Europe’s most prestigious basketball organization, EuroLeague, once again hosted strong and exciting matches in the 2023-2024 season, giving great excitement to its audience.
This season, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Panathinaikos were among the clubs that attracted attention with their transfers and regular season performances. Anadolu Efes and Fenerbahçe, our valuable team representatives in the region, started the season with high expectations, considering their championships in previous seasons.
Regular Season and Playoffs Highlights
When we point out the magnificent moments and attacks of the regular season, the Anadolu Efes-Real Madrid match gave basketball fans a great feast with conflicts until the last seconds. The prominent names of the sides were the acquisition of Dzanan Musa from Real Madrid and Shane Larkin from Anadolu Efes. It also advanced in basketball by becoming the first and only game in the Euroleague to go to 4 overtimes. The navy blue-white leader in our country lost the match with a score of 130-126 at WiZink Center and Real Madrid continued its unbeaten streak at home with this victory.
The Purple Whites completed the season in which they were at the top recently with only 7 losses and 27 wins. Chus, who did not have any more difficulties against their opponents in the Play Off, Baskonia, and continued with a 3-0 victory, became the first team to have Mateo’s place in the Final Four.
Between Monaco, which finished 3rd in Mike James’s 3rd season, with the season MVP and the leading scorer in the Euroleague this season, and Fenerbahce, our center, which made a radical coach change in the middle of the season and entrusted the reins to Sarunas Jasikevicius, 5 between 3-6 seasons. . was moved to the match. Winning the 5th game with Nick Calathes’ critical three-pointers in the last 2 positions, the yellow-dark blue team managed to get their name in the last 4 teams for the first time since 2019.
The series between Panathinaikos, with Ergin Ataman, our pride in Greece, and Maccabi, which had to play its matches in Serbia, which was injured due to the war, was evaluated by the authorities as Pana could easily pass. However, on the contrary of reality, he made sports fans watch a heartbreaking series. The green and white team emerged victorious with a score of 3-2 in the series, which sometimes witnessed debates, tensions and matches.
Match 4-5 was another series that went to the 5th game. Finalist Oly helped Barça prevail in tough competitions and put an end to the Spanish team’s Final Four season since 2021.
Ergin Ataman’s Panathinaikos is the EuroLeague Champion!
Ergin Ataman, the championship winner of Anadolu Efes in the past years, added the 7th Championship to the team and the 3rd Cup to his career in Panathinaikos this year. Defeating our representative F.Bahçe in the semi-finals and Real Madrid in the final, Pao won the championship for the first time after Zeljko Obradovic’s victory in 2011. Ergin Ataman after the championship: “I lost my father last month, I’m sure you saw that. He was with me in the championships I won with Anadolu Efes. “I would like to thank the Greek fans and the Turkish demonstrations for their support.” made a statement.
Partizan head coach Obradovic also congratulated his former team Panathinaikos; “The three teams I previously coached were Fenerbahce, Real Madrid and Panathinaikos in that year’s Final Four. We already know the relationship between me and these three clubs. “It was an interesting Final Four, congratulations to Panathinaikos.”
Final Four MVP Sloukas
Kostas Sloukas took another step forward in his career by being selected as the 2024 Final Four MVP. In the championship match at Berlin Uber Arena, Sloukas was the one who led Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens to victory by beating the previous champion Real Madrid 95-80.
Sloukas broke his career high in the Final Four with 24 points. He achieved the highest efficiency in any Final Four game this season with 31 efficiency points, which he achieved by making 4-for-4 from behind the arc, making 8 of them on target. He also became the second player after Greek star Sarunas Jasikevicus, who won his 4th championship with 3 different teams in the 11th Final Four.
Sloukas’ match results are as follows: “Panathinaikos is nourished by its championships, we had to win to show the right seasons in the EuroLeague. The most important thing is winning, since we are winning our next matches, all teams are very close to each other…” and added: “A championship team also comes with its own criticisms.”