The 30-year-old became a EuroLeague champion for the first time in Abu Dhabi
Marko Guduric gets his hands on the EuroLeague trophy at last
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When Marko Guduric signed for Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul in the summer of 2017, he must have thought that a Turkish Airlines EuroLeague championship would be imminent.
Fenerbahce, then coached by Zeljko Obradovic, had just become the first Turkish team to secure European basketball’s crown and Guduric, aged 22 entering the season, had big ambitions.
In the Serbian guard’s first campaign at the club, Fenerbahce returned to the 2018 EuroLeague Championship Game, but it was the Luka Doncic-led Real Madrid which ended up lifting the title.
Guduric went scoreless in 11 minutes in the semifinal against Zalgiris Kaunas, then posted a goose egg in over 9 minutes in the title decider against Madrid. For him personally, it was a first Final Four to forget.
One year later, Fenerbahce made it to its fifth straight Final Four, but Guduric and his teammates could not get past Anadolu Efes Istanbul in the semifinals. He did enjoy a far bigger role this time around, though, playing 29 minutes against Efes and pairing 8 points with 6 assists, then 28 minutes in the third-place game as he finished with 11 points against Madrid.
That third-place game proved to be his final appearance for Fenerbahce – or so it seemed – as Guduric went stateside by signing a multi-year contract with the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA in the summer of 2019. But a year and a half later, he was back in the EuroLeague and suiting up for Fenerbahce.
The passionate Fenerbahce fans had to wait five years between Final Four appearances as the team returned to European basketball’s showpiece event in 2024, yet it was a similar story to 2019 as it struggled to get over the hump. This season, that changed.
Fenerbahce swept its playoff series against Paris Basketball with Guduric averaging 13.5 points in Games 2 and 3, then he had a discreet performance in the semifinal triumph over reigning champion Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens, but there was a story behind that.
“Three or four days before the Final Four, I had this hip injury,” Guduric told Eurohoops post-Final Four. “There was a lot of medication.”
In the championship game, Guduric had his crowning moment. Now in his seventh season with Fenerbahce, the Serbia international put his physical pain to one side and played a near-perfect game against AS Monaco.
In almost 29 minutes on the floor – double what he could manage in the semifinals – he recorded 19 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals and zero turnovers. His sidestep three-pointer with 1:05 to go will be remembered for years to come, too, as it restored Fenerbahce’s double-digit advantage and effectively put the win on ice.
“This is the one. This is the one I’ve been waiting my whole career [for], working for,” Guduric told EuroLeague TV’s Martin Henlan after the final buzzer. “It’s hard to really say something right now. Just proud, happy.”
But in typical Guduric fashion, he didn’t want to receive any personal praise. For him, the team always comes first.
“It’s all about the team. It’s all about the team,” he reiterated. “All these guys, we are really a team and I emphasize that word all the time. This is a team win.
“I’m very happy, very proud. All glory to God.”
It might’ve taken a little longer than Guduric might have planned, but he is a EuroLeague champion... at last.