2023-10-05 04:21:51
In a tournament as labyrinthine as the Euroleague, whose new edition begins today, the only favorite to pay homage to is the current champion, and that is Real Madrid. Behind the whites, a series of contenders rise up wanting to deliver a deadly blow to the whites. It is, without a doubt, the Greek Panathinaikos that has raised the most passions, the loose checkbook of the Athenians during the transfer market. They have even had the luxury of stealing from Olympiacos, their arch-enemies from Piraeus and current runners-up, one of their idols, Kostas Sloukas. Juancho Hernangómez, Mathias Lessort and Lucas Vildoza have been other of his pedigree additions, a galactic project that has been entrusted to Ergin Ataman, tournament champion coach with the Turkish Efes in 2020 and 2021.
Precisely against those from Istanbul, Barcelona will debut today (8:30 p.m., Dazn), which is not known if it is in ruins or under reconstruction. The Blaugranas opted for a clean sweep last summer, with the dismissals of their three great emblems of recent years (Jasikevicius, Mirotic, Higgins), prisoners of the economic cuts decreed by Joan Laporta for the sections of the club. They have entrusted Willy Hernangómez as a new star, who in his four games with the Catalans has been very weak, and Roger Grimau as coach, a club legend but with no experience in the elite. Today, they lack a lot of ground and cement to be candidates for the title.
Once again, Spain will be the country with the most representatives. Madrid and Barcelona are joined by Baskonia and Valencia. Those from Vitoria will face Madrid tomorrow and the Valencians, who entered the competition due to the inability of Gran Canaria to assume the costs of the competition, will also face Monaco tomorrow (8:30 p.m.), who have put together a tremendous duo with Mike James and Kemba Walker.
The focus of this new edition of the Euroleague also points to Milan, the new destination of Nikola Mirotic, who will seek in northern Italy a title that he did not obtain in Madrid or Barcelona. Many teams were interested in him after his dismissal from Barça, but finally it was the money of Giorgi Armani, patron of the club, who ended up attracting him.
Lorenzo Brown’s Maccabi or Pablo Laso’s Bayern Munich are presented as the most interesting projects, but it is once again Belgrade, a city that has hosted a good part of the recent history of the Euroleague, the great hot spot of the competition . Partizan and Red Star, who will share the Stark Arena as their home, will almost certainly be two of the most difficult venues this season. Asvel (France), Alba Berlin (Germany), Virtus Bologna (Italy), Fenerbahçe (Turkey) and Zalgiris Kaunas (Lithuania) complete the list of gladiators.
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