With a new transportation system, new expectations and with… fresh memories of the huge defeat of the European champion Panathinaikos last year in the finals, when he was 0-2 against Olympiakos but the end of the series found him in favor of 3 – 2 and in the first step of the podium, the men’s Basket League/A1 curtain opens (5-7/10).
The “eternal”… are expected to monopolize interest in the title again this year, with the other ten clubs promising great surprises and thrills, in a year in which Greek basketball will be represented by nine teams in European competitions (Panathinaikos, Olympiacos in the Euroleague, Aris in the EuroCup, AEK, Prometheus, Peristeri and Kolossos in the Basketball Champions League, PAOK and Maroussi in the FIBA European Cup).
The Greek champion Panathinaikos kept the stock of success and made targeted moves, bringing to the guard “clover” Lorenzo Brown (in place of Luka Vlindoza), the face NBAer Cedi Osman (in place of Lefteris Mandzouka) and center NBAer Omer Yurtseven (in place of by Olek Balcherowski). The coach of the “greens”, Ergin Ataman, maintains the same philosophy, hoping that his aggressive basketball, with an emphasis on the long shot, will bear fruit again this year.
The second place Olympiacos made the check move by bringing back to Piraeus Sasha Vezenkov, who orgies in the Euroleague tried his luck in the NBA and after a year (which had a lot of injuries) he made the decision to dress again. in “red and white”. The Greek Cup winners also went ahead with a transfer airport… making the financial leap and convincing Evan Fournier to leave the NBA for Europe. At the same time, Olympiacos strengthened its perimeter with Keenan Evans, Tyler Dorsey, Luka Vildosa, kept its “towers” in the center position, Nikola Milutinov, Mustafa Fal and now just look at the top.
Aris made a complete overhaul, but kept his most valuable player from last season, Vassilis Toliopoulos, and AEK also made many changes, bringing back to the position of coach the technician whose name is linked to the modern history of the Union. , Dragan Sakota and Lithuanian Mindaugas Kuzminskas kept valuable on the roster.
Elias Papatheodorou will remain for the second year in a row in the technical leadership of Prometheus Patras, with the Greek coach encouraging the Greek element in the team, adding next to Lino Chrysikopoulos, Nasos Bazina and Antonis Karagiannidis, the former Olympiakos guard, Michalis Lountzis and the on Mina Papagannis.
With a new coach, the Italian Massimo Cancellieri and various additions, PAOK will start this season, which will be the post-Margariti era, as the team’s flagship captain left. Maroussi kept his core and incorporated players who know the reality of Greece (Fridriksson-PAOK, Sanogo-Aris, Reynolds-Prometheus, Langvain-Lavrio, Tanoulis-Olympiakos), and Peristeri will continue without Vassilis Spanoulis in charge , as Giorgos Limnitis took over the technical leadership of the team.
Panionios returned to the big clubs after a five-year absence and is determined to stay, while Karditsa will continue without Yiannis Bourousis in the club’s management.
Kolossos with Giorgos Sigalas in his technical leadership living the European dream, as he participates for the first time in his history in Europe (Basketball Champions League), and Lavrio trying to avoid his incident of last year, when he finished up playing for a stay. …
NEW OPERATING SYSTEM
With a new format, which will add more interest to the Basket Series, the 2024-25 season will take place, in which we will have a play-in system (7-10), a classification round (classification round 5). -8) with special weight to get European tickets and playouts (9-12). In detail:
REGULAR PERIOD:
In the 2024-2025 Basketball League, 12 teams will participate in a 22-game regular season tournament.
The regulation regarding the number of foreign players in each KAE remains the same. 6+1 is retained and the only change concerns the finals. The teams can then select the seven before the start of the finals from more players who have already deposited contracts with ESAKE (including players who have deposited contracts with ESAKE that are in force without the right to participate to take).
Play in (7-10):
In head-to-head games with the highest-rated home team in regular time, the winner of 7-8 is found in seventh place. The loser is 9-10 tenths. The loser of the 7-8 and the winner of the 9-10 game will meet and the winner will get the eighth place and the loser will get the ninth place. The teams occupying positions 1-8 will take part in the quarter-final series of the play-offs. The teams that are standing 9-10 in the games will continue.
Playouts:
The two teams that were defeated in the play pass in addition to the Stoiximan Basket League regular season in eleventh and twelfth place will be the four parts of the games. In the home and away games everyone will play against everyone who carries the score and results from the regular season of the Stoiximan Basket Series. Ninth, tenth and eleventh are ranked according to final score with twelfth being dropped.
Playoffs
Quarter Finals
They will be played in the established fashion (1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5) in a Best of 3 series with the teams that finished higher in the regular season standings having an advantage at home. The teams that qualify will get the ticket to the semi-finals and the losers will enter a classification round for places 5-8.
Classification Round (5-8)
The losers of the quarterfinal series of the playoffs continue in individual games in order of ranking of the teams with the highest points in the regular season.
The winner is 5-6 in fifth place. The 7-8 loser takes the eighth spot. The loser of the 5-6 game and the winner of the 7-8 game will meet and the winner will be sixth and the loser seventh.
Semi-final games
The teams that advance from the quarter finals will face off in the semifinals in the Best of 3 series.
3rd place game
The losers of the semifinals will play in a singles match for third place.
Finals
The winners of the semi-final series will receive a ticket to the finals and the Champion will be crowned in the Best 5 series.
THE “ETERNAL” DERBY
As part of the 4th game, the first ever derby for the 2024-25 season will be held in the Basket League. Olympiacos will welcome the champion Panathinaikos on October 27 (20:15) at SEF, and the match for the second round will take place within the framework of the 15th match scheduled for the two days of January 18-19.
TV RIGHTS to ERT
ERT will be the television “roof” of the championship of the Basketball League (GBL) for the next three years (2+1). The two sides shook hands and the Greek league matches will continue to be broadcast on the Public Television frequency.
ERT will provide the teams with an amount of 20 million euros (6.5 million in the first two years + 7 million in the third year of the partnership).
It is worth noting that ESAKE has also agreed with COSMOTE, who will sponsor the championship. In fact, the company will pay 1.5 million euros, so that its logo will be in the middle of the floor of every court of the Basketball League for the next three years.
The Men’s Premier Basketball/A1 schedule for the 2024-25 season is as follows:
1ST COMPETITIVE STAGE
Saturday 5/10/2024
GAME TIME TV
ALEXANDREIO 17:00 Aris-AEK ERT3
KG AMAOUSIOU 18:00 Marousi-Prometheus from Patras ERTSPORTS
KG ANDREAS PAPANDREOU 20:15 Peristeri-PAOK ERT3
Sunday 6/10/2024
KG YIANNIS BOUROUSIS 17:15 Karditsa-Panathinaikos ERT3
DAK GLYFADAS “M. LIOUGAS” (q.th) 18:00 Panionios-Kolossos ERTSPORTS
Monday 7/10/2024
KG LAVRIOU 20:15 Lavrio-Olympic ERT3