A matter of mythology

Wed, 02 May 2007 07:23:12 GMT

When Obradovic meets Maljkovic, something great happens on the stage of the European basketball. Therefore, I have many reasons to believe that the second semifinal of the 2007 Euroleague Final Four is more than a matter of history. I think that it is matter of...mythology! The game between Panathinaikos and Tau Ceramica brings two European basketball "barons" to OAKA's court. Two great coaches, two different styles, one word: success! Both Zots Obradovic and Boza Maljkovic have the know-how in creating and managing great basketball teams. They have changed the game and dominated the Euroleague in an impressive way.

So far, both Obradovic and Maljkovic have won 39 titles between them, with 9 of the 19 Euroleague trophies in the Final Four era included! Maljkovic, who is eight years older than his compatriot, came up big at the end of the 80's when he presented the "total basketball" of Yugoplastika Split. The current coach of Tau led the "zutko" in back-to-back titles (Munich 1989, Zaragoza 1990), before leaving for Barcelona to play a third straight final, which was a big disappointment for him. Barcelona lost the title game to his old team, Split, in Paris…

Maljkovic returned to the throne in 1993, in Piraeus, Greece, where his new French team, Limoges, surprised everybody with their defense-oriented game and won the trophy. At the end of the final, Petar Skansi, coach of runner up Benetton Treviso stated that "this is the death of basketball", but the future proved that Maljkovic was too hard to die. Three years later Boza did it again with Panathinaikos, which beat Barcelona in the most controversial final ever, again in Paris. In nine seasons, Maljkovic had won a total of four trophies -same as the fathers of European coaches, Pedro Ferrandiz and the late Alexander Gomelski - in six final four appearances, but he had to wait 11 years to get back to the Final Four stage, this week in Athens...

Obradovic was present at the first Final Four (Ghent/1988) as a player of Partizan Belgrade, which finished third. Four years later he returned as the coach of Partizan and autographed the biggest surprise in Euroleague history. The Serbian team had been banned, played all but one their home games in Fuenlabrada, Spain, but managed to reach the Final Four and win it all on a miracle shot by Aleksandar Djordjevic.

Since then Zots has had an oustanding career that has made him without any doubt the "master" of the Euroleague. So far the 47-year-old coach has won five Euroleague trophies with four different teams, each that he has coached with the exception of Benetton Treviso: one with Partizan...

OAKA, a basketball temple

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 02:20:15 GMT

The 2007 Final Four will take place at OAKA, where Panathinaikos has played since moving from Glyfada Stadium in 1995. That was the year that the Indoor Hall of the Olympic Sports Complex was opened, and since then it has hosted all the major basketball events in the world. With the addition of the upcoming Euroleague Final Four, OAKA will have the privilege of being the only court responsible for hosting a complete cycle of the world's most prestigous basketball events.

The Olympic Indoor Hall of Athens is considered to be one of the most renowned basketball temples worldwide. A few weeks after its completion, in June 1995, the European Championships for men was the very first event to be held there, with the national team of Yugoslavia returning from a three-year ban and winning the gold in a thrilling final against Lithuania. Croatia took the bronze medal and Greece came fourth. Twenty days later, OAKA hosted the Word Championships for junior men, where Greece beat Australia in the final game and captured the gold medal, while Spain ranked third and Croatia fourth. Among the junior world players that summer, Dimitris Papanikolaou from Panathinaikos, Luis Scola from Tau, Pepe Sanchez and Carlos Jimenez from Unicaja, and Trajan Langdon from CSKA Moscow are now returning, 12 years later, to play the Euroleague Final Four in the same arena, OAKA.

In summer 1998, OAKA again took the spotlight of international attention thanks to the Men's World Championships. With the current coach of Panathinaikos, Zelimir Obradovic, on the bench, Yugoslavia beat Russia in another thrilling final, decided on a block shot by Zeliko Rebraca against Mihail Mihailov, and thus conquered the title. The U.S. team, without NBA players due to a lockout, took the bronze medal, while Greece ranked fourth.

In August 2004 OAKA experienced its most brilliant moments, with the final round of the Olympic Men's Basketball Tournament. This time the NBA was here, but the U.S. team failed to obtain what they had missed six years previously. Argentina came up big, beating Italy in the final to win the gold medal, the country's biggest achievement in any Olympic team sport. The U.S. team captured the bronze medal, Lithuania ranked fourth and Greece took the fifth place. Two of Argentina's gold medalists from 2004 - Scola and Sanchez - return now to try to prove that OAKA brings them good luck. The ultimate good luck can only come through for one of them, but both have other precedents in OAKA. Sanchez won the 2002 Euroleague title with Panathinaikos, while...

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A matter of mythology

OAKA, a basketball temple