2001: The start of something big

May 20, 2013

I was still playing in 2001, when there was a split in the European competition between the Euroleague and the SuproLeague. But I can tell you that at Panathinaikos, my teammates and I were certainly keeping an eye on the Euroleague teams when possible, even while we were trying to win the SuproLeague. We were the defending Euroleague champs, after all. When I saw Game 5 between Kinder Bologna and Tau Ceramica in scouting sessions a year later, what struck me was how much everyone on both teams wanted that trophy, but especially Manu Ginobili, the series MVP. He was a true standout both in how he played and how he competed. Ginobili had classic guys like Antoine Rigaudeau and Alessandro Abbio at his side, along with young talents like Matjaz Smodis, David Andersen and Marko Jaric. Add in a huge center like Rashard Griffith moving mountains inside and you had to be impressed with the balance between Kinder's inside and outside talent. Tau Ceramica surprised everyone that year with leaders like Elmer Bennett and Saulius Stombergas, a young Luis Scola, great role players like Laurent Foirest and Mindaugas Kiminskas, and twin towers Fabricio Oberto and Victor Alexander. That club has been in the Euroleague elite ever since, but we forget that wasn't the case until they took that series to the fifth game in Bologna. In the end, the fire of head coach Ettore Messina and his great use of three-guard sets with Ginobili, Jaric and Rigaudeau, who had 50 points combined in Game 5, won that series. It was the first best-of-five series ever at that level in Europe, and the fact that it went the distance, I think, was an indication of how competitive European basketball - both inside and outside its borders, in global competitions like the Olympics and World Championships - was to become, from that moment forward, really.

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POSTED BY

Johnny Rogers - Euroleague.net

DATE:

Monday, April 30, 2012