After the championship, it's time for Euroleague, the top continental competition that kicked off yesterday and will culminate with the Final Four scheduled for May 15-18 at the Forum in Milan, which will host for the second year in a row already in February the Italian Cup. The first two matches that opened this three-day European match, which will offer the bulk of matches today (with Milan on the field) and will end on Friday, saw Bamberg win over Strasbourg and above all the defeat of Siena, who surrendered to the 'ambitious Galatasaray this year.
The Turks, coached by the ex Ataman, the man of Siena's first trophy (Saporta Cup 2002), prevailed 84-75, with Mens Sana always forced to chase and hit by a shower of baskets (8 out of 9 from three) in the second quarter, where the game was decided. This Galatasaray, who can count on the talent of people like Arroyo, Gordon and the former Domercant, is too strong for a Siena that still needs to be broken in at this level, but which has nonetheless shown positive things and can only improve during the season. Among the ranks of Siena, where many have suffered the impact of such a tough competition, the best and last to give up was as usual Daniel Hackett, almost moving with his 26 points (10 out of 11 from two) and authentic leader of this group. A knockout was foreseeable, but the road to the Final Four in Milan is long and the good things to start from, as mentioned, have already been seen.
The choice of the Lombard capital as the venue for the final act was an important sign of confidence for the Italian basketball movement, which has been experiencing a very difficult economic moment for some years and which has not been assigned the final of the tournament for 12 years, when in 2002 the Greeks of Panathinaikos triumphed in Bologna. A decision that surprised a large number of enthusiasts and experts, given that exactly one year ago the Forum had been covertly rejected by former NBA commissioner David Stern, who had deemed it inadequate to host even just showcase competitions like the one that took place disputed between Olimpia and the Boston Celtics, and the red and white club itself (which will wear elegant black in the Euroleague) has been looking for a more hospitable and functional home for some time (for this season it will play based in Assago, with a few games also in Desio, waiting for the new PalaArmani to arise from the ashes, poisoned by asbestos, of the old Palalido). Surely the factors that influenced the decision by the top management of the Euroleague to make Milan return to the capital of European basketball for a few days are the international fame of the city, a world center of fashion and design, as evident from the Olimpia- Armani, with an economically solid project and the appeal of the great fashion house, to add to the great attraction power of Expo 2015, which will also bring the 2016 Champions League final to San Siro and is strongly attracting investors and foreign buyers ( even in sports). Furthermore, for the leaders of European basketball there is a need not to let a movement with a great tradition such as the Italian one slip into the continental rear and the assignment of Milan also somewhat compensates for the failure to hold the Final Four in nearby Turin 2011, when it was hoped to celebrate the event on the 150th anniversary of the Republic. In the meantime, the Forum, to be ready for the big event, is undergoing a restyling which should increase the facility's capacity by about a thousand seats, but the hope of seeing one of the two Italian teams participating at the moment as the protagonist on that parquet floor in May is difficult to say the least, if not impossible.
The two formations in question are the usual, Siena and Milan (the eventual landlady), the only Italians present after Varese failed to pass the preliminary tournament for access to the main draw, beaten by the Germans of Oldenburg and relegated to the Eurocup, where instead he will be able to fully play his cards. Both Mens Sana and Olimpia start from the third row, certainly less competitive and with more limited ambitions than in previous editions, when, especially the Tuscans, they were indicated if not as one of the favourites, but at least as one of the more serious outisder (in 2011 he reached the Final Four in Barcelona). Instead, for this year, it is better not to be under any illusions, with Siena which, given its budget more than halved compared to a few seasons ago, has a weaker and above all shorter roster than what we were used to, while Milan would be good that she concentrated almost exclusively on the championship, in the year in which she is indicated by everyone as the big favourite. Any, yet another, disappointing epilogue would be an even greater failure than in the past (and the debut was certainly not comforting).
For both, however, it is legitimate to ask for at least a passage to the Top 16, given the two certainly not impossible groups in which they happened and which in past years would have made us think of an easy way out of the first phase (but this time, as mentioned, this is not the case, and the double commitment could be a burden in the long run). On paper, the most affordable group seems to be that of Milan, which happened with Real Madrid of the ex Bourousis (and which should make a run for itself), Efes Istanbul (which hosts Olimpia tonight at 20pm), Zalgiris Kaunas ( historical power of European basketball, which relies on its nucleus of Lithuanian stars, but now a little over the years) and the unknown Strasbourg and the Germans of Bamberg. For Siena, a slightly more complex group, formed not only by Galatasaray, but also by Olympiakos (winner of the last two editions), by the reduced but always competitive Unicaja Malaga, by the surprising Germans of Bayern and by the Poles of Zelmet Zielona Gora, the weakest of the group.
However, Mens Sana this season in Europe will have to face an additional problem, namely that of playing all the home games having to move to the Mandela Forum in Florence, with the consequent loss of the home factor of the PalaEstra, often essential for businesses of the past years. Each time almost an away match for the Sienese fans, who had immediately expressed their disappointment and even during yesterday's match they carried on their protest, but who in any case and this is the important thing, did not fail to support the their own players, arriving for this first in Florence in many, also thanks to special buses made available by the club. A practically obligatory shift wanted by the Euroleague itself to allow Montepaschi the multi-year right to participate, the 5-year derogation of the PalaEstra (5070 seats) having passed, even if in reality not even Florence would have the 10.000 seats requested, but yes however, it went from 5.800 to 7.300 (thanks to a wider curve and a grandstand behind the benches), at the end of works in which the Tuscany Region itself invested a lot. The idea, which would be difficult to achieve, would be to make Mens Sana the team of all of Tuscany, focusing the role of Florence, a city with great charm and appeal in terms of sponsors and television market but extraneous to major tournaments (today the best club is Affrico which plays in the third series), and a sign has already been seen with the intensification this summer of the relationship between Minucci's club and Fiorentina. So far the rules of the market, but then there is the passion of the fans, which clashes with all this (Hackett in the purple shirt has caused quite a few grumbles), with the pride claimed by the Sienese supporters, who feel they are protagonists of a reality of European level born from a city of only sixty thousand inhabitants. What is certain is that for this year Siena will host its rivals at the Mandela Forum (the agreement with the Euroleague provides for a two-year "trial" period, while the alternatives were Pesaro or Bologna), a building that is also a bit old (built in 1985) but could be further improved and place where in 1990 the Virtus Bologna of a young and rookie Ettore Messina won the (now defunct) Cup Winners' Cup.
To complete the picture of the other two groups: in one there are CSKA Moscow, Barcelona, the Turks of Fenerbahce, Partizan Belgrade, Nanterre and the Ukrainians of Budivelnik, the latter two with almost zero chance of accessing the second phase given the value of the others three (the only position they could undermine is that of the Serbs), while in the other grouping, very balanced, we find Panathinaikos, Maccabi Tel Aviv, the Spaniards of Caja Laboral, the Russians of Lokomotiv Kuban, the Lithuanians of Lietuvos Rytas and the Red Star of Belgrade. The top 16 of each group advance to the Top 4, which will then be divided into two other groups of 8, with the best four of each group facing each other by knockout (best of 5 matches) to get the pass to fly to the Finals Four in Milan. Said of the Italians, the favorites to win the final, or at least to be present in the top eight, are always the usual notes, with the two Spanish Real Madrid and Barcelona in the lead, together with CSKA Moscow and holders Olympiakos, just a little ' other two historic clubs like Panathinaikos and Maccabi are further away, but also pay attention to the Turkish players.
In this edition of the Euroleague (waiting to introduce them also in the championship) some innovations have been introduced from a regulatory point of view, intelligent modifications such as the abolition of the arrow on alternating possession with the return of the dear old contested ball and a single free throw available after the technical fouls (while after two technicians there will be the expulsion of the player). Another novelty, all in favor of the large number of football enthusiasts, is the news of the four-year contract with Fox Sports for live broadcasting (in these first months until December on Sky Sports 2 and 3, then on the new channel Fox Sports 2) of the matches of the Italian teams plus the best match of each day. A great television coverage, with in-depth analysis and many well-known faces, which basketball in Italy has been lacking for some time and which will accompany the fans up to the event in Milan next May, almost as if we were talking about football…
