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Highlights from the Opening Press Conference

Highlights from the Opening Press Conference

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22 May 20253 Mins read

Frankie Sachs

Euroleague.net

Highlights from the Opening Press Conference

With what is traditionally considered the opening act of the greatest weekend in basketball, the 2025 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four opened its doors on Thursday morning. The Louvre Abu Dhabi hosted the Opening Press Conference, which for the first time included a red carpet event with Shani Blatt and Deniz Aksoy, plus a pair of very informative panel conversations about the history and future of the league with Olivia Harlan Dekker serving as the moderator.

The first panel was made up of executives. Euroleague Basketball CEO Paulius Motiejunas showed great confidence in the competition: "Every game matters is not just a slogan. If you are not a fan and turn on a TV, you get sucked into it. If we keep this, we can go for another 250 years."

Motiejunas was joined by Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul general manager Maurizio Gheradini and his FC Bayern Munich counterpart Marko Pesic.

Gheradini agreed with Motiejunas's optimism regarding the future and said: "The EuroLeague as a product has history, an incredible fan base… We have whatever is needed to grow."

The second panel consisted of three members of the All-25 EuroLeague team – Kyle Hines, Nando De Colo and Dejan Bodiroga – and nine-time champion coach Zeljko Obradovic. There was some levity during the conversation with Hines, who retired just last season, claiming that he was "trying to see if I can get a weekend contract to play at this Final Four!" He doubled down and added, "Yeah, I’m ready."

Obradovic, who is the coach of Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade, asked if he could count this visit to Abu Dhabi on his résumé as a Final Four appearance. The coach then spoke of the difference in the league from today and in its early years, noting that today teams play more games and practice less, which the players prefer.

"My players in Belgrade are happy today because I am not there," Obradovic joked.

"My experience as a player taught me what makes European basketball special: intensity in every game, passionate fans and a unique club culture that cannot be copied anywhere else in the world," said Bodiroga, who serves as the Euroleague Basketball President.

"We have to protect what makes us special. We are strong, have the most passionate fans, the most competitive games, tradition... I think we need to keep this. Maybe what we need to change is the ability to share this unique product with the world."

Then the Opening Press Conference began with coach Sarunas Jasikevicius and Nigel Hayes-Davis representing Fenerbahce, coach Ergin Ataman and EuroLeague MVP Kendrick Nunn for Panathinaikos, coach Georgios Bartzokas and Sasha Vezenkov for Olympiacos, and coach Vassilis Spanoulis and Mike James for Monaco.

Among the laughs at the event were Hayes-Davis explaining why Jasikevicius is such a great coach by saying "He’s so good at yelling at you" and Spanoulis joking about who his kids will support at the Final Four.