MVP! MVP!

Okay, folks, for those of you who missed the excellent show put on by FC Barcelona in distancing itself from the second-best team in Europe in 2009-10, Olympiacos, here’s the official highlight clip from last night’s Euroleague championship. (A clip of the best moments from the CSKA Moscow-Partizan Belgrade consolation game also included.)

Enjoy all the shock and awe brought by one of The Continent’s finest teams of the past 20 years.

And anyone who believes that a third-place game is meaningless didn’t catch the thrilling 90-88 OT win by CSKA Moscow over Partizan last night. Some highlights from that game – featuring the clutch play of Team Russia mainstay J.R. Holden run below.

“I feel complete. For the first time in my life, I feel complete.”

And that, my friends, will be the capper on BallinEurope’s 2009-10 Euroleague season. Au revoir for now from Paris, France.

Congratulations go out to the Blaugrana for an excellent Euroleague season and here’s to wishing one of Europe’s finest teams of the past two decades continued success in Spain.

We’ll start taking comments at about 5.30pm CET (11.30am EST). The consolation game between Partizan Belgrade and CSKA Moscow tips off at 6pm CET (noon EST), with the FC Barcelona-Olympiacos game at 9pm CET (3pm EST). Hope to see you here!

(Darn. We might not be seeing so much of Scoonie Penn after all…)

Juan Carlos Navarro: Answer to many a trivia question

• Theo Papaloukas is the only player in tonight’s game to have played on Eurobasket- and Euroleague-winning teams, though an FC Barcelona win would also extend this honor to Ricky Rubio and Juan Carlos Navarro, who played with European champion Team Spain last summer. Ten others have accomplished the feat in this decade, a list which includes names like J.R. Holden, Viktor Khryapa and Sarunas Jasikevicius.

• Navarro could become the only active player to win a Euroleague title while also holding a spot on the roster of defending FIBA world champions, as Spain took the tournament in 2006. Fourteen retired players have also been simultaneous Euroleague/FIBA world champions, led by the likes of Toni Kukoc, Dejan Bodiroga and Sergei Belov.

• Navarro is also the only non-Team USSR, non-Team Yugoslavia player to claim Euroleague, Eurobasket and FIBA World Championship titles. Marko Jaric is the only active player of any nationality to have bagged all three trophies.

• And one more Navarro stat: The former Memphis Grizzly is the only Barcelona player remaining from the club’s sole Euroleague title in 2003.

• Despite his status as the Euroleague’s no. 5 scorer of all-time, Jaka Lakovic is appearing in the first EL championship in his 13-year career (eight with Euroleague teams).

Terence completes his triple crown

• In direct contrast, Terence Morris is appearing in his third consecutive Euroleague championship game – each with a different team. Only three other players have managed to make the finals with three different squads, including Barça’s Erazem Lorbek, but none played in three consecutive championships.

• Nikola Vujacic of Olympiacos is in the Euroleague finals for the fifth time in his career, leading all of tonight’s players in the category.

• No team has ever won the Euroleague title with the season’s top scorer. This year’s top scorer? Linas Kleiza.

• Should Theo Papaloukas take the Final Four MVP award (He contributed 10 points, five assists and three steals against Partizan Belgrade in the semifinal game), he would join an elite group of two who have done so: Kukoc and Bodiroga.

• Finally, the Euroleague’s youngest-ever Rising Star Award winner, good old Ricky Rubio, can add one more superlative to his already outstanding résumé: With a Barça win, Rubio would be just the fifth player to have won Euroleague and Eurocup titles. The feat was last accomplished by Robertas Javtokas and Dejan Tomasevic, who were both on Panathinaikos’ championship team of 2007.

One *big* reason

How thrilled is BallinEurope to see tonight’s Barcelona-Olympiacos final? Let us count the ways…

10. Both teams earned the trip with tough semifinal wins. Against CSKA Moscow, Barcelona played smart while deploying Europe’s best defense in 2009-10 against a much bigger Red Army team; Olympiacos truly gave everything in overcoming plucky Partizan Belgrade. The result: No contentions that referees decided this championship, no regrets of “what might have been” from losing team’s fans.

9. They deserve it. Now this is not to say that teams such as Partizan, CSKA and Maccabi Tel Aviv didn’t have truly outstanding Euroleague seasons in a year when none was supposed to go far at all, but to this point the Blaugrana and the Reds have proven themselves to be the class of European ball this season. And whoever wins this match will have a chance to prove it by opening up a Triple Crown opportunity for 2009-10.

8. Two words: Ricky. Rubio.

7. And one more word: Sofoklis!

6. Hey, BallinEurope is happy to take pride in its preseason prediction of a Euroleague final featuring these two teams. How often does BiE get one right? (Don’t answer that.)

How bad does Basile want it?

5. Gianluca Basile gets a shot at redemption. Yeah, BiE has been dogging Basile – and coach Xavi Pascual for giving him so much damn court time – through much of this season, but the Italian has had an outstanding career in club and international play since debuting with Reggio Emilia back in 1995. Basile can finally take an elusive championship ring tonight and with solid play would erase some frustrating fan memories of this season.

4. BiE almost has the lyrics to “Thryle ton gipedon, Olympiake” down pat. For the Olympiacos-Partizan semifinal game, Reds fans packed the seats directly behind the media section and proceeded with the drum beating and hearty singing of their club anthem – one hour before tipoff, letting up only to sit at the edges of their seats for the thrilling final two minutes and overtime. I’ve always wanted to learn Greek.

3. Names like Rubio, Sofoklis Schortsanitis, Josh Childress, Linas Kleiza, Juan Carlos Navarro, and even Scoonie Penn will draw an American audience. Not that high viewer numbers from the United States really matters to Euroleague ball necessarily, but in the bigger picture it can only behoove European basketball to impress NBA snobs with the excellent game we’ve got going on on The Continent. This could well be a watershed game for the Euroleague in terms of international awareness.

2. It’s a classic clash of top offense vs. top defense. While FC Barcelona is redefining defensive excellence in the ACB, the Blaugrana have also been Euroleague’s second highest-scoring team. The first? Olympiacos, of course, which has preferred simply to outshoot the opposition all season long with their EL-leading 59.4% shooting on twos. After holding CSKA to a scanty 54 points on Friday night, one can only wonder what Pascual and Barça will cook up for a team averaging a whopping 87 points per game in 2009-10.

And the number one reason BallinEurope loves the Barcelona-Olympiacos final is … because, yes, we feel devotion!

Get well soon, Milos!

With one game left to play in its Euroleague season, Olympiacos has only to face the same old enemy that has dogged their exceptional 2009-10 season. No, BiE’s not talking about Barcelona here or even home-country rivals Panathinaikos, but rather a flu bug.

Olympiacos coach Panagiotis Giannakis stated on Saturday that, “After the game with Partizan, [Milos] Teodosic was suffering from a stomach flu. We hope that he is able to play and help us tomorrow.”

While one can hardly imagine Teodosic missing what would be his first Euroleague championship entirely – after all, the man has played in an average 43 games per season (not including Greek Cup and ESAKE playoff games) over the past six and has hardly missed a game – but after the surely exhausting overtime game last night and a light practice at best for Teodosic, one has to wonder just how much he’ll have for Barça on Sunday night.

Euroleague and ESAKE followers will of course recall that the Olympiacos trip to the United States was followed by the likes of Josh Childress, Ioannis Bourousis, Kostas Papanikolaou and Sofoklis Schortsanitis in turns contracting the H1N1 flu virus, a sickness that BiE swears explains the last’s somewhat lackluster play through December and certainly justifies the 1-2 start Olympiacos got off to in Euroleague play in 2009.

Here’s to hoping Teodosic gets well soon; it would be a shame to see either of the deserving Euroleague championship contenders have to enter the final game at less than peak strength.

UPDATE: Teodosic was reported as not having attended last night’s All-Euroleague Team awards ceremony. According to the league, Teodosic “was too sick to attend the ceremony.”

Teodosic was named Euroleague MVP for the season, as well as getting the nod for All-Euroleague first team at point guard, beating out Bo McCalebb of Partizan Belgrade for the honor.

Happy birthday wishes today to Theo Papaloukas!

On winning
“Yesterday, we played beyond our limits. My players gave everything. We need the rest.” – Olympiacos coach Panagiotis Giannakis

“I think I owe Josh [Childress] my life for saving me. I tried to win the game, but I saw the shot was going to the left and I didn’t know what to think, but all of a sudden Josh came from out of nowhere and dunked it. Luck always has something to do with the game and today luck was on our side.” – Theo Papaloukas

“[CSKA Moscow] had five players that score, but nothing like our bench that helps us.” – Ricky Rubio

“We improved our offense right when it mattered in the second half. We managed to stop their main players to avoid what happened in Berlin last season.” – Juan Carlos Navarro

“Our great defense was definitely the key to beating CSKA.” – Jaka Lakovic

“We prepared really well so we were ready for [CSKA Moscow]. It was a 40-minute game. That’s our game. We ran ‘til we couldn’t. They have the guys who keep getting voted to the All-Euroleague team. I wanted to show the fans who the real All-Euroleague is.” – Pete Mickael

“I’m so happy. [CSKA Moscow] played so hard it was unbelievable. They have a lot of experience, but we played as a team. I was nervous, but we fought for 40 minutes and finally got the win. I can’t say anything because it would only spoil it.” – Ricky Rubio

On losing
“We lost concentration at the worst moment and that cost us the game. I am really disappointed and it’s really hard to find the words right now. We lost focus in the decisive moments.” – Jan Vesely

“We had the chance to win the game in the lst few seconds of regulation and [Ioannis] Bourousis came up with big rebounds late in overtime. You cannot do that if you want to win a game like this. You cannot allow them to get three offensive rebounds in a row – It costs you the game. We have to get better. We had the game won, but Olympiacos’ rebounds made the difference in overtime.” – Aleks Maric

On the big fat Greek question
“I consider the recent events [in Greece] to have nothing to do with sports. We are here to work. Of course, economic recovery for Greece would be great news. We are here to please the population, but we’re here to play basketball.” – Theo Papaloukas

On the players
“[Linas] Kleiza gets better day after day.” – Olympiacos coach Panagiotis Giannakis

“[Josh] Childress learned how to make the adjustment to European basketball in just one year. I think he proved a lot of people wrong. He’s a big reason [Olympiacos] is here right now.” – Pete Mickael

On miscellany
“When it gets close to that 30-second mark, you have to show what you’ve got.” – Pete Mickael

“Basketball in Europe doesn’t have the power that the NBA has, but we have the speed. We play with our minds more, with the minds of the players and coaches.” – Olympiacos head coach Panagiotis Giannakis in response to a BBC reporter’s question on what distinguishes Euroleague ball from the NBA

On tomorrow’s championship game
“It’s the end of the season; everyone’s tired!” – Theo Papaloukas, responding to the question, “Barça has played less than you have. Is this a drawback?”

“This show is going to be wonderful.” – FC Barcelona head coach Xavi Pascual

“I’m sure this game will be magical.” – Olympiacos head coach Panagiotis Giannakis

Childress was king; no joshing

First up, the CSKA Moscow-FC Barcelona game. Though Pete Mickael’s outstanding defense and the early neutralization of Viktor Khyrapa were really the keys to the game, this clip offers instead a nice mix of plays on both sides of the ball – how would you show a guy drawing fouls on a YouTube video, anyway?

Of course, BallinEurope wouldn’t be BallinEurope if it didn’t celebrate Ricky Rubio’s performance in the game. While the Human YouTube Clip did not demonstrate all the rock-star flash he’s come to be known for, the 19-year-old contributed just a fantastic game with 10 points, eight assists, four rebounds and two steals.

The Olympiacos-Partizan game, meanwhile, defied description in its nail-biting, edge-of-the-seat excitement.

How about some palpable tension? The last two minutes of regulation and some OT should demonstrate just what was happening – take note of the (relative) near-silence from the crowd, which had been rocked by singing, drum-pounding fans through three solid quarters.

The play that everyone’s gonna remember, of course, is the slightly unintentional alley-oop slam from Josh Childress which tied the game with fewer than three seconds in regulation. Notice Childress slipping past Jan Vesely to surprise the 2-3 zone Dusko Vujosevic had called out of the timeout.

Do you feel devotion? Partizan fans do. Despite the way the Reds fans packed the house from the third quarter of the Barcelona-CSKA game and chanted their way through basically two hours of play, Black-and-White backers were not to be daunted. This Oklahoma City-like show of fandom at the close of the game earned these fans a five-minute standing devotion *from the Partizan players* themeselves, who came out of the locker room to applaud the Grobari from the court.

Hope to see you tomorrow, everyone; especially the Americans: Don’t miss another game like this. Seriously.