The Paris forward rose to the occasion and time and time again in his first season in the BKT EuroCup

Tribute to the champs: Collin Malcolm

What a run it’s been for [Collin Malcolm](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/en/eurocup/players/collin-malcolm/profile/012609/). Just two years ago, he was wrapping up a season in which he won the Cypriot League and Cup double. That came after a season each in Georgio and Finland. Now he is living the highlife in the French capital as a BKT EuroCup champion with Paris Basketball.

Malcolm was one of the players that arrived in Paris over the summer with Coach Tuomas Iisalo from Telekom Baskets Bonn, where they captured the Basketball Champions League trophy last season. The 2.00-meter forward did not need much time to adjust to the higher level of the EuroCup.

Tribute to Collin Malcolm

He was second on the team in scoring with 16 points on opening night against Wolves Vilnius and paced Paris with 22 points in 18 minutes in Round 3 Veolia Towers Hamburg. Malcolm posted PIRs above 20 in four of his first six EuroCup games and scored in double figures in all but three of his 17 regular-season appearances. His finest performance came in a Round 6 dismantling of Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv in which he had 23 points on 4-of-8 three-point shooting plus 7 rebounds for a PIR of 29 in less than 20 minutes.

For the season, Malcolm ranked seventh in the EuroCup in two-point accuracy at 71.2% and was the only non-center in the competition to shoot above 70% on twos and average at least 10 points. He was third on Paris in scoring with 12.5 points per game and second in PIR with 14.1. Malcolm also averaged 3.7 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 22:59 minutes per game.

Twas a season to remember for the 26-year-old Malcolm, who continues to rise to every challenge in front of him while racking up an impressive collection of trophies.

Euroleague Basketball joins the world basketball family in mourning Ruben Douglas, who passed away on Wednesday. Douglas was voted the 2006 BKT EuroCup Finals MVP after he helped Dynamo Moscow beat Aris Thessaloniki 60-73 in the championship game with 17 points.

 Euroleague Basketball mourns Ruben Douglas 

Euroleague Basketball joins the world basketball family in mourning Ruben Douglas, who passed away on Wednesday.

Douglas was voted the 2006 BKT EuroCup Finals MVP after he helped Dynamo Moscow beat Aris Thessaloniki in the championship game played in Charleroi, Belgium. He led Dynamo to a 60-73 victory with 17 points. A year earlier, Douglas led Fortitudo Bologna to the Italian League title. Fortitudo beat EA7 Emporio Armani Milan 3-1 in the finals and Douglas buried the title-clinching shot to win Game 4 at the buzzer. He passed away in Costa Rica at age 44.

He started his professional basketball career with Panionios Athens in Greece, and also played for Valencia Basket and Baloncesto Sevilla of Spain, Virtus Rome of Italy and Usak Universitesi Belediyespor of Turkiye. In 23 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague games with Fortitudo and Rome, Douglas averaged 13.0 points and 3.7 rebounds. He also took part in 40 EuroCup games with Valencia and Dynamo, averaging 15.2 points and 3.6 rebounds.

May he rest in peace.

Euroleague Basketball joins the world basketball family in mourning Ruben Douglas, who passed away on Wednesday.

 

Euroleague Basketball mourns Ruben Douglas

Justin Simon had quite the experience with Paris Basketball in his debut BKT EuroCup season. After joining the club in early December as an injury replacement for Sebastian Herrera, the 27-year-old played in 14 games and never tasted defeat as he went on to become a EuroCup champion.

Tribute to the Champs: Justin Simon

Unlike many of his Paris Basketball teammates, big man [Leon Kratzer](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/en/eurocup/players/leon-kratzer/004512/) was not technically a rookie in the BKT EuroCup before winning the title this season. He may have played in just three previous EuroCup games five seasons earlier with Frankfurt Skyliners, but Kratzer's potential showed then. At just 21 years old, he posted a double-double in his team's final game against eventual 2018-19 semifinalist UNICS Kazan.

Flash forward to his EuroCup return with Paris this season, and Kratzer was everything a team full of go-go scorers could want from their anchor in the paint. He was the team's leading rebounder and one of top players on the offensive glass in the entire EuroCup, which is saying something since Paris didn't miss much and Kratzer played less than 17 minutes per game.

Leon Kratzer started in all 23 Paris Basketball games, averaging 5.4 points on 67.9% two-pointers, 4.9 rebounds, 1.0 blocks and a PIR of 8.1.

A tribute to the champs Leon Kratzer, Paris

Kratzer is one of six players who had played for head coach Tuomas Iisalo before arriving in Paris, and the trust that he inspired in his boss was clear. Kratzer started all 23 games at center for Paris, averaging 5.4 points on 67.9% two-point shooting, 4.9 rebounds, 1.0 blocks and a PIR of 8.1. His 2.1 offensive rebounds per game ranked 13th overall, but on a per-minute basis (5.1) he was tied for sixth. 

Kratzer was solid under the boards when it mattered most, averaging 6.5 rebounds in the semifinals against London Lions and 5.0 points in the finals against Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse. The man in the middle got the job done!

One of the three players who started every EuroCup game for Paris had a unique role on the title team.

Tribute to the champs: Leon Kratzer

Paris Basketball's elder statesman was everything his team needed on and off the court.

Tribute to the Champs: Bandja Sy

No player wants to hear he is the oldest member of the team, but [Bandja Sy](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/en/eurocup/players/bandja-sy/005793/) handled that role with purpose. In a young club, and on a team packed with players who were either playing their first BKT EuroCup season or were teenagers just recently – or both – Sy was brought in last summer for his much-needed experience.

Sy played that role just as head coach Tuomas Iisalo had hoped, but no mistake, he did all the work on the floor, too.

At 33 years of age and in his seventh season in the competition, Sy finished with personal-high totals in just about every statistical category. In nine starts among his 22 appearances, and despite averaging just 19 minutes per game, Sy set his personal EuroCup career marks in points (132), three-pointers made (19), two-pointers made (30), free throw made (15), rebounds (59), assists (16), steals (14) and PIR (170).

At 33 years of age, and his seventh season in the competition, Bandja Sy finished the season with personal-high totals in just about every statistical category. In 22 appearances, nine as a starter, an averaging jut hort of 19 minutes per game, Sy set career marks in points (132), three-pointers made (19), two-pointers made (30), free throw made (15), rebounds (59), assists (16), steals (14) and PIR (170).

What's more, Sy was an instrumental part of Paris's early-season success. A brand new team that was building chemistry, with players getting acquainted with the competition, Sy had several performances that helped the team start the season unbeaten through seven games.

He had 10 points on 4-for-4 shooting in a 75-81 road win at Umana Reyer Venice. Then Sy posted 11 points on 5-for-5 shooting plus 6 rebounds, 3 steals and a block in a 102-106 overtime road win over London Lions, finishing with a PIR of 21, just 2 shy of his career high. Sy also shined as Paris drubbed Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv in Round 6, scoring 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting along with 5 rebounds and 2 assists in a 114-87 victory. Sy had five double-figure scoring games this season, and finished averaging 6.0 points, 2.7 rebounds and 7.7 PIR.

He also finished the season as a deserving BKT EuroCup champion.

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[Justin Simon](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/en/eurocup/players/justin-simon/011232/) had quite the experience with Paris Basketball in his debut BKT EuroCup season. After joining the club in early December as an injury replacement for Sebastian Herrera, the 27-year-old played in 14 games and never tasted defeat as he went on to become a EuroCup champion.

Simon made a good impression on his EuroCup debut, finishing with 8 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals in a 79-110 win at Wolves Vilnius in Round 10, before building on those numbers with 10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal in a 100-70 victory against Umana Reyer Venice and 8 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals in a 120-91 triumph over Veolia Towers Hamburg. Three games, three wins and three times reaching the century mark in points. It was a sign of things to come.

The best plays of Paris Basketball guard Justin Simon in the 2023-24 BKT EuroCup season.

Justin Simon's top EuroCup plays

Always coming off the bench, Simon’s impact continued in the remainder of the regular season, ending with averages of 6.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.9 steals and a 9.0 PIR across nine games. Then, following a solid display in the quarterfinal win against Joventut Badalona, amassing 4 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals in almost 29 minutes on the floor, Simon really came to the fore in the semifinals against the London Lions. In Game 1, he posted 10 points, 6 rebounds and 1 steal in a 99-86 win, then recorded 11 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists in an 85-93 closeout win in the English capital in Game 2.

Simon never took a back seat in the EuroCup Finals against Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse, despite playing just 16:21 minutes in Game 2, as he finished the series with averages of 8.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 1.5 steals and a 9.5 PIR. Paris’s star guard pairing of TJ Shorts and Nadir Hifi earned headlines right across the continent, but the shooting guard was always on hand to come in and offer something positive from the bench. As such, even though he didn’t play the full season, we can say with confidence that Simon is a deserving EuroCup champion.

The Paris Basketball head coach, and newly crowned EuroCup champion, sat down with Javier Gancedo

A journey inside the mind of Tuomas Iisalo

There is not a coach in European basketball who is a hotter property than Paris Basketball boss Tuomas Iisalo.

After leading Telekom Baskets Bonn to the Basketball Champions League title in 2022-23, the Finnish tactician brought his talents to the French capital and secured another continental crown, this time the BKT EuroCup. The 41-year-old has already achieved history, but if he were to do the unthinkable and lift the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague next season, it would be an unprecedented success.

Perhaps that is getting a bit ahead of ourselves, but with Iisalo, you never know. What is certain is that his coaching career is – and has been – on an upwards trajectory for quite a while now and he will be a valuable addition to next year’s EuroLeague.

Paris wowed fans across the continent by breaking records, notching win after win and blowing teams away with its offense, but Iisalo’s journey has been on a long time in the making.

"I started coaching in the sixth grade. I was 11 years old I think,” he tells Javier Gancedo of [EuroCupBasketball.net](http://EuroCupBasketball.net). “I had a stress-related knee injury and at that point in time, in the middle of the ‘90s or early ‘90s, the cure was six months of no sports. This was a huge blow, obviously.

“Luckily, there was a junior coach in our club who asked me to go and work as an assistant coach with the younger kids. And ever since then, there's been maybe one or two seasons that I haven't been involved in coaching, but it started back then. Now, 30 years have passed.”

"I started coaching in the sixth grade. I was 11 years old I think."

As an inquisitive teenager, Iisalo wanted to do everything in his powers to become the best basketball player that he could be. Little did he know back then, but all that time studying some legends of the game would end up helping him further down the line.

“I think the big change for me was in upper high school when I was around 15. I was in a small town of 7,000 people and just trying to find ways to get better as a player,” he explains. “Amazon was founded back then so you could start ordering books and I soon started ordering a lot of coaching books and VHS cassettes from the Duke team with Mike Dunleavy, Jay Williams, Carlos Boozer. I watched a lot of those games.

“My brother and I, we would spend every day working on our jump shots, watching the best shooters in the NBA – Reggie Miller losing the players on off-ball screens, how he would use his hands to create the openings, how he would read those screens; Allan Houston, I would watch \[his clips\] on a frame by frame with a VHS and then try to go to the backyard to emulate his shooting form.

“Then I was coaching my brother's team and at some point on [NBA.com](http://NBA.com), they would always feature a playbook from one of the teams. And we actually took some plays when my brother was like 13 from the Utah Jazz. It is a funny thing to laugh about right now. But the kids were excited and there was some structure.”

Even before his playing days came to an end, Iisalo was trying to put what he had learnt into practice. That involved setting up an academy, which started to bear fruit not long after, while one of the main people involved in that project ended up joining Iisalo in Paris.

“At one point, I think when I was 23 or 24, I moved back to Kouvola \[in Finland\],” he says. “I actually made a pitch to the club that, ‘Hey, I would like to, with another guy, take over the junior department.’ At the same time, I was playing professionally, I was the captain of the team at that point and had just made it to the national team.

“But what if I would also start to run these high-school practices and we build up an academy? And we did. It was really nice. One of the players that went through that was Matti Nuutinen, who had a nice national team career. There was also the player development group that Harri Mannonen ran in Kouvola which produced Tuomas Hirvonen, a very, very good player, as well as Alexander Madsen, who's playing for Andorra right now.

“I was in a good place in Kouvola. And really, I had the best of luck in meeting my mentor there, Harri Mannonen, who 20 years ago or almost 25 years ago was so far ahead of his time that people didn't understand. But it gave me that impulse that, ‘Wait, you can do it this way?’ This is amazing. It's not about how serious you are about this craft, it's about how much time you have to invest. Harri is working for us right now in Paris Basketball. He's basically mentoring all of our coaches and providing feedback about everything.”

A lot of Iisalo’s success has ultimately come down to hard work. Having finished his career as a 31-year-old in 2014, he had already completed all his coaching badges and was able to start work, getting his first job almost immediately with Tapiolan Honka in the Finnish first division.

“You can dream about things, but it was never something that I thought was going to lead to something like this,” Iisalo notes. “Through luck and through effort, it's taken me this far. It was a very active process from my side.

“I can say that I spent 15 to 20 hours every week just studying and coaching by myself. I wasn't in any university or any program. I just did it first to try to improve as a player, to try to understand what can make me a better player. It wasn’t always successful, but I always learned something.

“The more you invest in something, the harder it is to give that up. But I was very proactive in this way. And I think that's also a part of the reason why I think differently about the game. My inputs were very different. And that's why also the output, which is how our team plays, is also different from maybe many other programs.”

“You can dream about things, but it was never something that I thought was going to lead to something like this.”

It hasn’t all been butterflies and rainbows, though. Iisalo suffered a difficult first season at Honka and spent the beginning of the following campaign coaching the club’s junior B team. Then came a call from Crailsheim Merlins, who were fighting to stay alive in the German top flight. It was a challenge, but one Iisalo was more than willing to accept.

“When I went there, there were only 10 games left. I learned a lot during this time,” he comments. “I learned that a human being needs sleep and food. I learned this because I literally worked 16-hour days. At that point, I really couldn't sleep.

“I came in as a complete novice from Finland and I was telling myself, ‘Don't f\*ck this up.’ Not because of a lack of effort. You're never going to be ready for this, so you might as well do \[your best\] right now. I did everything I could. It wasn't enough. But after that experience, I learned a lot. The next season, we were successful in Crailsheim in the second league, but we couldn't manage to move up. But the next year, we did move up.”

Having suffered relegation with Crailsheim before bringing them back up at the second time of asking, the Finnish head coach was starting to feel the heat as the pressure started to mount during a tricky season back in the top tier. But, as he alludes to, it ended up helping him big time in the long term.

“Seba \[Herrera, Paris’s all-action forward\] was with me for the second year and it was a very, very difficult season,” Iisalo recalls. “I learned a lot but almost paid a very high price by losing my job because of the results. And that's obviously a reality that every coach has to go through at some point.

“I was lucky enough to keep my job mid-season and we turned around our process to a much more demanding direction. It was a part of my personal growth. At some point, we developed a very good methodology for teaching our system and getting the players to understand what we want in certain situations.

“When I started out as a coach, I was using a collection of drills, exercises and sets from my previous coaches or seeing this at a clinic or this team did this, but it was not very coherent. It was not a logical combination. And then you develop the tools, you develop the methodology.”

"I developed a very fearless attitude in my opinion where I made decisions that were not viewed as popular from the outside."

All coaches have their own idols and people who they have drawn ideas from, and that’s also true of Iisalo. In particular, two Spanish coaches had a way of seeing basketball that caused plenty of intrigue for the 41-year-old, one of whom is a former EuroCup champion and the other a former EuroCup Coach of the Year.

“I learned a lot from coaches like Aito Garcia, who was coaching at ALBA Berlin, because we always lost to them by 30-40 points and I was like, ‘How is this possible?’ I have to learn what he does,” Iisalo recalls. “For example, I would watch his YouTube clinics in Spanish – you couldn’t get subtitles in those. I would write into Google Translate what I thought he was saying and translate those. Then a whole new world opened up for me because it was a very different type of way to organize basketball in your mind than the one I had grown up with, like maybe the Balkan school or the American type of approach.

“The second one who helped a lot in that was Pedro Martinez, who also had great clinics online and would outline the drills to work on for specific concepts and always talked about doing the basic things at a high level – that is the key. I really took that to heart and we developed a nice methodology.”

However, the thing that really provided the biggest change in Iisalo’s coaching journey came during the 2018-19 season, when Crailsheim just survived relegation by the skin of their teeth. For Iisalo, he knew that he never wanted to be in that situation again and thus looked to increase the standards to an even higher level.

“I didn’t want to be the weak link,” he recalls. “At that point I developed much thicker skin. I developed a very fearless attitude in my opinion where I made decisions that were not viewed as popular from the outside or were met with questions, such as taking players from smaller leagues. But I was like, ‘We see something in this and we are the ones who have to make these decisions.’

“You cannot take decisions through fear. You have to make them through your intuition and through the information that you've gathered. This was when the results really changed. After this we won 75-80% of all of our games, first in Crailsheim and then in Bonn. That number went up and now in Paris, obviously in the EuroCup, it’s been extremely high. That was a big personal change during this because I was able to finally, five years after I had retired as a player, kind of kill the player inside me and become a real coach. After that, it's been a very different experience.”

The undisputed star of the 2023-24 BKT EuroCup season dishes on winning the crown and what a special campaign it was

TJ Shorts, Paris: 'We were built for this'

The 2023-24 BKT EuroCup season is over and one player stood above everyone else in leading Paris Basketball to its first-ever European title. Playmaker [TJ Shorts](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/en/eurocup/players/tj-shorts/012608/) dominated the competition like no one before. He became the first player in EuroCup history to earn quarterfinals, semifinals, finals and season MVP honors. He led the competition in PIR (23.2), assists (7.4 apg.) and two-point shots made (5.8), ranked second in scoring (17.8 ppg.) and third in steals (2.0 spg.). Shorts averaged 18.5 points and a PIR of 24.0 in the finals against Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse. No other player on either team averaged more than 12.5 points or a higher PIR than 15.5. Shorts said he believes that though his leadership was obvious, the whole team and its hard work allowed Paris to be so strong all season long. "We have a group of guys that are experienced in championship games, and I think that helped us carry this," Shorts told Javier Gancedo of [EuroCupBasketball.com](http://EuroCupBasketball.com) in front of the locker room door right after the finals. "And there wasn't one guy that helped us win this championship. It was a collective effort, and this is just amazing."

#### Congratulations on winning the EuroCup and being named MVP of the Finals. What does it mean for you after such a long season?

"Thank you, thank you. This is what we worked for all year, to finish with the trophy is just the icing on the cake. It has been an incredible season, one loss in the competition. It has been a lot of work since we got here in August and I am just grateful for everybody that has contributed to this championship, from the coaches, the players, the people behind doors, in the offices. Everybody that contributed is great."

"I am just grateful for everybody that has contributed to this championship, from the coaches, the players, the people behind doors, in the offices."

#### Going back to Game 1 of the finals, you had a great start, and that was the key to the game. What allowed you to play so well right away?

"We were built for this. We practice way harder than the way we play. We have seen this before. We have a group of guys that are experienced in championship games and I think that helped us carry this. And there wasn't one guy that helped us win this championship. It was a collective effort, and this is just amazing."

#### Bourg had a great effort in Game 2 but you prevailed with a great fourth quarter. How did you feel on the court? 

"We knew it was going to be tough. They have a great crowd here. It was hostile, they were whistling at us. This is what we expected. But we knew if we took that first initial punch and set the tone, we would be able to close out the game. And that's what we did."

Paris Basketball star playmaker TJ Shorts averaged 18.5 points and a PIR of 24.0 in the finals against Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse.

2023-24 EuroCup Finals highlights: TJ Shorts, Paris

#### You congratulated all the Bourg players, one by one, before the trophy ceremony. How important was it for you to show that respect? 

"At the end of the day, you have to look at people man to man, eye to eye. Every single guy on that court went to battle, and there are no hard feelings. So you have to dap up everybody: win, lose or draw. It is respect between the players, and that's what basketball is about, bringing people together."

#### You started your career in Ventspils. Four years later, you have won two European competitions with different teams, earning MVP honors everywhere. How great is that? 

"It is amazing. This is a run, and I'm still on it. This marathon continues, and this is just another point in my career where I'm going to take a level up and a step in the right direction. To come from Ventspils, to come from college, junior college, where nobody believed in me, to now, this is an incredible feeling and this is something that I would not take for granted at all."

#### How does it feel to play for a coach who understands you so well?

"It's amazing when you have a coach that believes in you. This is just incredible. And I mean, I'm thankful for him, for believing in me. I'm thankful for him giving me the reins. It is great."

The interview was interrupted when TJ was called back to the locker room for Coach Iisalo's victory speech. He returned covered in champagne, wearing protective goggles and with the EuroCup Trophy in his hands.

"I'm thankful for Coach Iisalo for believing in me. I'm thankful for him giving me the reins."

#### You have now qualified for the EuroLeague next season. What does it mean for you and the city of Paris?

"It's everything! Everybody is working to get to the highest level, which is EuroLeague, and for us to be able to punch our ticket is huge. Obviously, this is something that is in the future. We won't really worry about it now. The only thing is finishing the season. And when that time comes, we will be prepared."

#### You are creating a basketball culture in Paris. A lot of people have tried before you without much success. How important is that?

"That is the goal. When we first arrived here the goal was to create something special. And I think this is a great step in the right direction. I just hope that there is more winning in the future because that is the only thing that matters."

#### Finally, how are you going to celebrate this?

"I don't want to say it, but drinks and days off..."

Shorts was at that moment cut off by Coach Iisalo, who laughingly yelled: "Days off!?!?! There is a 4 p.m. recovery practice!"

Shorts then concluded the interview by saying: "Make sure you emphasize the days off. Because days off are coming!"

Mikael Jantunen, Paris: 'We clearly deserved to win'

EuroCup champions! It's still an unbelievable feeling. It was, for sure, one of the main goals for the season that we set out as a team. We just went out and did it through the hard work we put in and I also think we clearly deserved to win the competition. We had a great season. I think I said it earlier already, it goes back to the way we started working from the first day, and that as a group, we knew what we wanted to achieve. It was always on our mind and we worked for it really hard.

We had a strong start to Game 1 of the finals. Of course, we were super locked in and focused. We were really set up to go out there and deliver the first punch, from the tip-off. And that's exactly what we did! We came out playing great basketball with high intensity. It all started with our defense. We were super, super locked in and we were on the same page as a team the whole first half. Our coaches got us well-prepared and we knew exactly what we were supposed to do.

"My first memory is being at the bottom of the pile, just yelling with everybody else from the team."

Of course, it was a different setup going into Game 2. It was an away game with the home team with its back against the wall. We knew Bourg was going to come out and be ready to play and that it wasn't going to be anything like the first game. And of course, it was different. We knew it was going to be a battle, a long battle, and we had to work for it all 40 minutes, to give it everything we had. We knew that going in and a lot of credit goes to Bourg. They played a great game at home and their fans were amazing. It was a great atmosphere for the whole game. It was a battle.

In Game 2, we got some stops and hit some big shots early in the fourth quarter. I got wide-open shots because my teammates found me. And then the last three was Tyson \[Ward\] on the fast break, the way we want to play, fast-paced. TJ \[Shorts\] found him in the corner. Hey, it's just the way we play! We just got to keep it going and at some point, we are going to get our chance to make a run and we for sure used it. And it was a crucial time in the game and we were ready to use the moment when it came to us.

<center>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/ParisBasketball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ParisBasketball</a> are champions, absolute jubilation as <a href="https://twitter.com/TjShorts5?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TjShorts5</a> collapses to the ground, what a season, what an achievement! <a href="https://t.co/nIK5hCmJMH">pic.twitter.com/nIK5hCmJMH</a></p>&mdash; BKT EuroCup (@EuroCup) <a href="https://twitter.com/EuroCup/status/1778878790417989655?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 12, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I don't remember much of the on-court celebration, but I remember being at the bottom of the pile with TJ and Nadir. It's not blurry, but there were just a lot of emotions. We are a very, very happy group of people, the feeling is kind of hard to describe at the same time because it still takes some days, maybe months to figure out how we actually felt. But my first memory is being at the bottom of the pile, just yelling with everybody else from the team. That's the main thing I can remember from the on court celebrations.

Mikael Jantunen of Paris Basketball became the third Finnish player to win the competition, after Hanno Mottola and Petteri Koponen.

2023-24 EuroCup Finals highlights: Mikael Jantunen, Paris

We all went to the press conference room to throw water on TJ and Coach Iisalo. I have no idea whose idea was! I remember Nadir was excited about it, so maybe Nadir had something to do with it. He was pushing for it, but everybody just grabbed some water and we were waiting for him. Coach went to speak for a little bit and then it was go-time. It wasn't that much, I think Nadir got a little bit of his startup, but then the whole team was ready for it though. I heard Tyson asked TK about his 2K skills during the press conference. I didn't hear the question. I try to stay away from their 2K talk, it usually causes a lot of arguments and disagreements. So I take a step back from their 2K playing.

After the game, we stayed in Bourg. We went to the hotel and were told that our families and friends were there. We had dinner and just enjoyed the night in Bourg. The next day we took a train to Paris, had some rest and after that, we met at the town hall of the 18th area in Paris, where our fans showed up. It was nice, and close how you usually celebrate a championship, or that's what I think it is. I haven't won too many yet, but it was nice. We celebrated with the people who did it: the staff, the team members and their families. We just enjoyed our time and their company. 

"We still have some unfinished business for the season."

It's great to see people in Paris so excited about basketball and the change from the beginning of the season until now. A lot has to do with the fans and I want to thank them for supporting us on a daily basis. We have worked hard to get the fans into the game. For that, you need to win and play entertaining basketball. You have to achieve stuff to get people interested, and I think the team has done it so far this year. People are interested in seeing us play and that's what gets the fans going. The fans make sure the gym is loud and when you go to a place like that with that atmosphere, it's a good experience and you usually want to come back. And that's how fans might find their way back to the gym. Hopefully, our fan base will still grow from this.

It's been a lot of celebrating but also a lot of recovering. We still have some unfinished business for the season. We have a couple of regular season games left before the French League playoffs and then we are going to go for a third trophy. It is going to be a super hard challenge with a lot of good teams in the French League, but it's exciting. We don't know too much about next season yet but of course, playing in the EuroLeague has been a personal goal of mine. I am excited for opportunities like that to come forward. And then also some national team action in the summer, so it's going to be a very exciting spring-summer, getting ready for next year.

EuroCup Fantasy Challenge: 2023-24 full season winners!

Congratulations to Lukasz Lisowski of Poland on winning the [2023-24 BKT EuroCup Fantasy Challeng](https://eurocupfantasy.euroleaguebasketball.net/en/home)e! Lukasz finished atop the pack with his team Lisorze, which tallied 4,329.65 fantasy points. As our overall winner, Lukasz has won two VIP tickets to the 2025 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four, as well as a EuroCup jersey of his choice, a EuroCup official Spalding basketball and a EuroLeague TV Subscription for the 2024-25 season to follow all games live or on-demand!

Clement Plassard was second overall with 4,325.00 fantasy points, followed by Ruslanas Latonas (4,300.00), Uros Kostic (4,286.90) and Arale Weisberg (4,265.00). In addition, Francesco Caputo Ricardo won the lottery among Rounds Winners, which was exclusive to the 25 participants who were round champions throughout the season. Francesco's team Gli Inarrestabili, the Round 16 winner, won two tickets to the 2025 Final Four and a EuroLeague TV Subscription for the 2024-25 Season!

Here is a list of winners and their respective prizes:

 

#### 2023-24 BKT EuroCup season WINNER

**Lisorze - Lukasz Lisowski, Poland**

 

\-   2x VIP Tickets to the 2025 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four

 -   1x EuroCup jersey of winner’s choice

 -   1x EuroCup official Spalding basketball

 -   1x VIP EuroLeague TV Subscription for the 2024-25 Season

 

#### 2023-24 BKT EuroCup season, second place

**Plassboub - Clement Plassard, France**

 

\-   10x Regular Season Game tickets for the 2024-25 Season of winner’s choice (following availability)

 -   1x VIP EuroLeague TV Subscription for the 2024-25 Season

 -   1x EuroCup jersey of winner’s choice

 -   1x EuroCup official Spalding basketball

 

#### 2023-24 BKT EuroCup season, third place

**Black-Green Bulls - Ruslanas Latonas, Lithuania**

 

\-   8x Regular Season Game tickets for the 2024-25 Season of winner’s choice (following availability)

 -   1x VIP EuroLeague TV Subscription for the 2024-25 Season

 -   1x EuroCup jersey of winner’s choice

 -   1x EuroCup official Spalding basketball

 

#### 2023-24 BKT EuroCup season, fourth place

**GargamelFalkao - Uros Kostic, Serbia**

 

\-   6x Regular Season Game tickets for the 2024-25 Season of winner’s choice (following availability)

 -   1x VIP EuroLeague TV Subscription for the 2024-25 Season

 -   1x EuroCup jersey of winner’s choice

 

#### 2023-24 BKT EuroCup season, fifth place

**Kattasheffer - Arale Weisberg, Israel**

 

\-   4x Regular Season Game tickets for the 2024-25 Season of winner’s choice (following availability)

 -   1x VIP EuroLeague TV Subscription for the 2024-25 Season

 -   1x EuroCup jersey of winner’s choice

 

#### Rounds Winners Lottery (lottery only exclusive to round winners, 25 participants)

**Gli Inarrestabili - Francesco Caputo Ricardo, Italy (Regular Season Round 16 winner)**

 

\-   1x VIP EuroLeague TV Subscription for the 2024-25 Season

 -   Automatic entry to a lottery to win 2x Tickets to the 2025 Final Four (lottery only exclusive to round winners – 18 participants)

 

#### 1st Place in Full Season Fantasy Clash Quiz

**Aivaras Rastauskas, Lithuania**

 

\-   4x Regular Season Game tickets for the 2024-25 Season of winner’s choice (following availability)