The 2019 EuroLeague Final Four was the concluding

EuroLeague Final Four The EuroLeague Final Four is the final four format championship of the European-wide top-tier level EuroLeague professional club basketball competition. The Euroleague Basketball Company used the final four format for the first time in 2002, f ...

tournament of the 2018–19 EuroLeague season, the 62nd season of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

's premier club

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

tournament, and the 19th season since it was first organised by

Euroleague Basketball Euroleague Basketball is the private company that runs and operates the top continental-wide basketball men's professional sports club competitions in Europe, the first-tier level EuroLeague, and the second-tier level EuroCup. It has been org ...

. It was the 32nd Final Four of the modern EuroLeague Final Four era (

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

–present), and the 34th time overall that the competition has concluded with a final four format. The Final Four was played at the

Fernando Buesa Arena Fernando Buesa Arena is an indoor sports arena in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. It is primarily used for basketball and is the home arena of Saski Baskonia. History The history and evolution of this sports enclosure has been closely t ...

Vitoria-Gasteiz es, vitoriano, vitoriana, , population_density_km2 = auto , blank_name_sec1 = Official language(s) , blank_info_sec1 = Spanish, Basque , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Spain, on 17 and 19 May 2019.

Venue

On May 15, 2018,

announced that the Final Four will be held in the

. It was the first time ever the event would be hosted in Vitoria. The arena hosted the 1996

FIBA Saporta Cup The FIBA Saporta Cup was the name of the second-tier level European-wide professional club basketball competition, where the domestic National Cup winners, from all over Europe, played against each other. The competition was organized by FIBA ...

Final, in which local Saski Baskonia won the title and also hosted the

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

EuroCup Finals.Eurocupbasketball.com - An arena that grows with basketball's popularity.
/ref> The Final Eight of the

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footbal ...

(Spanish Cup) was played four times at Buesa Arena (

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

and

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

).Eurocup'96
On 9 April 2012, at the game of

Caja Laboral Caja Laboral Popular Cooperativa de Crédito or Caja Laboral (Workers' Credit Union) was a Spanish credit union established in 1959 as part of the Mondragon Corporation and headquartered in Mondragón, in the Basque Country of Spain. The major ...

against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

, Fernando Buesa Arena registered the record of attendance in a basketball game of the Spanish

Liga ACB The Liga ACB, known as Liga Endesa for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional basketball division of the Spanish basketball league system. Administrated by the Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto (ACB), Liga ACB is contested by 18 teams, wi ...

with 15,504 spectators.

Background

Real Madrid

Real Madrid failed to defend the title after finishing the regular season in the third position, with a 22–8 record, and being the first qualified team by beating Panathinaikos OPAP 3–0 in the playoffs. This was their seventh Final Four in the last nine editions and the third consecutive. Coach

Pablo Laso Pablo Laso Biurrun (born October 13, 1967) is a Spanish professional basketball coach and former player. He was the head coach of Real Madrid for eleven seasons from 2011 to 2022, guiding them to two EuroLeague championships and six Liga ACB ...

could have won his third title in his sixth Final Four appearance.

Bracket

Semifinals

Semifinal A

Turkish champions Fenerbahçe Beko returned to the Final Four to make it their fifth straight appearance. Led by head coach

Željko Obradović Želimir "Željko" Obradović ( sr-cyr, Желимир "Жељко" Обрадовић, ; born 9 March 1960) is a Serbian professional basketball coach and former player who is currently the head coach for KK Partizan, Partizan of the ABA League, ...

, the all-time record holder for most EuroLeague championships won by a head coach, it defeated Žalgiris Kaunas 3–1 in the play-offs, to clinch a semi-final spot.

Anadolu Efes Anadolu Efes Biracılık ve Malt Sanayii A.Ş.''(lit. Anadolu Efes Brewery and Malt Industries)'' produces and markets beer and malt and non-alcoholic beverages in a wide geographical area comprising Turkey, Russia, the Commonwealth of Independe ...

qualified for its first Final Four since 2001, this being their third appearance in total, after finishing the regular season in the 16 th (last) place the previous year. The club beat Barcelona Lassa 3–2 in the play-offs. Larkin set a new EuroLeague Final Four record for

Performance Index Rating Performance Index Rating (PIR) is a basketball mathematical statistical formula that is used by the Euroleague Basketball Company's first and second tier competitions, the EuroLeague and the EuroCup, as well as various European national dom ...

with 43.

Semifinal B

Russian champions

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow (russian: ЦСКА Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was a central piece ...

returned to the Final Four to make it their eighth consecutive Final Four appearance. The club beat Kirolbet Baskonia 3–1 in the play-offs. Defending Euroleague and spanish champions

would play its third consecutive Final Four appearance. The match would be a re-match of the 2018 Semifinal A, which

won on their way to their 10th title.

beat Panathinaikos OPAP 3–0 in the play-offs.

Third place game

Fenerbahçe and Real Madrid faced off in a re-match of the 2018 championship game.

Facundo Campazzo Facundo "Facu" Campazzo Avedano (born 23 March 1991) is an Argentine professional basketball player for Crvena zvezda of the Adriatic League and the EuroLeague. At a height of tall, he plays at the point guard position. He is also a member of ...

set an all-time record for assists in a Final Four game, with 15. He surpassed

Terrell McIntyre Lance Terrell McIntyre (born October 18, 1977) is a retired American professional basketball player. Standing at 5'9 " (1.76 m), he played at the point guard position. A two-time All-EuroLeague First Team selection, he reached the EuroLeague Final ...

's record from

Championship game

The seven-time EuroLeague champions

advanced to the championship game for the seventh time and first since 2016 EuroLeague Final Four.

advance to the Final Four Championship Game for the first time in their history, having finished third in both previous

Euroleague Final Four The EuroLeague Final Four is the final four format championship of the European-wide top-tier level EuroLeague professional club basketball competition. The Euroleague Basketball Company used the final four format for the first time in 2002, f ...

participations. Remarkable was that in the previous season, Efes finished sixteenth and last in the EuroLeague.

Shane Larkin DeShane Davis Larkin (born October 2, 1992) is an American-Turkish professional basketball player for Anadolu Efes of the Turkish Basketball Super League and the EuroLeague. He also represents the senior Turkish national team in international c ...

broke the record for most points scored in a Final Four, with 59 total.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:2019 Euroleague Final Four

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

EuroLeague Finals Sport in Vitoria-Gasteiz International basketball competitions hosted by Spain