Euroleague Final Four Tickets

Euroleague Final Four
The Euroleague-Final-Four owns its origination to a young and talented journalist Gabriel Hanot. The young journalist went to see a friendly football math between England's Wolverhampton and Hungarian side Honved in the year 1954. The quality of the game, competition level, audience involvement and the overall persona of a live game between two head-on giants instilled in the man a yearning to carve this enthusiasm to other games within the region as well.

It was clear in the eyes of Gabriel Hanot that various competitive games should take place between regional giants to captivate the love of the game and let the audiences of the world enjoy ongoing quality of games and the an opportunity to the people to actively participate in the spirit of rivalry among the clubs that play for a prestigious title.

Soon after the trip, Mr. Hanot went back to France and persuaded his boss to organize a similar competition among regional heads. The meeting took place and the Euroleague was finally coined with the same heart and spirit that Gabriel had anticipated. And in 1958, the first ever European cup was played. Clubs from the entire Eastern Europe peninsula started getting involved and became the initial trends setters for championship wins. The Euroleague was to become the harbinger for basketball playoffs in that particular part of the world. FIBA- The International Basketball Federation (French: F?d?ration Internationale de Basketball), more commonly known by the French acronym FIBA became the association that ensured annual games among the regional states. This is how the most coveted league got established. After the successful years of the annual games, the Union of European Leagues of Basketball (UELB} took over.

The UELB constituted of 24 richest clubs most of them from Spain, Italy and Greece. The most bizarre aspect of the shifting of hands was that the nomenclature Euroleague was never trademarked by any of the governing bodies. Thus, in the year 2000/2001 season, 2 separate top European basketball competitions: FIBA Suproleague (known as FIBA Euroleague up to that point) and the brand new ULEB Euroleague became active.

A rift began among the clubs that were participating in the league. The conflict eventually came to a settlement and FIBA had to subside their requirements. ULEB became the official governing body of the Euroleague game. Under their umbrella, the championship revolved around four specific phases. The first phase known as regular season split the 24 teams into 3 groups with 8 teams in each group. Each team plays two games (home-and-away) against every other team in its group. At the end of the regular season, the field is cut from 24 to 16; the surviving teams are divided into four groups. The second phase is known as the top 16 and is contested in a double round-robin format. Then comes the quarterfinal round where the first-place team from each group is matched against a second-place team from another group in a best-of-three series, with two of the three possible games scheduled at the first-place team's home court.

The Final Four, held at a predetermined site, features the winners of the four quarterfinal series in one-off knockout matches. The semifinal losers play for third place; the winners play for the championship. And this final four phase is the most awaited, endorsed and revered championship phase of this entire game. Millions of fans become wild and throw tantrums depending upon team performances.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Euroleague is the overall improvement in the game of basketball in that particular region. The European countries have far past any other nation or regional championship in regards to the overall competition level, quality of the players and the love of the game.

The European league has now been hiring the best of the best from all parts of the world to compete for a coveted and prestigious prize. The game has improved all dimensions of the sport. Records have been broken and players have exceeded the expectations of the most dangerous critics. The game has seen some amazing performances throughout the years of the game. Nikos Galis from Panathinaikos Athens was able to garner 23.9 points per game in the1993-94 season and Juan Carlos Navarro from FC Barcelona outscored others by scoring 16.7. FC Barcelona has been an outstanding team that has gained momentum and respect due to the team and individual efforts of great legendary players. Charles Shackleford from Ulker Istanbul was also one of the best rebounders of the game during his 1995-96 seasons and Chuck Evans performed brilliantly and maximized the total number of assists per game. In the annals of basketball history, there will most certainly be some great basket ball players that have become immortals in their own rights.

Dejan Toma?evic of the Buducnost Podgorica is one of those giants. And Nikola Vujcic of Maccabi Tel Aviv created history by beating all odds and averaging the best index rating in the entire season. And some games will be remembered more than others. Michael Young (CSP Limoges) 47 points vs. Benetton Treviso (in 1993-94 season) are one of those talented individuals that gave his team a chance at the finals. And a similar experience of Alphonso Ford (Peristeri Athens) 41 points vs. TAU Ceramica (in 2000-01 season) made sure that Peristeri Athens survive till the finals.

Currently the season begins with high hopes and majestic anticipations. Dynamically the 24 best teams of the European league play all out in the tournament of the year to create history and take their fans and their clubs to heights that only people can dream of.