Efes Pilsen Istanbul 2008-09, team profile
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 A classic among modern Euroleague teams, Efes Pilsen is hungrier than ever to reach for greatness in 2008-09. For a long time, persistence has been the middle name for Efes, whose run to the very last game of the Euroleague Quarterfinal Playoffs in 2004-05 provided the best recent example of a team determined to achieve great things. A single-minded desire to be always at its best saw Efes dominate the first half of this decade in Turkey, where it won four consecutive domestic league titles between 2002 and 2005. Efes is often called the Pride of Turkey for having won that country's first European title in any team sport by taking the Korac Cup in 1996. By giving Turkey its first international champion, Efes also solidified the long-improving reputation of Turkish basketball. Efes had made its first impact on the Turkish League with three titles between 1979 and 1984. A new streak of domestic dominance saw it take the Turkish crown in five of six seasons ending in 1997. The Korac Cup title in 1996 and a previous Saporta Cup final appearance in 1993 put Efes on the continental map with players like Petar Naumoski, Volkan Aydin, Ufuk Sarica, the late Conrad McRae, Tamer Oyguc and a young Mirsad Turkcan, all coached by Aydin Ors. Already a Euroleague regular, in 2000 Efes achieved another first among Turkish teams by making the Final Four, a milestone it repeated in the 2001 SuproLeague. Hedo Turkoglu, Mehmet Okur, Predrag Drobnjak, Ibrahim Kutluay and Damir Mulaomerovic were among those that helped Efes to its biggest Euroleague success. Since then, Efes is the team that has most consistently come closest to the Final Four without making it. In 2003-04, that meant missing the Final Four by a single shot, just as in 2004-05,
2007-08 RESULTS | Euroleague | | Turkish League | R. Season | 22-8 | Playoffs | Semifinal |
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Efes was the only team to reach the last game of the Euroleague playoffs before falling. Efes returned to the Euroleague playoffs in 2005-06, only to be swept by eventual champion CSKA Moscow. Home-grown players like Ender Arslan, Kaya Peker, Ermal Kuqo and Kerem Gonlum helped keep Efes fully competitive throughout those years. Even though the team did not make the Quarterfinal Playoffs in each of the last two seasons and won its last Turkish League title in 2005, Efes stayed loyal to its winning tradition by taking home Turkish Cup trophies in 2006 and 2007. Now, however, Efes comes off a rare season with no hardware to add to its trophy case, while it also missed the Turkish League finals for the first time since 1995. Those bumps on a long road of progression only ensure that motivation will be higher than ever as Efes aims next season to reclaim its place is among Europe's uppermost elite.
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Euroleague.net
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