The EuroLeague is the strongest continental competition for European clubs. This is equivalent to the UEFA Champions League of football. It gathers the best European teams to compete with each other for the main prize. The first edition of the tournament took place in 1958 when Riga ASK saw off the Bulgarian academic in the final and won both feet on that occasion.
We are football experts NewJerseySafeBetting Summarize everything you need to know about the history of the tournament, format changes, and the team / player / coach who left the biggest mark. Euroleague..
Early beginnings and Russian rule
The Soviet Union team won all the first six editions of the contest. Riga ASK won the first three campaigns and lost to CSKA Moscow and others in the fourth final. Dinamo Tbilisi was another popular and powerful outfit as it won the title in the first EuroLeague final played on a single leg. They sent Real Madrid 90-83 to Geneva during the 1961/62 season.
Real Madrid emerged as a formidable force
The first non-Soviet trophy came in the 1963/64 season when Real Madrid defeated Czechoslovakia’s Spartak ZJS Brno by a point difference (20 points win at home). Then Real Madrid defeated CSKA Moscow the following year to defend their crown.
The following season (1965/1966), the format was completely changed in the final as Simental Milan won the first Italian title after defeating Slavia VS Prague 77-72 in Bologna with one foot. Real Madrid then defeated Simenthal Milano and Spartak ZJS Brno in the next two years to win two more titles.
Year of varese
Then we reach the point where Varese suddenly became a major element of European basketball. They won five trophies in the seven years from 1969 to 1976. After that, Italian heavyweights lost to the final three times in a row. It is worth noting that Maccabi Tel Aviv won his first trophy in Belgrade in 1976/77, beating Mobile Gilgi Varese by one point. Yugoslavia’s Bosna (Sarajevo) won the only title in Grenoble in 1978/79, beating everyone but Varese.
10-year domination of the Italian and Yugoslav teams
From the 1981/82 season to the 1991/92 season, all titles were sent to clubs in Italy or Yugoslavia. Cantu, Milano, Jupoplastika and Cibona each won two trophies during the span, while Roma, POP 84 and Partizan were each able to participate in one title.
Greeks and Lithuanians joined the party in the 1990s
Panathinaikos and Olympiacos won the first EuroLeague trophy in a row, with both teams defeating Barcelona in the finals of the 1995/96 and 1996/97 campaigns. Zargiris got his first EuroLeague silverware in 1998/99 when he saw off Kinder Bologna in the final in Munich.
Recent history
Panati Naikos, McCabitel Aviv, Olympiacos, CSKA Moscow, Real Madrid and Barcelona have represented the dominant force in European men’s basketball in recent history. These teams usually met regularly in the finals. Fenerbahce ruined the party by winning a trophy in the 2016/17 final in Istanbul, and Anadolu Efes defeated Barcelona 86-81 in the 2020/21 final in Cologne to win Turkey’s second title.
Real Madrid are the most successful teams in the history of the tournament
The Spanish Giants are the only team with double-digit EuroLeague titles. They have won the competition 10 times throughout history. They added eight more losses in the final. Only Maccabi Tel Aviv collected more runner-up finishes (9). CSKA Moscow is in second place with eight trophies, and Maccabi Tel Aviv and Panathinaikos each have six trophies. We also need to mention the 5-year-old Varese.
Most notable player
Janis Krumins and Sergey Belov are the top scorers in each of the three EuroLeague finals. Kurmins did so while playing at Regus AS in the first three finals of the tournament, while Belov was a CSKA Moscow star in the early 1970s. Other players worth mentioning are Toni Kukoc and Vassilis Spanoulis, who were declared MVPs for the finals on three separate occasions each. Dejan Bodiroga and Dimitris Diamantidis received two prestigious rewards each.
The most successful head coach
Jericho Obradvich is by far the most successful head coach in the history of the EuroLeague. He has won the tournament nine times as a manager. From a different point of view, the second best in this category is Ettore Messina, which has only four titles. The Italian managers are on the same level as Pedro Ferrandis, Bozidar Markovich and Alexander Gomelski. Among those who have won multiple titles, it is necessary to mention Dimitrios Itoudis, Dusan Ivkovic, Zeljko Pavlicevic, Valerio Bianchini, Evgeny Alekseev, Pablo Laso, Sandro Gamba and Lolo Sainz, in addition to Aca Nikolic and Pini Gershon, each with three trophies. there is. Everyone won twice.
