Never have Euroleague teams spent so much to try to win the title of best European basketball team. Money has circulated a lot to find the best possible players, many of them recruited directly from the NBA. With the two Greek teams fighting to have the most powerful squad, and the two Turks not far behind them, the maximum continental competition, from which Valencia falls and which Paris enters, something that the competition, with Thiago Splitter on the bench, has not yet designated a venue for the Final Four. Abu Dhabi bids to host it on the 25th anniversary of the competition.
Panathinaikos, powerful. The current Euroleague champion wants to repeat. With the leadership of the implacable Ataman. The club’s billionaire president, Dimitrios Giannakopoulos, has once again spent a million to expand and improve the squad with Osman and Yurtseven, Turkish and from the NBA, and Lorenzo Brown, who arrives from Maccabi. Anything less than getting into the final four with an all-star team will be considered a failure in Athens.
Olympiacos, in orbit. The other Greek team, Bartzokas’ Olympiacos, has been to the Final Four three consecutive times, and now aspires to win it with a checkbook. The red and white team has acquired the services of Vezenkov, who is leaving the NBA to play in Piraeus, Vildoza with the highest salary in the competition (3.7 million euros), and the Frenchman Evan Fournier, who last season He played for the New York Knicks and the Detroit Pistons, and is also making his way back to Europe.
The Turkish danger. Saras Jasikevicius took charge of Fenerbahçe in the middle of last season, after the dismissal of Dimitris Itoudis, so he had to settle for the squad that the black team had already designed. Now he has designed a group in his image and likeness, with the signings of Wade Baldwin, Bonzie Colson and Nicolo Melli, with whom he also aspires to win the competition, like Efes, his bitterest rival. It will feature former Real Madrid player Vincent Poirier and Euroleague newcomers Stanley Johnson and Jordan Nwora. Both teams will consider not entering the Final Four a failure.
Madrid and Barça in the second step. Despite having important arguments in their squad, with the reinforcement of the Greek and also the Turkish teams, both Real Madrid and Barcelona seem, this time installed in the second step of the Euroleague, aspiring to everything, but perhaps less favorites than other times. Madrid has an impressive starting quintet, but with less wardrobe than other seasons between absences and retirements, such as those of Chacho Rodríguez and Rudy Fernández; A new era begins at Barça, full of unknowns, with a longer squad than Madrid’s, but only one brilliant addition, that of Punter.
Baskonia, eternal contender. As in the League, Baskonia, a permanent partner of the competition, is an eternal contender for everything, this season with the return home of Pablo Laso as the main novelty, in a team that counts among its signings those of Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Donta Hall, Trent Forrest and Kamar Baldwin. Getting stronger in Buesa will, once again, be essential to be at least among the top ten and aspire to get into the playoffs. The bad start on the first day of the League cannot be a reference for the Vitorians.
Obradovic’s cleanup. In Belgrade, the summer has been busy. The Partizan bench has not changed, with Zeljko Obradovic at the helm, but the team cannot be recognized except in the colors of the shirt, because in the squad there are only two survivors from last season, Stepanovic and Koprivica. The rest are new. Marinkovic, the former Baskonia player, commented on the impact of arriving at the first training session and having practically everyone be new. Whether they are coupled or not will be seen at the Buesa Arena, the first station of the Serbian team, which aspires to everything.
The news of the competition. The biggest novelty of the Euroleague that opens on its first day, is the presence in the competition of Paris Basketball, champion of the Eurocup, although with a limited budget, which appears in the French capital to the maximum competition, and which joins to the depressed Asvel in representing his country in the tournament. The veto, for another year, of the Russian teams, which are left out, is no longer news.
