Veteran sportswriter and Euroleague.net collaborator Vladimir Stankovic has been following the best basketball on the continent longer than almost anyone journalist, writing for decades about the sport in major publications in both Serbia and Spain. For the new 2009-10 season, he offers a series of opinion blogs about what's happening on and off the court in the Euroleague.

The 2010 Final Four, as the culmination of a great Euroleague season, confirmed several predictions. For instance:

- Regal FC Barcelona was the best team.
- Olympiacos has more the best players than the best team.
- CSKA Moscow is still way up there despite the budget cuts.
- Partizan Belgrade more than justified its place at the Final Four.

Each of the four teams can draw positive conclusions, too:

- Barca has shown quality, maturity and an ability to withstand pressure.
- Olympiacos improved its final standing as compared to Berlin 2009, where it finished fourth, and now hopes that a third consecutive Final Four qualification, if it happens next season, will be the charm.
- CSKA, with a Russian coach (Evgeniy Pashutin) and several local players (Viktor Khryapa, Sasha Kaun, Andrey Vorontsevich) showed that it doesn't depend solely on foreign stars.
- Partizan has demonstrated plenty, even losing twice in overtime, because it achieved something rare: getting talked about more in defeat than its opponents were in victory.

Starting from here, each will have homework for next season:

- Barcelona will face the fact that it is more difficult to defend a title than to win one.
- The Reds will face doubts about the future of such... more

Hello again! This is Andrey Vorontsevich of CSKA Moscow. I am getting back to you the day before we get to Paris for the Euroleague Final Four! It has not been an easy time for us because we lost three consecutive games in the Russian League, as you probably know. We have managed to do better in friendly games, prepare well and get ready for the Final Four. These three losses belong to the past now, but even so, they make you wonder and think about it, especially about our defense and which changes we should make. We have practiced harder than ever and I am sure everything will be fine when we get on court in the semifinal against Barcelona. We played - and won - two friendly games against Unics. I think it was a great idea to play against them because Unics has a similar team structure as Barcelona. They have some players that are close to what we can expect in the semifinal in Paris. Marko Popovic is a scoring guard similar to Juan Carlos Navarro. At the same time, Kresimir Loncar and Maciej Lampe are physical players with good range like Terence Morris or Erazem Lorbek. These two games have been very important for us. One of the keys to the game against Barcelona is that our frontcourts are quite different. I think we are shorter but faster than them. We can find some advantages if we play the right way.

We have a very experienced team and that always counts against such a strong opponent as Barcelona. You don't how how you will play or shoot in a situation like this - but experience definitely helps. If you miss shots, you start to think about t and there is no time for anything but playing hard! I have to say I like Barcelona, they... more

Hi everyone. We're on our way to Paris with an intense and successful finish to our preparations! We played the quarterfinals of the Greek League playoffs over the weekend, winning on Saturday and Monday to advance to the semis. We finished up the series on Monday night in Thessaloniki, flew back to Piraeus, and by midday on Tuesday were on our way to Paris already! I think it has been good for everybody playing right up to our departure in serious games - and especially winning them! Those kinds of things can help you get confidence and work on some things for the Final Four. But I think that for every team this has been a tough couple of weeks prior to the big event. Our semifinals opponent, Partizan, played the final of the Adriatic League, winning in overtime one of the most incredible games I've seen in awhile. For them, it was the right place at the right time, and they must be feeling good about winning, too. But the truth is that on Friday, what we all did the last few weeks doesn't count anymore. It's a new page, a new game, everything completely new that night. We all start from zero again.

Everybody had time rest or get rid of injuries, and by playing at the end, everybody has caught the rhythm needed to be ready. On our team, everyone is a professional and knows his own way to prepare himself for the semifinal on Friday. I believe everything and everyone is crucial at this point. The time is now and everybody has to give... more

Hello, everyone. It is the final conutdown until the beginning of the Final Four, and of course, the excitement just keeps growing. But don't worry, we've got it under control!

From the moment when we qualified for the Final Four, we've played a lot of important games and we did a lot of hard practices. We won the Adriatic Legaue in an unbelivable way! On the opponent's court in front of 16,200 fans we beat Cibona in overtime with an azming three-point basket by Dusan Kecman! Not only for a win, but for the title! We were lucky, but I think we deserved that luck. That victory and trophy mean a lot for our self-confidence and gave a significant contribution to our preparation for the Final Four.

Of all our players, only Kecman has played the Euroleague Final Four previously. For the rest of us, this will be a new experience. The fact is, however, that this year we played a lot of important and tough games. Even if we have a young team, we won two trophies, so I think we are all ready for this new challenge.

The best that European basketball has to offer will be in Paris, and we know that. All four teams deserve to be there, because of their outstanding seasons and quality. Olympiacos, CSKA and Barcelona were favorites for this Final Four at the beginning of this season. It was not the same story for Partizan, but that's the beauty of this game.

Our opponent in the semifinals, Olympiacos, last year lost in... more