Recalling times when the heavy favorites did not leave the Final Four with a trophy
A chronology of Final Four upsets
Artículo
5 Min lectura
Real Madrid entered the 2024 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Championship Game with a 31-7 record. However, Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens won the crown, upsetting Real 80-95 to claim the seventh star on its jersey. Let's take a look back at some of the biggest Final Four upsets in the 21st century, in chronological order.
Obradovic makes it happen
Back in 2002, Kinder Bologna - now Virtus Segafredo Bologna - was the heavy favorite for many reasons. It was the competition's original champion, hosted the Final Four and had an all-around strong team led by Manu Ginobili, Marko Jaric, Sani Becirovic and Matjaz Smodis.
Panathinaikos had other ideas and head coach Zeljko Obradovic offered a master class, running his offense through backup center Lazaros Papadopoulos to rally from a 14-point deficit and make it a close game. Then Dejan Bodiroga and Ibrahim Kutluay stepped up to lead the Greens to an 83-89 win. To this date, Panathinaikos remains the only team to win a championship game on its opponent's home court.
The biggest upset
CSKA Moscow had an outstanding 2004-05 season, smashing records and reaching the Final Four in the Russian capital with just one loss in 20 games. Led by Theo Papaloukas, J.R. Holden, Marcus Brown and David Andersen, CSKA seemed unstoppable, but a fiesty Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz - then Tau Ceramica - stood in the way.
Arvydas Macijauskas led the way with 23 points, including a game-clinching catch-and-shoot three-pointer for the ages. Jose Manuel Calderon had 13 points and Kornel David tallied 11 with 12 rebounds as Tau won 78-85 in Moscow. It wasn't a happy ending for Tau, which was then defeated by Maccabi in the championship game.
Three-peat interrupted
A year later, Maccabi was looking for a threepeat with most of the same roster that won consecutive EuroLeague titles in 2004 and 2005. Willie Solomon had replaced Sarunas Jasikevicius, but Anthony Parker, Nikola Vujcic, Maceo Baston and Tal Burstein remained with the team.
After leading 51-32 at halftime en route to beating Baskonia 85-70 in the semifinals, everyone expected a third consecutive title at Sazka Arena in Prague, Czechia. Instead, CSKA claimed its first EuroLeague title in 35 years, beating Maccabi 73-69 behind 18 points and a PIR of 28 (one short of his career-high) from 2006 Final Four MVP Theo Papaloukas.
A comeback for the ages
The 2012 EuroLeague championship game seemed to be over. CSKA had put together one of its strongest rosters ever, led by Andrei Kirilenko, Nenad Krstic and Milos Teodosic. It led 53-34 late in the third quarter and held a 59-52 edge with over 3 minutes left.
Kostas Papanikolaou brought his team within 61-60 and the rest is history: former MVP Ramunas Siskauskas missed twice from the line with 9.7 seconds left and then Vassilis Spanoulis found Georgios Printezis for his trademark one-handed floater off the baseline. CSKA did not score on its last possession. Spanoulis scored 15 points and was chosen as the 2012 Final Four MVP as Olympiacos won in come-from-behind fashion!
Not one, but two upsets
Maccabi entered the 2014 Final Four with a 19-9 record, with CSKA Moscow (22-7) and Real Madrid (24-5) as the heavy favorites. In the semifinals, CSKA led 55-40 late in the third quarter and held a 67-63 lead with 19.2 seconds left. David Blu hit a three-pointer, then stole the ball at the other end and fed Tyrese Rice for the game-winning layup.
Two days later, for the first time in 45 years, the championship game between Real and Maccabi went to overtime. Rice scored 14 of his 26 points in overtime to lead Maccabi to an 86-98 victory in front of a sea of yellow fans at the Forum in Milan, Italy. Real had three All-EuroLeague players that season in Rudy Fernandez, Nikola Mirotic and MVP Sergio Rodriguez, and it had beaten FC Barcelona 62-100 in the semifinals... but it was not enough.