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Few teams all decade enjoyed a better Eurocup debut than Galatasaray Cafe Crown of Turkey, which reached the semifinals in 2008 despite having not played in European club competition for five years before that. Its amazing run in the 2007-08 ULEB Cup stands as the best European season in the club's history, but Galatasaray is ready to try to do better in the 2009-10 Eurocup. As a respected basketball team through eight decades, Galatasaray has all the tradition necessary to succeed. Founded in 1905 in Istanbul, Galatasaray had the honor to introduce basketball into its country and soon became the team to beat in Turkey for several decades. Its last golden age came in the mid-1980s, with consecutive Turkish League titles in 1985 and 1986, plus another in 1990. Galatasaray has not lifted an official trophy since 1995, however. With an interesting roster and its signature fighting spirit, the club is ready to do even better in its second Eurocup season.
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 Despite being a virtually unknown team to most young European basketball fans, VEF Riga has been one of the best Latvian clubs since its founding in 1958, nurturing domestic stars like Valdis Valters, Igor and Raimons Miglieniks or Gundars Vetra.
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 Looking back 20 years, few people would have expected Pamesa Valencia would become one of the biggest clubs in European basketball. Pamesa was virtually unknown in Europe until the mid-1990s, but since then has competed for continental trophies consistently.
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 Barons/LMT Riga has played an important role in the recent resurgence of basketball in Latvia and now the local champs are in the midst of a new challenge in their first season in Europe’s second competition. The start was rough with back-to-back games against proven powers Dynamo Moscow and Unics Kazan, but now Barons are ready to make some noise.
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 A sign hangs in old Jazine Hall, the former home court of KK Zadar for 40 years, that says it all about basketball's status in the picturesque town on the Adriatic Coast: "God created man, and Zadar created basketball." That assertion is not too far from the truth, either. Organized basketball has been played in Zadar since the 1920s, almost a full century.
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 In just two decades, Spirou Basket Charleroi has gone from virtually unkown to become a reference point in Belgian and European basketball. Founded just 20 years ago, Spirou has forged its status as a team to beat in Belgium, and this season stands as one of five unbeaten clubs in the Eurocup right before the start of 2009.
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 Not many pro basketball teams anywhere bridged the 20th and 21st centuries with quite the same style as did KK Buducnost. The team from Podgorica, Montenegro, earned its name among the top clubs in Europe then by dominating the world-renowned Yugoslav League at the end of the 1990s and into the new millennium.
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