FIBA European Champions Cup and EuroLeague history

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Title holders

FIBA European Champions' Cup for men's clubs – origins and early history (1958–1960)

Spain), Robert Busnel (France), Miloslav Kříž (Czechoslovakia), and Nikolai Semashko
(Soviet Union), to come up with a proposal.

The commission invited Europe's national basketball federations to send their national domestic league champions, L'Equipe donated a trophy, and in 1958, the FIBA European Cup For Men's Champion Clubs, or, FIBA European Champions' Cup, started, with the inaugural 1958 FIBA European Champions Cup season.

Clubs from Eastern Europe (from the former Soviet bloc) dominated the early years of the competition. They not only won the first six editions of the competition (

Academic
twice, Dinamo Tbilisi once, and Rīgas ASK once).

The 2.18 m (7'2") tall Soviet player Jānis Krūmiņš, was the man in the middle for Rīgas ASK's initial league three-peat championship, as he was an unmatched dominant force around the basket.

The 1960s, Real Madrid and CSKA Moscow rise

In the 1960–61 season, things began to change. The main Western European basketball club, Real Madrid, started to show signs of ambition, and was eliminated only after the semifinals, by Rīgas ASK.

The following two years, the

Spartak ZJŠ Brno
in the final.

However, that same season, the

Soviet Union national team (made up of 90% of the players from CSKA) was preparing for the 1964 Summer Olympic Games
. Anyway, this season was a big twist for European club basketball, as it marked the beginning of the domination of the "wealthy" Western European clubs.

In the

United States Presidency. Bradley, who was studying at Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar
, took advantage of his year in Europe, to give decisive help to Milano.

Real Madrid won the 1967–68 season's final. Real Madrid could rely on players like Clifford Luyk, who was the competition's first naturalized American player with such a big role on a team, Emiliano Rodríguez, Miles Aiken, Bob Burgess, and later Wayne Brabender. In the 1968–69 season's final, CSKA Moscow, inspired by the talented player Sergei Belov, managed to beat Real Madrid in Barcelona in the final. The young Belov had 19 points that night, but his teammate, the big 2.15 m (7'1") tall center Vladimir Andreev, exploded for 37 points in the game.

The 1970s, Varese-Meneghin Dynasty

After the dynasties of the Soviet clubs and Real Madrid, the 1970s were, without any doubt, the decade of the Italian League club Varese.

Varese found a way, year after year, to reach the final game of the competition. In fact, Varese played in all ten of the league's finals in the 1970s decade, and they won five of them.

Bosna Sarajevo, and the Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv
, were the other champions of the decade.

At that time, Varese was led in part by the legendary center, Dino Meneghin, whom was surrounded by other players such as, one of the best scorers in Italian League history, Bob Morse, the Mexican shooter Manuel Raga, Ottorino Flaborea, John Fultz, Ivan Bisson, etc.

In the

2006. They beat Varese (or Ignis Varese for sponsorship reasons) in the final, thanks to Sergei Belov's 24 points. Varese, after a tough win in the championship game against Jugoplastika Split in the 1971–72 season's final, won the championship one more time, against CSKA in the 1972–73 season
's final. They won the title despite the play of Sergei Belov. Belov, was once again the final's top scorer, with 36 points scored in the 1973 championship game.

In the 1973–74 season final, Ignis Varese, after almost securing the win, was upset by Real Madrid, on an unbelievable late surge, led by Wayne Brabender and Carmelo Cabrera.

In

Bosna Sarajevo, led by a young head coach (32 years old) named Bogdan Tanjević, beat Emerson Varese, in the final at Grenoble, France. The great performances in the game of the club's shooters, Žarko Varajić (45 points), and Mirza Delibašić
(30 points), gave Yugoslavia its first top-tier European club title.

The 1980s, Italian and Yugoslav dominance

What could have been the decade of Maccabi Tel Aviv (six finals appearances, but only one win), eventually became a triumph for Italian League basketball clubs (seven finals appearances, and five wins).

Italy's top league managed to generate three different European club champions (

1991), and revealed the talent of its star players Dino Rađa, Toni Kukoč, and others, like (Zoran Savić, Zoran Sretenović, Velimir Perasović, Duško Ivanović, Žan Tabak, Goran Sobin, Luka Pavićević
...).

In the

European Final in 1983. But he eventually lost the game, in what seemed like a wrestling match between him Wallace Bryant of Ford Cantù
, in what was one of the most physical and "ugliest" finals of all time.

After Cantù's back-to-back championships,

Banco di Roma Virtus won the league's title following year. Its American player, Larry Wright led the way in the 1984 Final
, as he scored 27 points in the game. Following that was the reign of Cibona Zagreb, and the club's player, marvelous Dražen Petrović.

"Little Mozart", as Petrović was nicknamed, scored 36 points against

1989 Final, the wonderful generation of Jugoplastika Split
(Kukoč, Rađa, Perasović, Savić, etc.) took over, and dominated European club basketball, as the team won three straight championships.

The 1990s, the Greek rise

Prior to the 1991–92 season, the league changed its name from the FIBA European Champions' Cup, to the FIBA European League. It then changed its name again prior to the 1996–97 season, to the FIBA EuroLeague, which marked the first use of the name EuroLeague, in the competition's history. The 1990s decade saw two of the most exciting and controversial endings in the history of the competition.

In the

Montigalà Joventut Badalona
.

The following

French League club Limoges CSP, stunned the Toni Kukoč-led club of Benetton Treviso
, in the title game.

In the

7up Joventut Badalona made up for their last second defeat against Partizan Belgrade two years earlier. That time, it was the Spanish League club's turn to stage a late rally, which came against an Olympiacos Piraeus team with the regular season's best record. Joventut power forward Corny Thompson
, hit a three-pointer (just his fifth of the entire season), to put his team up by 2-points, with 19 seconds remaining in the game.

Olympiacos Piraeus had a chance to tie the game at the free throw line, but the

Yugoslavian national team star Žarko Paspalj
, only made one of two free throws, and the "La Penya" club held on for the win.

The title stayed in Spain after the

NBA
.

The

NBA star Dominique Wilkins, but it was the Croatian center Stojko Vranković
, who decided the outcome of that season's EuroLeague Final Four.

Vranković, a 2.18 m (7'2") tall

FC Barcelona's Jose Antonio Montero's lay-up attempt, in the last second, to seal the finals win for Panathinaikos Athens. Although the block looked like a possible goal-tend, no call was made, and Panathinaikos Athens became the first ever champions from the Greek League. Although this would seem to indicate that a goal tend call should have been made, the situation is less than clear. In fact, numerous violations occurred in the last seconds of the game, none of which were called by the referees.[citation needed] Panathinaikos had possession of the ball, and with 8 seconds remaining on the game clock, Panathinaikos point guard Panagiotis Giannakis
lost possession of the ball (possibly after being fouled, though no foul call was made). As players from both teams struggled to gain possession of the ball, the shot clock was renewed illegally (since the ball was in possession of neither team, a shot clock violation should have been called against Panathinaikos, meaning that the game clock should have been stopped, and Barcelona should have been given the ball, with an upcoming inbound pass). The situation was further exacerbated, by the fact that the game clock stuck at 4.9 seconds for about 6 seconds, thus allowing Barcelona nearly 10 seconds of play.

Olympiacos Piraeus continued Greek supremacy over the EuroLeague the following season, after they won the

Sasha Djordjević and Artūras Karnišovas
in the final, to win their first ever EuroLeague title.

In the first ten years after the EuroLeague Final Four format had been re-introduced with the

1990
.

Winning rosters

Further information: Rosters of the champion and finalist teams of EuroLeague

FIBA European Champions' Cup

FIBA European League

FIBA EuroLeague

FIBA SuproLeague

Euroleague

EuroLeague

Top scoring performances in EuroLeague Finals games

  1. Bosna) 47 points vs. Emerson Varese (in 1978–79 Final
    )
  2. Soviet Union Vladimir Andreev (CSKA Moscow) 37 points vs. Real Madrid (in 1968–69 Final)
  3. Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Dražen Petrović (Cibona) 36 points vs. Real Madrid (in 1984–85 Final)
  4. Soviet Union Sergei Belov (CSKA Moscow) 34 points vs. Ignis Varese (in 1972–73 Final)
  5. United States Steve Chubin (Simmenthal Milano) 34 points vs. Real Madrid (in 1966–67 Final)
  6. United States Earl Williams (Maccabi Tel Aviv) 31 points vs. Real Madrid (in 1979–80 Final)
  7. Spain Emiliano Rodríguez (Real Madrid) 31 points vs. Spartak ZJŠ Brno (in first leg of 1963–64 Finals)
  8. Spain Juan Antonio San Epifanio (FC Barcelona) 31 points vs. Banco di Roma Virtus (in 1983–84 Final)
  9. United States Wayne Hightower (Real Madrid) 30 points vs. Dinamo Tbilisi (in 1961–62 Final)
  10. Bosna) 30 points vs. Emerson Varese (in 1978–79 Final
    )
  11. Spain Clifford Luyk (Real Madrid) 30 points vs. CSKA Moscow (in first leg of 1964–65 Finals)
  12. Spartak ZJŠ Brno) 30 points vs. Real Madrid (in first leg of 1963–64 Finals
    )

See also

External links

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