Experts agree that experience can be a very important factor in Final Four games. Olympiacos Piraeus and Anadolu Efes Istanbul players have been through many Final Four clashes.
Previous experience: Olympiacos vs. Efes
Olympiacos only has three players with previous Final Four experience, but they combine for 19 Final Four appearances among them. Kostas Sloukas is at his eighth Final Four; only Sergio Llull of Real Madrid has been to that many among this year's teams. Sloukas has a chance to make it to his seventh championship game, which would tie him with Matjaz Smodis and Derrick Sharp for the most in the Final Four era. Georgios Printezis is at his sixth Final Four, all of which have come with the Reds. Kostas Papanikolaou played four Final Fours with Olympiacos and one with FC Barcelona. All three players won back-to-back titles with Olympiacos in 2012 and 2013. Sloukas added his third EuroLeague crown with Fenerbahce Istanbul in 2017.
Related Videos
Efes returns to the Final Four as the reigning champion and is back with 11 players and the head coach who won the competition last season. Efes's 12th player from the 2021 championship game, Sertac Sanli, is now with FC Barcelona. Vasilije Micic, Bryant Dunston, Rodrigue Beaubois, Dogus Balbay, Adrien Moerman, Tibor Pleiss, James Anderson, Krunoslav Simon and Coach Ergin Ataman have been to the last three Final Fours with Efes. Chris Singleton is at his third Final Four, too; his first appearance came with Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar in 2016. Micic and Dunston are in their fourth Final Fours. Micic made his Final Four debut with Zalgiris Kaunas in 2018 and Dunston with Olympiacos in 2015.