He's been a winner since he walked into the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague six years ago, but one thing FC Barcelona forward Cory Higgins was not known for is emotional outbursts like the one he let loose after a game-winning shot in the semifinals on Friday.

Barca hero Higgins let emotions fly, too

He's been a winner since he walked into the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague six years ago, helping CSKA Moscow reach the promised land in his first season there, and then lifting the champions' trophy a second time in 2019. He was a EuroLeague All-Decade Nominee based on his metronomic consistency as an attacker and defender thanks to a multi-faceted game that defines his position, small forward.

What Cory Higgins has not been known for is showing emotion. He was raised in a basketball family. His father, Rod Higgins, was best buddies in the NBA with Michael Jordan, who is Higgins's godfather. He learned from many pros growing up that keeping his emotions in check would serve him well on and off the court.

But his competitive joy overflowed on Friday night when Higgins decided a war-like battle with a game-winner in the EuroLeague Semifinals that lifted FC Barcelona past AX Armani Exchange Milan 84-82. Without the benefit of a timeout, Higgins got the ball with 6 seconds left and took the ball the length of the court to stop on a dime and send up a well-defended jumper from just above the foul line.

And then Higgins surprised even himself by jumping for joy and screaming as the ball fell through the net with less than 1 second left.

"I think that was the first time I've done that," the 31-year-old said afterward.


Long years as a pro with the ball in his hands in big moments translated into Higgins making the right choice at the right time and getting Barcelona to its first title game in 11 years.

"With just 6 seconds left, I like those situations when there's nothing to think about," he said. "You just have to get the best possible shot you can, so the only thing I was thinking about was just to get to a spot and raise up and shoot it. I got to my spot and, thankfully, it went in for us. As I keep saying, basketball's a funny sport. Milan had a wide-open three to almost seal the game, and it didn't go. And I had a contested shot and it goes in."

The clear path he cut while racing across halfcourt to make a quick move to create space and launch the shot over Shavon Shields was born of an innate calculation Higgins had already made in the heat of the moment.

"I knew their defense wasn't going to let me get to the basket and you're probably not going to get a foul call in that situation," he said. "I feel comfortable shooting in the mid-range so I just went that way. I'm just thankful we get to play in the final on Sunday."

One reason Higgins had the ball in his hands on that play and a previous one in the final minute on which Barca failed to score was that point guard Nick Calathes had left with an injury shortly before that, after having led the team for much of the game. It could have brought his teammates down, but the opposite happened.

"When you see a brother go down like that though, it doesn't bring your emotions down, it actually brings them up," Higgins said. "You've got to step up for him. Nick carried us most of the game, so we just wanted to get the win especially for him."

Barca will play a team it has had trouble with in recent years, Anadolu Efes Istanbul, in Sunday's championship game, and Higgins says it will require stepping up again.

"They're a very special team. They gave us a hard time this year, beating us twice," Higgins said. "Hopefully, Nick Calathes can play for us, but either way it's a final and we've got to be ready. We have a lot to change, a lot to change, mentally and defensively, to get ready for Sunday."

Higgins-6-006450.jpg

Both semifinals and the championship game of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four, played this weekend in Cologne, Germany, are being streamed live on the EuroLeague’s official TikTok channel (@euroleague), making it the first professional basketball league in the world to do so. The games are available on TikTok in the United States and Canada.

In a first for any team or ball sport, EuroLeague streams Final Four on TikTok



Both semifinals and the championship game of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four, played this weekend in Cologne, Germany, are being streamed live on the EuroLeague’s official TikTok channel (@euroleague), making it the first professional basketball league in the world to do so. The games are available on TikTok in the United States and Canada.

EuroLeague launched its official channel on TikTok in September of 2019, developing a specific content strategy for the platform, and currently has 79,000 followers. For Friday’s semifinal games only, the channel generated more than 220,000 unique viewers and more than 1 million likes.

TikTok completes the roster of platforms that will be streaming the game, which besides EuroLeague’s OTT service euroleague.tv, include Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. EuroLeague fans can also follow a live stream of the Final Four games by Olympiacos Piraeus star Shaquielle McKissic on his own Twitch channel (@smck77).

The 2021 EuroLeague Final Four features CSKA Moscow, Anadolu Efes Istanbul, FC Barcelona and AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan. Efes and Barcelona advanced on Friday to the Championship Game, which will be played on Sunday, May 30 at 20:30 CEST.


If there was ever any doubt that Vasilije Micic deserved the season’s Most Valuable Player award that he received with great emotion earlier this week, those question marks were well and truly erased when the powerful point guard inspired Anadolu Efes Istanbul into a thrilling 89-86 victory over CSKA Moscow in Friday’s opening semifinal.

Micic started as he meant to continue, scoring his team’s first basket to cancel out an early 2-0 CSKA lead. Efes was never behind again from that moment on and Micic was a major reason why. The star guard's totals of 25 points and 6 assists speak for themselves and the timing of his contributions was also crucial. After scoring that opening basket, Micic mainly shined as a provider by orchestrating a free-flowing offense that raced into a double-digit lead before the end of the first quarter. He dished 4 assist during that opening period and added another couple of baskets before continuing to take charge in the second quarter.

After the game, Micic admitted that he had made a special effort to give his team an early boost, saying: "Today I tried a little bit to push at the beginning to give the pace to the team."

He certainly succeeded in that aim and early in the second half he enjoyed another decisive burst of action – starting straight after the break when he took Efes’s opening possession and sank an off-balance three-pointer with a foul, which he duly converted to complete a momentum-building 4-point play. Before long, Micic grabbed a defensive rebound and took it all the way to score again and then drew fouls to net from the line to give his team a game-high 21 point lead which eventually, despite CSKA’s brilliant late rally, was enough to win the game.

Friday’s victory was, of course, by no means a one-man job. Micic had plenty of help in the backcourt from Rodrigue Beaubois, who hit 3 triples in the opening quarter – with 2 of them coming from Micic assists – to help establish Efes’s big lead and then produced two key late baskets to help repel CSKA’s comeback, while Sertac Sanli was an outstanding inside presence with 19 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.

But the importance of Micic was reflected in another stat: before fouling out with a couple of minutes remaining he spent nearly 36 minutes on the court, more than any other player. That illustrates the unwavering trust shown in Micic by Coach Ergin Ataman and underlines that, in more ways than one, he truly is Efes’s Most Valuable Player.

Freshly-crowned EuroLeague MVP Vasilije Micic more than lived up to that title with an outstanding showing in Anadolu Efes Istanbul's semifinals victory over CSKA Moscow.

Micic lived up to MVP status

vasilije-micic-efes-final-four-cologne-2021-eb20.jpg

Even as they prepared to play one of the biggest games of their lives, the stars of the 2021 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four could not help but express regret for those who will be missing from at Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany, when the semifinals are played Friday night: the fans.

Final Four stars on fans: 'We feel for them'

Even as they prepared to play one of the biggest games of their lives, the stars of the 2021 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four could not help but express regret for those who will be missing from at Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany, when the semifinals are played Friday night: the fans.

Of course, as in much of the sports world, the Final Four players became accustomed in recent months to playing most of their games in empty arenas. But when it comes to the Final Four, which is always sold out with basketball lovers from all over the world, the players feel for fans who cannot contribute for the first time to the pageantry that makes the event a singular celebration of the sport.

"The players missed the fans just as much as the fans miss the players." 

"The players missed the fans just as much as the fans miss the players because it creates a different atmosphere," Anadolu Efes Istanbul superstar Shane Larkin said on the eve of the semifinals. "It creates a different kind of energy in the building when you're playing in front of fans. Cheers, boos, getting on the refs... just the whole atmosphere of basketball has felt different all season and it's made it a little more difficult. But I definitely missed the fans, and I know they miss us. I feel for the Efes fans, and I feel for all the fans."

For Andrea Cinciarini, the veteran captain of AX Armani Exchange Milan, his own long wait to debut at the Final Four pales in comparison to the 29 years that have passed since the club's last appearance at the event. As such, Cinciarini is keeping Milan's fans close to heart this weekend despite the distance between them.

"I am so sorry for them because they are always there, they always pack the gym. They waited for us and sent us off before we left to come here," Cinciarini said. "After 29 years we are back in the Final Four and it's the year that they cannot come. For sure, they will be in front of their TVs to support us, but for Milan it's a shame to be in the Final Four after a long time without the fans."

They say that fans are like the sixth man for home teams in their own arenas, but at the Final Four they have been very much like a fifth team. Their collective star quality, which has reverberated in viral videos shared around the world over the years, is also a source of wonder for the players themselves as seen from their spot at the center of a true world basketball party. 

"The Final Four is a great event and it is even more beautiful with fans." 

"Everything is better with fans," FC Barcelona star Alex Abrines said. "The Final Four is a great event and it is even more beautiful with fans, with all four groups of fans cheering for their teams. It is great to see when fans of a team cheer for a different one during the other semifinal, too! It will be strange without them."

Johannes Voigtmann, one of the two German players at the Final Four, had been hoping that the people of Cologne would get a strong taste of the EuroLeague devotion, whether in person at Lanxess Arena or around town with the influx of fans for what is usually an event-filled weekend outside the games themselves.

"It is terrible for them because they are waiting for two years now," Voigtmann said. "We feel for them, we feel for everybody that loves basketball and loves the Final Four. The atmosphere is just different without the fans, we hope that they can come back as soon as possible. We hope it will be the last Final Four without the fans."

The Crossover returns with a special schedule at the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four! A Round Table of basketball journalists, moderated by EuroLeague.net's Javier Gancedo, got together to analyze the season and break down the semifinals, Anadolu Efes Istanbul vs. CSKA Moscow and FC Barcelona vs. AX Armani Exchange Milan. European basketball legend Sergey Tarakanov of Match TV, professional basketball coach Piti Hurtado of DAZN Spain, Begum Unal of TrendBasket.net and Andrea Solaini of Eurosport Italy shared their opinions about the games and predicted the outcomes of the semifinals. They will all be back Sunday for another episode to analyze the championship game. Joe Arlauckas will also be back on Sunday with a Stars Round Table. Don't miss it!

The Crossover: Experts Round Table

AX Armani Exchange Milan will compete at the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four for the first time in 29 years. One of the iconic squads in Italian basketball, Milan had not been this close to the EuroLeague title since 1992, in which it lost against eventual champion Partizan Belgrade in the semifinals. It is a return-to-form for Italian basketball, too. The last Italian team to reach the Final Four was Montepaschi Siena in 2011.

Milan, however, is not your average Final Four newcomer. It features three EuroLeague champions and the players on the roster between them boast 22 previous Final Four appearances. And of course, Ettore Messina is one of the winningest coaches in European basketball. Messina has won four EuroLeague titles, including the last one for an Italian Club - Kinder Bologna in 2001. Only Zeljko Obradovic (18) has more Final Four appearances than Messina’s 15. 

"I didn’t take anybody anywhere. Our players took us to the Final Four." 

"I didn’t take anybody anywhere. Our players took us to the Final Four. We are very happy especially for a special owner, for a special person like Mr. Armani, Mr. Dell’Orco, all the Armani Family, it’s people who have invested not only financially but more importantly emotionally in leading this club and trying to bring it back to the level of the past," Messina humbly said. "So we are very happy, and hopefully, we will, let’s say, give the best version of ourselves in this Final Four."

Messina has led Milan to the Final Four in the most competitive EuroLeague season ever. It has been tough for everyone due to the off-court circumstances, but Messina and his team remained competitive throughout the season, overcome obstacles and earned the right to keep fighting for Final Four glory.

"I think the season has been extremely challenging, because of COVID-19, because of the lack of fans, because of the level of the teams. We had 18 teams who invested a lot, great coaches, great players, deep teams, so it has been a very challenging season," Messina said. "The fact there will not be fans again, can maybe create some kind of more unpredictability in the Final Four even when the simple words 'Final Four' means that anything can happen." 

Messina pointed out that the struggles of a different, more challenging season are not exclusive to teams, players, and coaches, and found the perfect example to illustrate it:

"Teams and people have inside themselves unbelievable resistance and resilience and ability to face adversity. And I would use as an example the referees… The referees, I think, were the ones who had the toughest challenge. They don’t travel as a group. They do not charter planes because they have to fly commercial. They are more isolated. It’s been an even tougher challenge for them than for us as players and teams.

"So, to have made it through the season, finishing the regular season, having great playoff series, and now, hopefully, a great Final Four is something that all the people involved in the EuroLeague, on the court, and off the court, have to enjoy and be proud of,” Messina said.

His team has grown during the season and that bond has allowed Milan to reach Cologne. Messina gives his team a lot of credit for "the cohesion of my players, the togetherness, the chemistry they have been able to build, even if we had 5-6 new players in the team, all with great resumes, and great personality," he said. "But they grew up in terms of togetherness during the year and that’s something that has made proud all the Olimpia fans because they have seen the team competing even in the toughest nights." 

"To have made it through the season... is something that all the people involved in the EuroLeague... have to enjoy and be proud of." 

Milan will face FC Barcelona in the semifinals after losing to the Spanish side by double figures in both of their regular-season clashes. Messina is aware that his team needs to improve if it wants the third time to be a charm - in the most important European game in club history in almost three decades.

"They kicked our butt both times. The first time I think we led for the greatest part of the game and then collapsed in the final part, the second game they outplayed us. They were much better than us that night. We know they’re very physical, they’re long, they have great defensive organization, and they have the talent on offense to make also difficult shots and win any kind of game," Messina said of Barcelona. "We know it is gonna be difficult, I think we had a great season, we beat many, many great teams this year. And, we had a very tough series with Bayern. We also know we need to get better if we want to try to beat Barcelona. We have a good level, but it’s not enough to beat them."

There will be an important difference since the teams' last matchup. Barcelona has added Pau Gasol to its roster. Coach Messina and Gasol worked together as starting center and assistant coach, respectively, for the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2011-12 campaign, so Messina knows what to expect.

"He is an NBA champion. He has won everything with the national team, is a great leader, and has tremendous skills. Of course, the athleticism is not the athleticism of 15 or 20 years ago," Messina admitted. "But he is a player who can definitely lead and perform and is as cold as ice. His hand will not shake in crunch time. So, he definitely made Barcelona even better than they were."

Experience is on Milan's side and even though everyone thinks it can be a very important factor in all games at Lanxess Arena, Coach Messina is not 100% certain. It will only be important if the experience matches the willingness to do things right.

"I think that what can be important is that those players know what you most likely have to do in different, difficult moments in a game, and especially on a stage as difficult as the Final Four is," Messina explained. "But then you need to perform. So, experience without the ability to perform doesn’t mean too much, unfortunately. But experience can be something that helps to grow the level of the performance in anybody. And so we are glad to have that experience."

Asked about what he will tell to all the Final Four newcomers, Coach Messina opted for an alternative way to do that. With so many experienced players in the team, there are enough voices to address those without experience in such a special event: "I let Kyle Hines and 'Chacho', and Malcolm and Gigi talk to them about the challenge of the Final Four. There is a much better chance they listen to them than they listen to me," Messina said. 

"Should we be able to win the title, it will be a dream-come-true." 

When Milan put Messina in charge of rebuilding the team in the summer of 2019, the goal was not only to win, but to create a winning culture and restore the club to a place of glory where it is in the running for the Final Four and contending for the title every season. Even though the crown is just two wins away, Messina has not lost sight of the long-term plan.

"Should we be able to win the title, it will be, for all of us, a dream-come-true, but we need to go step by step, enjoy the experience, and as I said right after the playoffs, I think it’s very, very important that we establish ourselves as an organization that will be in the playoffs every possible time," Messina said. "When you are in the playoffs almost every time, once in a while you go to the Final Four, and once in a while you get the chance to win the title, but if you disappear from the playoffs for the next 10 years, that would not be good."

Of course, what better way to jumpstart the building of that winning culture than bringing the EuroLeague trophy back to Milan. 

The last man to lead an Italian club to EuroLeague glory, Coach Ettore Messina, now has an experienced AX Armani Exchange Milan squad in the Final Four for the first time in 29 years.

Ettore Messina, Milan: 'It is gonna be difficult'

Point guard Vasilije Micic, a driving force in Anadolu Efes Istanbul's staying power among the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague elite, has been chosen the MVP of the 2020-21 season following voting by fans, media and – for the first time – head coaches and team captains. Micic, 27, ranked fourth in scoring among all EuroLeague players, with 16.3 points per game, and ninth in assists, at 4.8 on average, leading Efes in both categories. As the only EuroLeague player to make 70 or more three-point shots and 100 or more two-pointers and free throws, Micic was singular in his status as a triple-threat this season. He was central to Efes turning around an 8-9 start to win 14 of its last 17 regular season games and surviving a five-game playoffs battle with Real Madrid to return to the Final Four. Micic was revealed as this season's MVP in a surprise presentation on Wednesday in Cologne, Germany, where Efes opens the Final Four in a semifinal against CSKA Moscow, a rematch of their 2019 title game, on Friday.

Micic becomes the 15th different player to be voted MVP since the current end-of-season awards format was introduced in 2005. He is the first to be chosen with votes cast by both the head coaches and the team captains, two of the three voting collectives who chose him among the other candidates from the All-EuroLeague First Team. Micic had been voted previously to the 2018-19 All-EuroLeague Second Team in polling of media and fans only.

Major performances all season long marked Micic's march to the MVP award. He came into the season having played 124 career EuroLeague games but was able to reach or tie career highs in no fewer than eight statistical categories in his 38 appearances this season. His personal records of 37 points and a 44 performance index rating – the second- and third-highest totals of the entire season, respectively – came in a 74-106 road blowout victory in Round 26 over archrivals Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul to end that team's 10-game winning streak. Earlier, he scored 33 points in a 77-80 Round 8 road win at Panathinaikos OPAP Athens, making him one of just three players to reach that total or higher twice this season. He tied his personal high of 13 assists in helping Efes win 72-93 at ALBA Berlin in Round 3. He had 5 steals for the first time in his career in yet another double-digit road win, 80-102 against LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne in Round 18. His 6 three-pointers and 11 free throws made against Fenerbahce, 8 rebounds in a losing Round 15 home effort against AX Armani Exchange Milan, and 8 two-pointers in a Round 21 loss at Zenit St Petersburg were also Micic's personal bests in his seven-season EuroLeague career.

Micic won or shared three weekly MVP honors during the season, all during the playoffs race between Round 24 and Round 31. He was the only EuroLeague player to record a performance index rating of 30 or higher five times, the last of which was a 34 in the playoffs, which he finished with the most total points (86) and third-highest scoring average (17.2). In the end, no player put the ball through the hoop this season more than Micic, who made 138 two-pointers and 70 three-pointers (the eighth-highest totals of the season) while leading all EuroLeague players with 132 free throws made. His total of 618 points going into the Final Four is the second-most scored in a single season, behind only Alexey Shved's record of 740 in 2017-18. Micic is just the fourth EuroLeague player all-time to score at least 100 two-pointers, 70 threes and 100 free throws in a single season, after Shved, Sergio Llull in 2016-17, and Mike James in each of the previous two seasons. He is the first player ever to have made more than 132 two-pointers while making at least 70 triples and 100 free throws.

A top skier in his native Serbia as a youth, Micic chose basketball as his true calling and came to wider attention when he moved to FC Bayern Munich as a 20-year-old and made his EuroLeague debut there in the 2014-15 season. Injuries limited Micic to just 10 EuroLeague games with Bayern before he returned home to play the second half of the next season and made an impact off the bench in helping Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade reach the playoffs for the only time this century. The next season, he moved to Lithuania and played a similar role as Zalgiris Kaunas returned to the Final Four after 19 years. At Efes, starting in the summer of 2018, Micic took on a leading role in another team's long-awaited return to the Final Four. Micic would average 17.5 points at the season-ending showcase in Vitoria-Gazteiz, Spain, although Efes fell short against CSKA in the team's first-ever championship game. For his efforts, Micic earned a spot on that season's All-EuroLeague Second Team. In the last, pandemic-shortened season, Micic kept up his non-stop improvement by averaging 14.5 points and 5.8 assists, ranking among the EuroLeague's top eight players in both categories, all of which set the stage for his current, spectacular season, now rewarded with the season MVP trophy by the fans, media, coaches and players.

Efes's Vasilije Micic is voted the EuroLeague's 2020-21 season MVP!

regular-season-mvp-micic-1920x1080-v3.png

The calendar reads May again and CSKA Moscow and Coach Dimitris Itoudis are in a familiar situation – preparing for the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four.

The 2020-21 EuroLeague season was unique in many ways. This regular season was closer than any before and not even 19 wins were enough to qualify for the playoffs. There has never been such a long wait for teams to start mathematically qualifying for the playoffs or locking up home-court advantages, and once it came to the playoff series, three of the four series went to Game 5, another first. 

"The chemistry matters and the chemistry is not built just overnight." 

Yet, at the end of it all, there is CSKA once again, playing in the Final Four, its 17th in the last 18 years, and a record ninth consecutive appearance. Coach Itoudis also stands alone in doing what no coach has done before, reaching his sixth Final Four in a row. And while Itoudis would refuse to compare his feelings from season to season, there is no denying how proud he feels about his team's achievement in this campaign.

"This is the third generation of players that we were called to manage and handle, which is great, and all were great teams," Itoudis said. "But it was a process for us to become a team, to have the right chemistry. And that's what matters, the chemistry matters and the chemistry is not built just overnight.

"You got to go through, and experience situations. You got to go experience the adversities, experience the criticism, experience the fact and the pressure you feel because you need to win. So all this is a daily process. Facing absences, long meetings, long practices, long trips. All of that. And last but not the least, the injuries which you cannot control, and COVID, when the doctor calls you can't count on these two or three players."

Those are things no coach can control and Itoudis said it sometimes it felt like he would go mad. He also lost two team leaders and MVP of the Month winners during the season, league rebounding leader center Nikola Milutinov through a shoulder injury and top scorer Mike James through suspension. But coaches can never despair, so Itoudis had his team take in stride everything they had to overcome.

"I think that creates a little bit more fun memories that we're going to remember with fondness. The fact that, as a group, we shared the hardship. Where we came together and we shared the hardship and we really managed that," he explained.

Itoudis went further to drive home the point that all the adversity the team faced ultimately brought out the best in his players. 

"This is where the oxytocin is going out of the body," Itoudis said. "It means that we come together. We are coming closer. We know that on my right shoulder on my left shoulder, when I look over here, and behind my back, I have teammates. I have allies that they're going to help me in my bad moments. They're gonna pick me and they're going to help me to stand up again and fall forward because we're going to have falls. But we choose to fall forward. And that's what makes this team special."

In Cologne, CSKA faces Anadolu Efes Istanbul in the first semifinal on Friday. On paper, it is a rematch of the 2019 championship game, but Itoudis does not see this game that way because he has a very different team on his hands. Four of the pillars from that team – Nando De Colo, Kyle Hines, Sergio Rodriguez and Cory Higgins – are no longer with CSKA. The latter three will be in Cologne, but Hines and Rodriguez will be wearing the AX Armani Exchange Milan uniform and Higgins is with FC Barcelona. Itoudis though, while cherishing those memories, only looks ahead. 

"This team has a tremendous expectation of going out there and compete in the highest level." 

"Whatever happened in past belongs to past," he added. "The past can never determine the future. We are living in the present moment."

Itoudis feels the same way what to expect from the game against Efes. Their two regular-season games were blowouts. CSKA beat up on Efes by 35 in mid-December, and Efes returned the favor with a 30-point win in Round 28.

"Definitely, we have lost badly against Efes. They outplayed us, they outscored us. It was a back-to-back game for us, traveling from Tel Aviv to Istanbul, and we played a very bad game and they well-deserved to beat us at that moment. We beat them in a similar way, too, but I don't remember anymore when that was, but it was a long, long, long time ago," Itoudis said.

Itoudis is of course aware that All-EuroLeague guards Vasilije Micic and Shane Larkin are among the best in the competition. He calls Rodrigue Beaubois a pure scorer and thinks of Krunoslav Simon as someone with experience and the ability to make crucial shots. Itoudis will not forget about big men Sertac Sanli or Tibor Pleiss, who repeatedly showcased how important they are to their team, or to stress how big of a playoff Game 5 Chris Singleton had.

"Adrien Moerman maybe did not have that much of an impact in the playoffs, but for sure he's a great scorer," Itoudis shared. "Or, Dogus Balbay, who is a specialist defender. Each and every player is bringing something. Efes is a complete team, for sure."

Even against such a talented team and with so much at stake, the message Itoudis gives his team does not change greatly. His approach to the game is similar to what it has been for any other game or season so far.

"Even when you're glorious and you are victorious, you've got to stay humble and you’ve got to stay down", Itoudis warned. "I used to say whatever glory you have had, it is important, but let it rest in peace and in the past." 

"Even when you're glorious and you are victorious, you've got to stay humble." 

Still, it is hard to say that past success does not play a role, especially for a coach who has just become the first to lead a team to six consecutive Final Fours. That milestone just adds to the pride Itoudis feels for being a part of the CSKA organization, the one he just extended his contract with for another two seasons.

"I feel honored because I belong to such a great big club, but this doesn't go only one way", Itoudis said. "It goes both ways because I belong to this club and I feel that I belong. They make me feel that I belong. They gave me the values and the responsibility and the support, which makes me feel that I belong. And that's the most important. When a person doing his work on a daily basis feels that he belongs, feels that he is responsible for certain things and he feels that he has support, then he's going to give his best."

In Cologne, CSKA and Itoudis will surely give their best one more time for a chance to add to their respective legacies as they attempt to climb the EuroLeague throne once again. 

At the end of a unique EuroLeague season, history-makers CSKA Moscow and Coach Dimitris Itoudis are in a familiar position, qualified for the Final Four and competing for another EuroLeague crown.

Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA: 'We choose to fall forward' 

When FC Barcelona announced that Sarunas Jasikevicius would take over as its head coach last summer following a successful four-year debut stint at Zalgiris Kaunas - that included a run to the 2018 Final Four, a sigh of relief came from the fans in Barcelona. Jasikevicius was a fan-favorite during his playing days at the club and one of the players who led the club to its first EuroLeague crown in 2003.

After that, Jasikevicius won three more EuroLeague titles with Maccabi Tel Aviv and Panathinaikos Athens. He even played again for Barcelona for a short period. Once he made his transition into coaching, it was a dream of the Barcelona club and its fans to have him back on the bench. 

"I think there's a lot to be proud of and hopefully we can build on it." 

 And in just his first year at the helm of the Catalan club, the team is back on Europe's brightest stage for the first time since 2014.

"When you start the season, this is one of the goals that you set out to do. You want to go to the Final Four," Jasikevicius said. "We had a good regular season. We came out on top in a tough playoff series, so I think there's a lot to be proud of and hopefully, we can build on it."

The team not only got to the Final Four, but also finished atop the standings in the longest regular season ever in the competition. Jasikevicius's credentials and the roster at his disposal ensured that the expectations and pressure were high from day one.

"You are just trying to basically build everything from the daily work. This is the most important for us," Jasikevicius assured. "Every day we come in and try to push the players to be the best that they can be. Trying to prepare one game at a time, one practice at a time, and that's how you build the season. I think this is the message more or less that we sent to them." 

"Every day we come in and try to push the players to be the best that they can be." 

 The fact that Barca won the regular season with 10 losses and that three of the season’s playoff series went the distance to Game 5 is a testament to the league's toughness according to Jasikevicius.

"This shows how equal everything is, how every opponent on any EuroLeague night, they can beat you, and this is the difficulty of this tournament. It's extremely equal between the teams and I think it will stay like this for a while."

During the team's playoff series against Zenit St Petersburg, Jasikevicius faced his former coach at Barcelona, Xavi Pascual, who made it hard for the regular-season champs to punch their ticket to Cologne.

"There's always surprises. You always try to be ahead of the game a little bit," Jasikevicius explained. "You're trying to understand what they will do and some things, you prepare your team to expect surprises and at the same time you have to react when you see those things and in some situations, we were good in reacting and some, not so good. And ultimately, I think it made us a better team, going through this series." 

Barca will meet AX Armani Exchange Milan in the second semifinal in Cologne on Friday, May 28. Milan is another star-studded team that returns to the final stage after a very long time. The fact that Barcelona beat Milan twice during the regular season by double digits doesn't seem to make it any easier for the Lithuanian coach.

"You have to learn from the regular season, but at the same time, that's finished," he asserted. "They played both games without the point guards. One of them was without [Sergio] Rodriguez, one of them was without [Malcolm] Delaney, and they are a huge part of what they do."

When asked about what can Barcelona do to defend the dangerous individual qualities that Milan will surely present in Cologne, Jasikevicius did not hesitate.

"You have to understand that they're very good one-on-one players, so we're going to face a lot of one-on-one situations. They have a lot of scorers that can decide the game, so I mean, obviously, defensively you're going to have to have a great game. But again, this is Final Four, the opponent is going to be the highest quality, and we must think about how we must be ready for these types of games."

Jasikevicius stayed in the same line of thought when asked about the first semifinal between CSKA Moscow and Anadolu Efes Istanbul.

"Again, it's two of the top teams in Europe. They have the experience of having gone through this type of game together as a team, with the same coaches that they've been playing for a while with, which it's obviously a huge factor for both of them. Huge-talent teams and a lot of guys that can really decide the game in their favor and it will be an amazing battle to see."

Jasikevicius is no stranger to the Final Four stage. He has won four of them and this will be his second trip into that territory from the bench. But having experienced it so many times on the court, he has a clear message to his players before the games start. 

"Be ready because maybe some players need to play 1 or 2 minutes and those can be crucial in a semifinal." 

 "The advice we usually give is 'try to control the things you can control.' You can always play as hard as you can, you can always follow the game plan, you can always leave it all on the court. Sometimes you hit the shot, sometimes you don't. Sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don't. But just try to help out the team in any way possible."

And that goes for everyone sitting on the bench, even the players who would normally not get as much time on the court.

"Stay focused and be ready because maybe some players need to play 1 or 2 minutes and those can be crucial in a semifinal."

And Jasikevicius has seen his fair share of Final Four games to mean it. 

A winner of four EuroLeague crowns as a player, Coach Sarunas Jasikevicius looks to lead FC Barcelona to the promised land 18 years after he helped it to its maiden continental championship as its point guard.