2000–01 Euroleague

Main article: Euroleague
2000–01 Euroleague
League Euroleague
Sport Basketball
Season
Season MVP Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Dejan Tomašević (Budućnost)
Top scorer United States Alphonso Ford (Peristeri)
Finals
Champions Italy Kinder Bologna
  Runners-up Spain Tau Cerámica
Finals MVP Argentina Manu Ginóbili (Kinder Bologna)

The inaugural Euroleague season 2000–01, under the new Euroleague Basketball Company authority, started on October 16, 2000, with a regular season game between hosts Real Madrid and Olympiacos, at the Raimundo Saporta Pavilion in Madrid, Spain,[1] and ended with the championship finals game on May 10, 2001, at the PalaMalaguti arena in Bologna, Italy. This Euroleague season did not feature all the best European teams, as some of them opted to compete in the 2000–01 FIBA SuproLeague competition instead, after the row erupted between the previous Euroleague governing body, FIBA, and the newly established Euroleague Basketball Company.

The total of 24 teams competed for the Euroleague Basketball title, which was in the end won by Kinder Bologna. Dejan Tomašević was the regular season MVP, and Manu Ginóbili was the Euroleague Finals MVP.

European Champions' Cup teams divided

The Euroleague (or historically called, the European Champions' Cup) was originally established by FIBA and it operated under its umbrella from 1958 until the summer of 2000, concluding with the 1999–2000 season. That was when Euroleague Basketball Company was created.

Amazingly, FIBA had never trademarked the "Euroleague" name and Euroleague Basketball simply used it without any legal ramifications because FIBA had no legal recourse to do anything about it, so they had to find a new name for their league. Thus, the following 2000–01 season started with 2 separate top European professional club basketball competitions: the FIBA SuproLeague (previously known as the FIBA Euroleague) and the brand new 2000–01 Euroleague season.

The rift in European professional club basketball initially showed no signs of letting up. Top clubs were also split between the two leagues: Panathinaikos, Maccabi Tel Aviv, CSKA Moscow and Efes Pilsen stayed with FIBA, while Olympiacos, Kinder Bologna, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Tau Cerámica and Benetton Treviso joined Euroleague Basketball.

Regular Season

The first phase was a regular season, in which the competing teams were drawn into four groups, each containing six teams. Each team played every other team in its group at home and away, resulting in 10 games for each team in the first stage. The top 4 teams in each group advanced to the next round, The Top 16. The complete list of tiebreakers is provided in the lead-in to the Regular Season results.

If one or more clubs are level on won-lost record, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:

  1. Head-to-head record in matches between the tied clubs
  2. Overall point difference in games between the tied clubs
  3. Overall point difference in all group matches (first tiebreaker if tied clubs are not in the same group)
  4. Points scored in all group matches
  5. Sum of quotients of points scored and points allowed in each group match
Key to colors
     Top four places in each group advance to Top 16

Group A

Team Pld W L PF PA Diff
1. Italy Paf Wennington Bologna 10 8 2 812 760 +52
2. Greece Peristeri 10 7 3 841 786 +55
3. Lithuania Žalgiris 10 6 4 866 816 +50
4. Spain Adecco Estudiantes 10 4 6 820 821 -1
5. Switzerland Lugano Snakes 10 3 7 777 914 -137
6. Croatia Zadar 10 2 8 840 859 -19

Group B

Team Pld W L PF PA Diff
1. Italy Kinder Bologna 10 9 1 835 734 +101
2. Greece AEK 10 8 2 805 746 +59
3. Spain Tau Cerámica 10 6 4 749 700 +49
4. Croatia Cibona 10 3 7 773 832 -59
5. Russia Saint Petersburg Lions 10 2 8 778 840 -62
6. Belgium Spirou Charleroi 10 2 8 769 857 -88

Group C

Team Pld W L PF PA Diff
1. Greece Olympiacos 10 7 3 861 738 +123
2. Spain Real Madrid 10 7 3 859 789 +70
3. Slovenia Union Olimpija 10 7 3 823 752 +71
4. Italy Benetton Treviso 10 6 4 847 777 +70
5. Israel Hapoel Jerusalem 10 3 7 784 881 -97
6. Portugal Ovarense Aerosoles 10 0 10 746 983 -237

Group D

Team Pld W L PF PA Diff
1. Spain FC Barcelona 10 8 2 856 757 +99
2. Greece PAOK 10 7 3 846 773 +73
3. Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Budućnost 10 7 3 844 819 +25
4. Italy Müller Verona 10 6 4 920 854 +66
5. United Kingdom London Towers 10 1 9 775 878 -103
6. Germany Opel Skyliners 10 1 9 696 856 -160

Top 16

In a "Best of Three" series the remaining 16 teams were placed against each other. The games were held between the 31st of January and the 14th of February, 2001, with the top 8 teams advancing to the Playoffs.

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg3rd leg
Paf Wennington Bologna Italy 2–0 Croatia Cibona 76–64 75–74
Kinder Bologna Italy 2–0 Spain Adecco Estudiantes 113–70 85–80
Peristeri Greece 0–2 Spain Tau Cerámica 79–81 68–81
AEK Greece 2–0 Lithuania Žalgiris 69–60 73–71
Olympiacos Greece 2–0 Italy Müller Verona 94–92 96–84
FC Barcelona Spain 0–2 Italy Benetton Treviso 85–86 82–99
Real Madrid Spain 2–0 Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Budućnost 91–63 76–62
PAOK Greece 1–2 Slovenia Union Olimpija 75–64 77–8569–73

Quarterfinals

In a "Best of Three" series the remaining 8 teams were placed against each other. The games were held between the 21st of February and the 7th of March, 2001, with the top 4 teams advancing to the Semi finals.

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg3rd leg
Paf Wennington Bologna Italy 2–1 Spain Real Madrid 74–68 57–8888–70
Kinder Bologna Italy 2–0 Slovenia Union Olimpija 80–79 81–79
Olympiacos Greece 0–2 Spain Tau Cerámica 72–78 76–98
AEK Greece 2–1 Italy Benetton Treviso 97–89 74–9071–56

Semifinals

In a "Best of Five" series the remaining 4 teams were placed against each other. The games were held between the 27th of March and the 7th of April, 2001.

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg 3rd leg 4th leg 5th leg
Kinder Bologna Italy3–0Italy Paf Wennington Bologna103–7692–8474–70
AEK Greece0–3Spain Tau Cerámica65–9067–7062–76

Finals

The culminating stage of the Euroleague season, the two remaining teams that won the semi final series played each other in a best of five series.

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg 3rd leg 4th leg 5th leg
Kinder Bologna Italy3–2Spain Tau Cerámica65–7894–7380–6079–9682–74
2000–01 Euroleague
Champions
Italy
Kinder Bologna
2nd Title

Awards

Regular Season MVP

Finals MVP

All-Euroleague First Team 2000-2001

All-Euroleague Second Team 2000-2001

Two continental champions

In May 2001, Europe had two continental champions, Maccabi Tel Aviv of the FIBA SuproLeague and Kinder Bologna of Euroleague Basketball Company's Euroleague. The leaders of both organizations realized the need to come up with a new single competition. Negotiating from the position of strength, Euroleague Basketball Company dictated proceedings and FIBA essentially had no choice but to agree to their terms. As a result, the Euroleague was fully integrated under Euroleague Basketball Company's umbrella and teams that competed in the FIBA SuproLeague during the 2000-01 season joined it as well. It is today officially admitted that European basketball had two champions that year, Maccabi of the FIBA SuproLeague and Kinder Bologna of the Euroleague Basketball Company's Euroleague.

The current Euroleague is formed

A year later, Euroleague Basketball Company and FIBA decided that Euroleague Basketball's Euroleague competition would be the main basketball tournament on the continent, to be played between the top level teams of Europe. FIBA Europe would also organize a European league for third tier level teams, known as the FIBA Europe League competition, while Euroleague Basketball would also organize its own second tier level league, combining FIBA's long-time Korać Cup and Saporta Cup competitions into one new competition, the Eurocup. In 2005, Euroleague Basketball and FIBA decided to cooperate with each other and have been jointly cooperating since then.

In essence, the authority in European professional basketball was divided over club-country lines. FIBA stayed in charge of national team competitions (like the FIBA EuroBasket, the FIBA World Cup, and the Summer Olympics), while Euroleague Basketball took over the European professional club competitions. From that point on, FIBA's Korać Cup and Saporta Cup competitions lasted only one more season before folding, which was when Euroleague Basketball launched the Eurocup.

See also

References and notes

External links

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