the winningest head coach in Euroleague history. Vassilis Spanoulis was named Final Four MVP after scoring 13, including a clutch triple with less than three minutes to play. Panathinaikos had 10-0 runs in both the first and second quarters to surge ahead and Sarunas Jasikevicius and Drew Nicholas finished the second period with back-to-back three-pointers to give the Greens a 48-28 halftime lead. They would prove to need each of those as CSKA held the Greens scoreless for more than 8 minutes, scoring 17 unanswered points to come back. CSKA would narrow the gap to 1 in the closing seconds, but couldn't complete the comeback. Antonis Fotsis added 13 points and 8 rebounds for the winners and Jasikevicius and Dimitris Diamantidis scored 10 each. J.R. Holden paced CSKA with 14 points and Trajan Langdon and Siskauskas each scored 13.

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, thereby 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. "Now that I have had my experience, I too can understand what everybody meant by saying that it's a basketball celebration," Spanoulis told Euroleague.net. "Every basketball player wants to be a part of it, to be there and my goal is to be on time for this appointment as many times possible from now on... The first title is sweet, but after experiencing the joy and the pride, you just want to feel it again. You want more titles to accompany that first one!"

In your first Final Four, you ended up with the Euroleague trophy in one hand and the Final Four MVP trophy in the other. Did you ever dream of such things growing up as a player?

"I believe that every kid who starts playing basketball, every player later on, dreams of conquering a Euroleague title. It's a dream that came true for me. About the MVP trophy… It's a distinction for me, a personal honor, but like every title in basketball, every little award is a result of teamwork. Conquering Europe as a team is what matters the most; a success that came through teamwork, through the work of my coaches, of my teammates, of the administration. It's just amazing how we got to the end of this road, getting the Euroleague trophy, along with the fans of the team."

Everyone knows you came back to Panathinaikos to have a chance to win titles. Was the Euroleague trophy at the top of the list?

"Yes, yes! Definitely! As far as clubs go it is the highest a basketball player can get. Not that our job ends here…"

Let's talk about the Final Four itself, the closest one ever. Two defensive stops at the end of the semifinal and final made you guys the champs. Defense still wins championships?

"Defense comes first, if you want to get titles. This is the philosophy of our team. Everything good that happens in our offense derives from a good defense. I believe that we played well overall during the Final Four, there were only a few times that we trailed in the score and it's obvious that both the ability of the team and luck have their part in getting to the top every time. But the most important element is the ability. We deserved the trophy we conquered!"

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