Here are some facts about first-time Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champions Anadolu Efes Istanbul!
Facts of the Champions: Anadolu Efes Istanbul
...Anadolu Efes Istanbul has won its first EuroLeague championship! It is the second Turkish team to win the competition – Fenerbahce Istanbul lifted the trophy in 2017.
...head coach Ergin Ataman and all Efes players are new EuroLeague champions, too! It is the first time that a team, a coach and all of its players are new EuroLeague champions since Zalgiris Kaunas in 1999!
...Coach Ataman has won his fourth different continental title! He won the Saporta Cup with Montepaschi Siena in 2002, the EuroChallenge with Besiktas Istanbul in 2012, and the 7DAYS EuroCup with Galatasaray Istanbul in 2015. Only two coaches had previously won four different European competitions: Dusan Ivkovic (EuroLeague, EuroCup, Saporta, Korac) and Aito Garcia Reneses (EuroCup, Saporta, Korac, EuroChallenge).
...Coach Ataman became the third coach to win European competitions with four different teams! He won titles with Siena, Besiktas and Galatasaray. Zeljko Obradovic has won European titles with six different teams: Partizan Belgrade, Joventut Badalona, Benetton Treviso, Real Madrid, Panathinaikos Athens, and Fenerbahce. Ivkovic (Partizan, AEK Athens, Olympiacos Piraeus, Dynamo Moscow) and Bozidar Maljkovic (Split, Limoges, Panathinaikos, Unicaja Malaga) have also won with four teams apiece.
...Coach Ataman is the third coach to win the EuroLeague and EuroCup titles? Only Ivkovic (Olympiacos 1997, 2012; Dynamo Moscow 2006) and David Blatt (Maccabi 2014, Darussafaka 2018) did it before him.
...Rodrigue Beaubois has become the first French player to win the EuroLeague and NBA titles! He won the NBA title with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011!
...Tibor Pleiss has become the first German player to win the EuroLeague in nearly two decades? Only three German players had won the EuroLeague title before Pleiss - Christian Welp with Olympiacos in 1997, Michael Koch with Panathinaikos in 2000 and Patrick Femerling in 2003.