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It was Easter 2002 …
Zeljko Obradovic’s Panathinaikos would win the 3rd European Championship in its history, even being the stranger to the institution! Kinder Bologna, Maccabi Tel Aviv (even) Benetton Treviso were considered the favorites and the “greens” were the last wheel of the car. At least … theoretically because in practice the astute Obradovic wanted to “skewer” the Italians’ ambitions, on Easter!
He first had to cross the Maccabi hurdle on Good Friday, wanting revenge for the loss at “Bersi” last year in the context of … Super League! With Dejan Bodiroga in a good mood, the “greens” prevailed with 89-83 and the Serbian star with 26 points with 6/11 two points, 2/2 three points and 9 rebounds. The finalist was a strong opponent of the -then- and trophy, Kinder Bologna by Manu Ginobili.
Not many people were very lucky in the “Palamalaguti” final against the hosts. So the … big media spoke. Zeljko Obradovic was constantly drawing aces from his sleeves and with successive “tricks” placed Ettore Messina on the wall. How to use the Bodiroga game point guard for 10 “in attack and then” four “. Like the appearance of the novice in Panathinaikos Lazarou Papadopoulos who made a “pill” for … very Griffith. As in the persistence of pick n roll attacks and even in the pre … Diamantidis-Batist era. Ibrahim Koutlouai’s triple to 49 ” before the end gave Kinder the free kick and at the same time gave Panathinaikos the victory (89-83) and the third star in his collection.
* Of course, the Bologna Final 4 attack belonged to Zeljko Obradovic! “In my coaching career, I have won trophies with multiple players and now, to be honest, I wanted to win one with Lazo.” Who knows, next year I might have the idea of getting another one, this time with … Svoronos (the young man on the Panathinaikos list).
* Only Middleton and Rogers had single rooms at the hotel, while the other “couples” were Bodiroga-Koutlouai, Albertis-Balogiannis, Kalaitzis-Moulaomerovic, Sanchez-Albano, Sioutis-Papadopoulos-Giannou.
* The late Pavlos Giannakopoulos said before the final that he had taken half a pill to be calm and avoid emotional outbursts! In fact, at half time it turned out to be a fact, since those who had approached him to speak to him were really very calm!
* On the day of the final, the late Thanasis Giannakopoulos wanted to take a walk through Florence, but bad weather ruined his plans and kept him in Bologna.
* On the eve of the final, which was Holy Saturday, the Greeks held … Resurrection in the church of Agios Dimitrios in Bologna.
* Incredible attack from then team keeper Antonis Gerontitis, who had said before the final: “Who is Ginobili and who is Otomobili? Who are Jaric and Jarny? We will push them down!”
* The trick of Final 4 was that the organizers had prepared … red jerseys for the Panathinaikos champions and players, they didn’t even … touch them!
The end
PANATHINAIKOS-KINTER 89-83
PANATHINAIKOS (Z. Obradovic): Mulaomerovic 6, Koutlouai 22 (3 / 5d., 4 / 7tr., 4 / 6b., 5r.), Bodiroga 21 (7 / 12d., 1 / 2tr., 4 / 4b., 7r., 4as., 1kl ., 2l.), Albertis 11 (3 / 4d., 1 / 3tr., 2 / 2b., 3r., 3kl.), Middleton 10 (2 / 4d., 6 / 8b.), Kalaitzis, Rogers 7, Papadopoulos 12 (4 / 7d., 4 / 4b., 5r., 3l.), Sánchez.
KINDER (Ed. Messina): Jaric 11 (4 / 7d., 0 / 5tr., 3 / 8b., 5r., 5as., 3kl., 2l.), Ginobili 27 (3 / 5d., 3 / 5tr., 12 / 13b., 5r ., 2as., 3kl., 3l.), Rigondo 3, Smontis 23 (6 / 7d., 2 / 4tr., 5 / 7b., 6r., 2kl., 2l.), Griffith 2, Betsirovic 4, Andersen 3, Granger 10 (2 / 2d., 2 / 4tr., 0 / 2b.), Frosini 8.
Referees: Betancourt (Spain), Arteaga (Spain), Brazauskas (Lithuania)
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