Euroleague Play-Offs 2002-2003

Barcelona 76 - Benetton 65
For the first time in its history FC Barcelona has won the most important award for clubs in the European Basketball, after an exciting 76-65 win at home in front of 16,670 crazy fans at the Palau Sant Jordi. Barcelona, that never lost a home game this season, becomes the first team ever to host the event and also win it. After winning the Copa del Rey a few weeks ago, and the Euroleague tonight, Barcelona can complete a dreamy season if they win the Spanish championship as well.
Dejan Bodiroga, how not surprising, was the MVP of the Final Four, and won his 3rd Euroleague title in 4 seasons. Bodiroga nailed a very crucial 3 pointer in the last quarter that officially ended Benetton's dream. For Ettore Messina its 2nd season in a row to loss the finals of the Euroleague. Pesic played for many minutes with Duenas and Femerling, and forced Benetton's forwards - Nicola and Garbajosa to take shots from outside, but just like in the Semi Finals, Benetton failed to connect from behind the arc (4/25) and had to give up earlier than expected.
Barcelona (23+19+13+21): Bodiroga 20 - 6/9 FG + 8 rbs, Fucka 17, De la fuente 11 + 8 rbs, Femerling 9, Jasikevicius 8, Navarro 5, Deunas 3, Rodiriguez 2, Varejao 1
Benetton (25+9+14+17): Edney 16, Belleri 11, Marconato 10, Garbajosa 9, Langdon 8, Nicola 5 - 1/7 FG, Pittis 4, Markoishvili 2

Barcelona - Benetton in the finals!

Barcelona 76 - CSKA Moscow 71
In front of a sold out Palau Sant Jordi Barcelona managed to qualify to the Final Four of the 02/03 Euroleague after a tough battle against CSKA Moscow. Gregor Fucka was the MVP of Barcelona with 21 points and 9 rebounds, but most important of all 6 crucial points down the stretch that gave Barcelona the lead in the last minutes. CSKA had a huge start, but Barcelona went again and again to the line, and came back to the game. Songaila and Alexander missed too many open shots for the Russian team, but CSKA was strong in the game. Dejan Bodiroga was some very important moves and accurate free throws gave a hand to Fucka and sent Barcelona to the Finals.

Barcelona (21+24+12+19): Fucka 21 - 7/9 FG + 9 rbs, Bodiroga 17, Jasikevicius 9 - 2/12 FG, Navarro 8, De la fuente 7, Rodiguez 7, Femerling 4, Varejao 2, Deunas 1
CSKA (25+14+21+11): Holden 21 - 8/19 FG, Songaila 14 - 4/16 FG, Alexander 13 - 6/17 FG + 6 rbs, Jatziverttas 8, Khryapa 6, Bashminov 4, Monya 3, Papaloukas 2

Benetton Treviso 65 - Montepaschi Siena 62
What a game we had in the first Semi Finals. Benetton astonished Siena with a huge start, and after 10 minutes had a 16 point lead, 28-12. Siena displayed great defense in the 2nd quarter that kept them in the game, but after 2 quarters the margin wasn't any different, 39-23. Then came the 3rd quarter. Siena locked its basket, and Benetton seemed lost. One miss after another by Benetton helped Siena make a huge come back and tie the game at the end of the 3rd. The two teams were very close to each other in the last quarter and Siena took a 2 point lead, 60-62, with less than a minute to play, and then came the play of the game. Massimo Bulleri sank a huge 3 pointer, his first after 6 attempts, that gave Benetton the lead. Siena failed to score and Bulleri was fouled. With 7.3 seconds to play he decided the game from the line, completing a perfect night for Benetton from the free throw line (22/22) and Benetton was celebrating.

Benetton (28+11+6+20): Garbajosa 14 + 10 rbs, Bulleri 12 - 1/6 3FG, Marconato 12 + 10 rbs, Edney 9 + 7 as, Langdon 9, Nicola 7, Pittis 2
Siena (12+11+22+17): Stefanov 17, Ford 15, Vuckcevic 14, Kakiouzis 10 - 3/10 FG + 13 rbs, Zukauskas 5, Mitchell 1

All-Euroleague 1st Team
Dejan Bodiroga (204-G/F-73) Barcelona
Tyus Edney (178-G-73, agent: Chavez Darin, college: UCLA) Benetton
Alphonso Ford (188-G-71, college: Miss.Valley St.) Siena
Jorge Garbajosa (207-C/F-77, agent: Capicchioni Luciano) Benetton
Victor Alexander (210-C-69, agent: Gallinari Vittorio, college: Iowa St.) CSKA

All-Euroleague 2nd Team
Milos Vujanic (190-G-80, agent: Kuehn Markus) Partizan Belgrade
Marcus Brown (191-G-74, agent: Mc Kenzie Craig, college: Murray St.) Efes Pilsen
Andres Nocioni (199-F-79, agent: Villanueva Claudio) Tau Ceramica
Mirsad Turkcan (206-F-76, agent: Draskicevic Elmira) Montepaschi
Nikola Vujcic (211-C-78, agent: Harel Guy) Maccabi Tel Aviv

Euroleague Top 16 MVP: Mirsad Turkcan (206-F-76, agent: Draskicevic Elmira) Siena

For the 7th year in a row, one of Europe's most respected basketball magazines "Basket news" (France) held the "European MVPs Annual Poll". The poll ranks: 1) The best European player in Europe, 2) The best American players in Europe, 3) The best young player (Under 22) and this year added a new category 4) Best European player in the NBA
58 Journalists from 18 European countries took part in the poll and picked the MVPs of the season. The poll is the most comprehensive, trustworthy and respected in European basketball.

Best European Player:
Dejan Bodiroga (204-G/F-73) won the MVP award for the 2nd season in a row, and 4th in general. The Euroleague winner received 503 pts and 47 MVP picks. In the 2nd place you can find the Croatian center of Maccabi, Nikola Vujcic (211-C-78, agent: Harel Guy) who received 319 pts and one MVP vote. Mirsad Turkcan (206-F-76) won the bronze medal for the 2nd season in a row.
The Euroleague winner, Barcelona, has 3 players in the top 11 with Gregor Fucka (214-C-71, agent: Capicchioni Luciano) at 8th, and Sarunas Jasikievicius (192-G-76, college: Maryland) at 11th. Dejan Tomasevic (205-F/C-73) is the first player in the list (ranked 9th and one MVP vote) that didn't play this season in the Euroleague. Right after him you can find the best unknown player in Europe - Walter Hermann (207-F-79) - The Argentinean sensation of the Spanish team Fuenlabrada.

Best American Player:
Tyus Edney (178-G-73, college: UCLA) lost the Euroleague finals, but won this one for the 2nd time in his career (The first was in 1999 when he played with Zalgiris of course), and went up one place from last season. Alphonso Ford (188-G-71, college: Miss.Valley St.), that won the award in the last season, is ranked only 5th.
Two other medal winners face each other in the Turkish play offs finals these days. Marcus Brown (191-G-74, college: Murray St.) of Efes is ranked 2nd while Joseph Blair (208-C/F-74, college: Arizona), MVP of the Euroleague regular season, of Ulker is 3rd for the 2nd year in a row. Ulker's other foreigner - Melvin Booker (188-G-72, college: Missouri) is ranked 8th and just one place above him you can find Benetton's 2nd foreigner Trajan Langdon (192-G-76, college: Duke).
CSKA's Americans - Victor Alexander (210-C-69, college: Iowa St.) and Robert 'J.R.' Holden (184-G-76, college: Bucknell) won the 3rd and 6th place respectively. According to the poll 3 teams in Europe (Benetton, CSKA & Ulker) share 6 of the top 8 foreigners in the continent.
The best foreigner that didn't play in the Euroleague this season is Jamie Arnold (201-F-75, college: Wichita St.) of the ULEB Cup runner-up Krka Novo Mesto.

Best Young Player (Under 22)
Antonis Fotsis (209-F-81) came back to Europe from the NBA this season and was voted the Best Under 22 player in Europe with 416 pts and 29 MVP picks. CSKA's Viktor Khryapa (205-F/G-82) won the silver medal while Boris-Riffiod Diaw (203-F-82) edged Marko Popovic (185-G-82) of Zadar for the 3rd place by only one vote.
Darko Milicic (213-C-85), who will be picked in the upcoming draft between the first top 3 picks, unless the earth will quake, is ranked 7th while Sofocles Schortsianitis (206-F-85), the Greek Baby Shaq, was voted for the 11th place.