Since the round-robin format was introduced in 2016-17, no top overall seed has lifted the EuroLeague Trophy
The first-place curse lives on
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The wind was well and truly in Real Madrid’s sails coming into the 2024 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four. Chus Mateo’s squad had set a new EuroLeague record for wins in the regular season by going 27-7, which saw them wrap up first place in the process, and then swept Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz in the playoffs. It looked like the infamous first-place curse was going to come to an abrupt end.
Even more so after Real managed to beat Olympiacos Piraeus 87-76 in the semifinals, having led the entire game. A shot at back-to-back EuroLeague titles was in play as Los Blancos prepared to take on Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens in the championship game, and things looked good at halftime, with Real leading 54-49. However, the 2023 champion was limited to just 26 second-half points as the Greens flipped the script to come away with an 80-95 triumph.
What that meant is that the first-place curse lives on. You would have to think that if a Real side that looked almost unstoppable all season long couldn’t break the spell, then who can? Ever since the introduction of the current round-robin format in the 2016-17 season, no leader at the end of the regular season has lifted the EuroLeague trophy in late May.
Curiously, the best positions to finish when it comes to winning the EuroLeague have been second, third or fifth, as there have been two winners from each of these spots over the last seven years. Panathinaikos (2023-24) and CSKA Moscow (2018-19) both became the champions after coming second, Real Madrid (2022-23) and Anadolu Efes Istanbul (2020-21) did so after finishing third, and Real (2017-18) and Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul (2016-17) won it all as the fifth seed. In 2021-22, Efes secured its second successive EuroLeague title after being sixth at the end of the regular season.
Leading the standings at the end of the regular season has even had a negative impact on reaching the championship game for a few years, with FC Barcelona becoming the first No. 1 seed to make it to the title decider in 2021. That came after Real (2017), CSKA (2018) and Fenerbahce (2019) lost in the semifinals. Barcelona ended up suffering that fate in 2022, but Olympiacos (2023) and Real (2024) both got to the championship game, before losing.
One would assume that having the best record in the regular season would be the best recipe for winning the EuroLeague title, but as we have seen over the last seven years, sometimes it makes sense to finish second, third... or even fifth or sixth.