MADRID, 2 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The 2024-2025 Euroleague will start this Thursday with the dispute of its Regular Phase and with the Greek Panathinaikos defending its victory last year against a good list of rivals among whom they want to be, mainly Real Madrid and Barça, and, starting perhaps from a lower step, Baskonia.
These three teams will be the representatives of the Endesa League in the top continental competition this year, one less than in recent years after the organizers decided not to invite Valencia Basket this time for their demanding tournament of 18 participants, with Paris Basketball , champion of the Eurocup as the only novelty and occupying the ‘taronja’ place, which is once again very close to enter the ‘Playoff’ in a special edition for being the 25th anniversary.
As in the previous campaign, this privilege will only be guaranteed to the top six finishers in the Regular League, while those from seventh to tenth will play for the remaining two spots in the new ‘Play-in’ that the Euroleague introduced last year. The objective for all of them is to seal a ticket for a ‘Final Four’ with a venue still to be chosen and which will decide the final fight for the title between May 23 and 25.
That is the main mission for the three Spanish teams, to be among the four that fight for a throne that is now held by the ‘PAO’, which was crowned in Berlin with authority (95-80) against Real Madrid, who could not defend their 2023 triumph in Kaunas and which has been the most regular of all of them with its presence in the last three ‘Final Four’, all of them with a presence in the title match and a total of seven since 2012-2013.
The Madrid team was the best last year, having a sensational Regular Phase with 27-7, four wins more than their rivals, winning with ease in the ‘Playoff’ against Baskonia and in their semi-final against Olympiacos, before giving in to a ‘ PAO’ devastating in the second part. Now, the eleven-time European champion, who will make his debut in Munich (Germany) against Bayern, will want to once again rub shoulders with the elite although his start to the campaign has left some doubts regarding the coupling of his signings and the need to shore up something plus his squad, especially in the 4′ position.
Barça faces the Euroleague once more under pressure, as it continues to seek to end a drought that has already lasted 14 years since its last victory in 2010, a journey through the desert with only one final (2021) and that added a shadow even more so when last season, after a good Regular Phase, they were left in the tough ‘Playoff’ against Olympiacos, losing the fifth and final match at the Palau Blaugrana.
Supported by this spirit of sporting revenge, the team coached by Joan Peñarroya, which has already suffered its first setback by falling in the semifinals of the Endesa Super Cup against Real Madrid, will seek to return to a ‘Final Four’ with its new project that It will start at home against Zalgiris Kaunas.
THE ‘PAO’, REINFORCED TO DEFEND TITLE
The third in the running is Baskonia, a classic of the top continental competition since it is one of the four that has played in all editions and in whose first final 25 years ago it was the protagonist, losing to Virtus. The Vitorian team seems one step below the great contenders and their first major objective will be to be in the ‘Playoffs’ again and from there dream of returning to a ‘Final Four’, which they have not achieved since 2016.
This complicated mission has been entrusted to an acquaintance of the house such as former player Pablo Laso, in his third adventure with a Euroleague team after the successful one with Real Madrid and the most discreet one with Bayern last year. His debut will be at the Fernando Buesa Arena against Serbian Partizan.
The rival to beat will be Panathinaikos due to their status as champions. The Athenian team won its seventh European Cup, first since 2011, putting forward an ambitious project and will now try to repeat it, guided again by the eccentric but effective Ergin Ataman and with the same block with the Sloukas, Lessort, Grant or Nunn, those who have added two good pieces like Lorenzo Brown and Cedi Osman.
Turkish Fenerbahce and Anadolu Efes will want to be in the fight again. The team coached by Sarunas Jasikevicius has been well reinforced with the ‘giant’ Bojan Marjanovic, the explosive and irregular Wade Baldwin IV, Devon Hall and the return of Nicolo Melli, while the double European champion wants to make up for two consecutive seasons away from the ‘Playoffs’ and has raised its bet to accompany Shane Larkin with the main signing of Vincent Poirier.
The rest of the alternatives seem to be the well-known ones of the always competitive Greek Olympiacos, reinforced by the return of Alexander Vezenkov, AS Monaco of Mike James and Nick Calathes, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, somewhat minimized by the departures of Brown and Baldwin IV and again exiled in Belgrade due to the war in his country, and the EA7 Emporio Armani Milano by Nikola Mirotic.
The Italian Virtus, the Serbian Partizan and the Red Star, the German Bayern and ALBA, the Lithuanian Zalgiris and the French ASVEL Villeurbanne and Paris Basketball complete a Euroleague that is once more demanding and without time for respite.