...CSKA is in its 19th Final Four - an all-time record! Barcelona ranks second with 15 Final Four appearances.

CSKA Moscow's Final Four facts

...CSKA is in its 19th Final Four - an all-time record! Barcelona ranks second with 15 Final Four appearances.

...CSKA has made it to its ninth consecutive Final Four - a new all-time record since the format returned in 1988. CSKA has been in 17 of the last 18 Final Fours.

...CSKA looks for its ninth EuroLeague title, after previous wins in 1961, 1963, 1969, 1971, 2006, 2008, 2016 and 2019. Only Real Madrid (10) has more EuroLeague titles.

...CSKA has the chance to win consecutive EuroLeague titles for the first time ever? CSKA was the last EuroLeague champion in 2019, as the 2019-20 campaign was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coach Dimitris Itoudis

Dimitris Itoudis celebrates in the locker room - CSKA Moscow Champ - Final Four Vitoria-Gasteiz 2019 - EB18
...Dimitris Itoudis is in his sixth Final Four as head coach - all of them with CSKA? Itoudis also was in eight other Final Fours as Panathinaikos assistant coach, working for Zeljko Obradovic.

...Coach Itoudis has the chance to win his third EuroLeague title? He helped CSKA win the EuroLeague crown in 2016 and 2019.

...Coach Itoudis can win consecutive EuroLeague titles? Only seven coaches have been able to do it, and just one did it in the 21st century - Pini Gershon (2004, 2005 Maccabi).

CSKA's veterans

...Nikita Kurbanov heads to his eighth Final Four? Out of the players present in Cologne, only Kyle Hines of AX Armani Exchange Milan has been to more Final Fours (9).

...Kurbanov has the chance to win his fourth EuroLeague title? He helped CSKA win EuroLeague titles in 2006, 2016 and 2019. He has the chance to become the first Russian player to win four titles.

...Will Clyburn is the only Final Four MVP present in this year's event? Clyburn was chosen as the 2019 Final Four MVP, leading CSKA to the title.

...Clyburn has the chance to win multiple Final Four MVP trophies? Only four players won it more than once: Toni Kukoc (1990, 1991 Split; 1993 Benetton), Vassilis Spanoulis (2009 Panathinaikos; 2012, 2013 Olympiacos), Dejan Bodiroga (2002 Panathinaikos, 2003 Barcelona) and Dimitris Diamantidis (2007, 2011 Panathinaikos).


The first time...

...Janis Strelnieks can become the first Latvian player to win the EuroLeague in the Final Four era? ASK Riga won three EuroLeague titles from 1958 to 1960, but no Latvian player has lifted the trophy since the restoration of Latvian Independence in 1991.

...Iffe Lundberg can become the first Danish-born player to win the EuroLeague? Lundberg, born in Copenhagen, is in his first EuroLeague season. David Andersen won three EuroLeague titles in the past and even when he had a Danish passport, he was born in Melbourne, Australia.

...five other CSKA players have previous Final Four experience: Semen Antonov (2017, 2018, 2019 CSKA), Joel Bolomboy (2019 CSKA), Daniel Hackett (2019 CSKA) and Ivan Ukhov (2019 CSKA).

...Michael Eric can join a exclusive list of EuroLeague and 7DAYS EuroCup winners? He won the EuroCup trophy with Darussafaka Istanbul in 2018. Only 17 players won both competition, and the list includes names like Rudy Fernandez, Ricky Rubio, Dejan Tomasevic, Nando De Colo, Nick Calathes or Felipe Reyes, among others.

...Eric can be the first Nigerian-born player to win the EuroLeague? Ekpe Udoh, born in the States with Nigerian roots, led Fenerbahce to the 2017 EuroLeague title, earning Final Four MVP honors.

...Johannes Voigtmann can become the first German player to win the EuroLeague in more than 20 years? Only three German players won the EuroLeague title - Christian Welp with Olympiacos in 1997, Michael Koch with Panathinaikos in 2000, and Patrick Femerling with Barcelona in 2003.

...Toko Shengelia can become the second Georgian player to win the EuroLeague title? Gio Shermadini won the competition twice - with Panathinaikos in 2009 and Olympiacos in 2013.

...Milutinov is the 2020-21 EuroLeague leading rebounder at 8.6 per game? He set a new record for most offensive rebounds, 16, in a Regular Season game against another Final Four team, Milan.

...CSKA leads the 2020-21 EuroLeague in scoring and rebounds? It leads the standings at 84.4 points and 35.6 boards per night, respectively.

One of the most successful European coaches of the 21st century will continue guiding his current team for at least two more seasons as CSKA Moscow announced on Monday a new agreement with Dimitris Itoudis to keep working together until 2023.

Itoudis, age 50, took over CSKA's bench in 2014 and has since led the club to a new golden age that includes not missing a single Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four in seven seasons together. Their next one will begin in Cologne, Germany, starting on May 28.

Germany is also where Itoudis and CSKA won the first of their two EuroLeague trophies together by defeating Fenerbahce Istanbul after overtime in the 2016 championship game in Berlin. Three years later, in 2019, Itoudis and CSKA reached the mountaintop again by stopping Anadolu Efes Istanbul in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.

His six consecutive Final Four appearances with CSKA are a new all-time record for coaches. If they succeed again in Cologne, Itoudis will become the first coach to lead CSKA, an eight-time continental champion, to three such titles.

<div style="display: grid; place-items: center;"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">⚡ CSKA and Dimitris Itoudis: two more years together<br><br>Head coach <a href="https://twitter.com/ItoudisD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ItoudisD</a> signed new contract with our club, valid until summer of 2023.<br><br>The Greek specialist has been leading the Army Team since the summer of 2014, which is the longest period in the club&#39;s modern history. <a href="https://t.co/vfe5QnBrit">pic.twitter.com/vfe5QnBrit</a></p>&mdash; CSKA Moscow (@cskabasket) <a href="https://twitter.com/cskabasket/status/1394232362964246529?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 17, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>

Itoudis has a EuroLeague record with CSKA of 177-53 for a remarkable winning rate of 77.0%, the competition's best over the last seven years. He is the first Greek head coach and the 15th overall to win two continental crowns. In addition to his EuroLeague success, Itoudis has brought CSKA five VTB League titles in a row between 2015 and 2019 and is competing for a sixth this season.

Itoudis was awarded the Alexander Gomelskiy Trophy as the EuroLeague's coach of the year in 2016 and 2019. He is one of four coaches to win the award multiple times, along with Zeljko Obradovic, Pablo Laso and Ettore Messina. He also won the EuroLeague title five more times as the first assistant coach to the all-time leader, Obradovic, while they worked together at Panathinaikos Athens between 2000 and 2012. They also won 11 Greek League and seven Greek Cup trophies in that span.

In addition to having been a long-time assistant coach, Itoudis was previously a head coach for PAOK, Philippos Thessaloniki, and MENT in his native Greece in the 1990s, as well as coaching Banvit Bandirma of Turkey in the 2013-14 campaign.

CSKA, Itoudis together until 2023!

As a result of voting that included fans, media and – for the first time in competition history – head coaches and team captains, small forward Vladimir Lucic of FC Bayern Munich has been chosen to the 2020-21 All-EuroLeague First Team!

Lucic ranked eighth among all EuroLeague players with an average performance index rating of 17.8, his career high in seven full-time EuroLeague seasons. The do-it-all small forward ranked among Bayern's top three players in points (13.6), rebounds (4.8) and steals (1.1) and assured Bayern its first EuroLeague Playoffs berth by making all the key plays – drawing a foul, making go-ahead free throws and blocking a shot at the buzzer – in the decisive Round 33 game against Zalgiris Kaunas.

Lucic earned MVP of the Week honors twice this season. In the week spanning Rounds 3 and 4, he amassed a total PIR of 53 to lead Bayern in victories against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv and Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul. Later in November, Lucic led Bayern in a 90-79 win against his former team, Valencia Basket. He was that game's leading scorer with 22 points and best rebounder with 7 boards for a career-high PIR of 35.

Lucic continued to shine under the bright lights of the playoffs, helping Bayern take its series against AX Armani Exchange Milan to a fifth and final game with 12.8 points per game on 45.5% three-point shooting, 4.8 rebounds and 1.4 steals. His PIR average of 18.6 was third-best in the playoffs. In Game 3, he posted a career-high 27 points and matched his personal best PIR with 35 again. He also helped Bayern win Game 4 with a show-stopping, go-ahead alley-oop slam with 23 seconds left.

This marks the first All-EuroLeague selection for Lucic, 31, who made his EuroLeague debut with Partizan Belgrade in 2010 and became a regular in that team's lineup over the next three years. After three seasons with Valencia Basket, with whom he won the 2013-14 EuroCup title, Lucic moved in 2016 to Munich, where he has been a starter for Bayern in 105 of his 111 EuroLeague and EuroCup games over five seasons.

Bayern's Lucic voted to All-EuroLeague First Team!

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The 20201 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four at Lanxess Arena will mark the first EuroLeague game in Cologne, Germany, since January 2007. Those who had a chance to experience the passion around RheinEnergie Cologne during its heyday recall well how the city feels about the game.

Anadolu Efes Istanbul center Tibor Pleiss will play his second Final Four in a city he calls home. He was born in nearby Bergisch Gladbach and grew up in Cologne, where he also started playing basketball and spent his first professional seasons. Despite the many world-class organizations Pleiss has since been a part of, the atmosphere in Cologne still stands out for him.

"Cologne is my favorite city in Germany, of course, because it is my hometown. It is a city with a lot of things to see. Most of the people know our Cathedral, which is very famous, but it is a city with many different faces." Pleiss said.

"Our fans were incredible... The atmosphere was always amazing."

Even though Pleiss was just a teenager in the years he played for Cologne, he will never forget what it felt like to play big games in the team's jampacked arena.

"Our fans were incredible. The gym was just for 3,000 people, but the atmosphere was always amazing. The fans were always very emotional. We had drummers around the court who helped create a great atmosphere. It was always full! It was something special, like a place where people came together and had a good time. It was kind of like a big family."

Even after the local club fell on hard times, Pleiss was impressed by the support the team gets: "I am still following the team, which is playing in the fourth league in Germany right now," Pleiss said last year. "But the fans are still there. They are still behind the team, which is incredible. No other team in this league has these kinds of fans."


Pleiss is joined by others who played or coached in Cologne in remembering what a great basketball city it was at its peak.

"This is a special story," Svetislav Pesic, a EuroLegaue champion as a player and a coach, said when asked about his time as the head of the RheinEnergie Cologne bench for the 2001-02 season. "The city of Cologne had a big basketball tradition. When I was the German national team coach, Saturn Cologne, was the best team in the country.

"I always say that this German state, North Rhine-Westphalia, where Cologne is, has a big basketball tradition in German history. In this region, you have Bayer Leverkusen, a long-time German champion that won 14 championships. We talked about Saturn Cologne and Telekom Bonn, too. There are many other teams in the German League from that region."

Pesic started to understand just how great that passion was a few years before he was approached to coach in Cologne: "I was coaching ALBA Berlin and we played against Telekom Bonn in Koeln Arena. Telekom Bonn had a small gym and the game against ALBA was the most important one in the regular season. It was a very interesting game, and Telekom Bonn decided to play in the big gym in Cologne, where the Final Four will be played this season. We broke a European record at the time: 20,000 people watched the game."

Sasa Obradovic joined RheinEnergie Cologne under Pesic and played the final four seasons of his career there. He was then appointed head coach and took the club to new heights.

"Cologne is definitely a really good spot to host the Final Four."

"Those years were really the best years of my life because as a player, I lived in a nice city and was able to see my kids grow up in a clean, good condition, in a great country like Germany. That was essential for me," said Obradovic. "Cologne is definitely a really good spot to host the Final Four and maybe promote basketball again in the city. While I was there, Cologne was a very good basketball city. I feel sorry because it is a big city that deserves a team that could at least play in the German League.

"The city has a sports soul, with football, hockey, handball... Basketball is missing in an era in which the sport is growing all over Germany, and you need such a city as one of its basketball centers."

At a time when we are hoping to bring sports and society back to the normalcy remembered before the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps the crowning of a new EuroLeague champion in the city will be just the spark needed to help Cologne regain its status as a German basketball center.

Pleiss recalls Cologne's great passion for basketball

Fans can get closer than ever to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four with the ground-breaking launch of a unique virtual reality experience for this month's season finale in Cologne.

The Final Four VR Pass will offer unprecedented up-close access to the on-court action, bringing home the emotions of the live event like never before.

A digital control room will let fans curate their own viewing experience by choosing among 12 live feeds, including four 180-degree cameras on the backboards and in the area of the courtside seats. Users have the freedom to switch between cameras in real-time to decide which ones they watch and how they watch them.

The pass may be bought as a virtual ticket at a base price of 15€ by clicking here. A code can then be redeemed in the EuroLeagueTV VR App, available on Android, iOS and Oculus, giving full VR access to all four games of the Final Four.

Due to the inability of fans to attend the Final Four this season due to health and safety protocols surrounding the global pandemic, the Final Four VR Pass is a chance to witness the event in a whole new way.

Passes will be limited to the number of regular tickets, 14,210, that would have been sold for the Lanxess Arena under normal circumstances. The VR Pass will be offered to those fans who had bought tickets for the cancelled 2020 Final Four and to current EuroLeague TV subscribers with a 50% discount.

The Final Four VR Pass is a collaboration between Euroleague Basketball and Yerba Buena VR Inc. (YBVR), a leading developer of end-to-end VR video streaming solutions and services. YBVR has a special focus on premium quality video and easy-to-deploy experiences, using patented immersive technology to offer 8K streaming at 60 frames per second with zero-buffering, instant camera change capability.

Alex Ferrer Kristjansson, Euroleague Basketball Marketing and Communication Senior Director, said: "Since the cancellation of last season's Final Four we have been working hard to bring our fans the best possible experience during their absence from the arenas due to the pandemic. The VR Pass will allow our fans to live the Final Four almost like a player."

Hector Prieto, Co-Founder and CEO of YBVR, said: "It is exciting to work hand-in-hand with Euroleague Basketball in pioneering a Virtual Reality experience. The most rewarding thing is allowing devoted basketball fans to really feel the emotions of the live Final Four, experiencing the action at home as if they were courtside in Cologne."

Virtual reality offers unique Final Four experience

There are Italian basketball greats, and then there is Dino Meneghin, a living legend who is the all-time record holder among players with seven EuroLeague titles.

Final Four club legend: Dino Meneghin, Milan

There are Italian basketball greats, and then there is Dino Meneghin. The sturdy center is a true living legend whose accomplishments could fill an entire wing of a library on European, international and EuroLeague basketball. Meneghin is the all-time record holder among players with seven EuroLeague titles and one of just a few players who has hoisted the trophy with more than one team.

Meneghin's professional career began in November 1966, when he debuted at just 16 years and 11 months for Ignis Varese. His career would last 28 years and see him collect trophies at an unprecedented pace. He stayed at Varese until 1981, winning five EuroLeague crowns – in 1970, 1972, 1973, 1975 and 1976 – along with seven Italian League and four Italian Cups titles. The big man would move to Milan in 1981 and star there for nine years, guiding the club to the 1987 EuroLeague crown at 37 years old, an impressive 11 years since his previous championship. Meneghin helped Milan win the continental title in 1988 for what was the club's last EuroLeague trophy. He added five more Italian League crowns and two Italian Cups with Milan.

Meneghin also helped the Italian national team to major successes, taking the silver medal at the 1980 Olympics and winning the 1983 FIBA EuroBasket gold medal. Meneghin was also a part of Italy winning the 1999 EuroBasket title as team manager, with his son Andrea Meneghin starring for the team. That family highlight came nearly a decade after the father and son faced each other on the court as the 16-year-old Andrea was playing for Varese and Dino was a 40-year-old with Trieste in November 1990. Dino Meneghin played for Trieste for three seasons before returning to Milan in 1993 for one final season and then retiring in 1994 at age 44.

Meneghin, whose distinctions also include being the first European to be selected in the NBA Draft (by Atlanta in 1970) and one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors, remains close to the game. In addition to his role with the Italian national team, Meneghin was also a manager at Milan and, in February 2009, became president of the Italian Basketball Federation, for which he still serves as honorary president. His legend lives on.

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Final Four Vlog: Alex Abrines, FC Barcelona

After providing strong production and great energy for Real Madrid all season long, Usman Garuba put his game in overdrive in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs. Those performances secured Garuba's case as the deserving winner of the EuroLeague Rising Star Trophy for the 2020-21 season. Voted on by the league's head coaches, the Rising Star Trophy recognizes the best player in each EuroLeague season who was under the age of 22 on July 1 of the previous summer. Garuba, who turned 19 in early March, averaged 3.9 points, 4.0 rebounds, 0.6 steals and 0.7 blocks in 16:17 minutes per game. He led all Rising Star candidates in accumulated PIR (238) and rebounds (157). Garuba also ranked eighth among all EuroLeague players in total blocks (27). He was one of only two players to appear in every game for Real this season. He started 20 games, more than any other Rising Star-eligible player and fourth-most for Los Blancos.

Rokas Jokubaitis of Zalgiris Kaunas followed in second place in the voting by EuroLeague head coaches. Also receiving votes were Leandro Bolmaro of FC Barcelona, Carlos Alocen of Real Madrid, Jonas Mattisseck of ALBA Berlin, Matthew Strazel of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne and Sergi Martinez of Barcelona. The Rising Star Trophy is one of several end-of-season honors awarded by Euroleague Basketball. Alexey Shved of Khimki Moscow Region was formally announced as the Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy winner earlier this week. Garuba's teammate, Walter Tavares, was voted the EuroLeague Best Defender. The All-EuroLeague First and Second Team members will be revealed next week. The winner of the 2020-21 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague MVP will be announced at the Final Four in Cologne, Germany. The Alexander Gomelskiy Coach of the Year Trophy and the EuroLeague Club Executive of the Year are post-season awards.

After playing a limited role for Real during the 2019-20 EuroLeague season, his first season with the club's senior team, Garuba earned a place in head coach Pablo Laso's rotation from the start of this season. He played at least 11 minutes in all of Real's first eight games, including an 11-rebound effort in Round 4 at AX Armani Exchange Milan. He followed that with back-to-back games with 8 points against FC Barcelona and FC Bayern Munich. Garuba came off the bench in 12 of the team's first 15 games, but after Anthony Randolph was injured in Round 15, Garuba started the next week and went for 15 points on 3-for-3 three-point shooting with 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks for a PIR of 25 against ALBA Berlin. All of Garuba's growth from the regular season came together in the playoffs. The big man averaged 10.4 points on 66.7% two-point shooting in a five-game playoff series loss to Anadolu Efes Istanbul. Garuba's 7.2 rebounds per game topped all playoff performers. He dominated in Real's come-from-behind Game 4 win with 24 points, 12 rebounds and a PIR of 30, which all set or tied his career highs. For the season, Garuba led all Rising Star candidates in rebounding, steals, blocks, two-point shooting (62.8%) and true shooting percentage (48.4%), ranking second in PIR (6.1) and minutes, as well as third in scoring.

Born in Spain to parents from Nigeria, Garuba started playing basketball in the Real youth system at age 9. He has long been one of the top players in his age group in Europe. Garuba helped Spain capture gold medals at the U16 European championship in 2016 and the U18 championship in 2019. He also won the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament in 2019 after losing in the finals in Belgrade the year before. Garuba was named to the All-Tournament Team at the 2019 ANGT Finals. He also made his debut with Real's senior side that season and was a full-fledged member by the 2019-20 season.

Garuba is the third player from Real to win the EuroLeague Rising Star Trophy after Nikola Mirotic and Luka Doncic, who won it twice each. Mirotic took the trophy home in both 2011 and 2012 and Doncic did so in 2017 and 2018. The inaugural EuroLeague Rising Star award went to Erazem Lorbek of Climamio Bologna in 2005. Andrea Bargnani won it the next season with Benetton Treviso. They were followed by Rudy Fernandez of DKV Joventut Badalona in 2007; Danilo Gallinari of Armani Jeans Milano in 2008; Novica Velickovic of Partizan Belgrade in 2009; Ricky Rubio of FC Barcelona in 2010; Kostas Papanikolaou of Olympiacos Piraeus in 2013; Bogdan Bogdanovic of Partizan Belgrade in 2014 and again with Fenerbahce Istanbul in 2015; Alex Abrines of FC Barcelona Lassa in 2016; and Goga Bitadze of Buducnost VOLI Podgorica in 2019.

Rising Star Trophy winner: Usman Garuba, Real Madrid

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