2000–01 Euroleague

The 2000–01 Euroleague was the inaugural basketball season of the EuroLeague, under ULEB and its newly formed Euroleague Basketball Company authority. Overall it was the 44th season of the premier competition for European men's professional basketball clubs overall. Initially not recognised or sanctioned by FIBA and considered a breakaway competition. It started on October 16, 2000, with a regular season game between hosts Real Madrid Teka and Olympiacos, which was held at the Raimundo Saporta Pavilion, in Madrid, Spain,^[1] and it ended with the last championship finals game on May 10, 2001, which was held at the PalaMalaguti arena, in Bologna, Italy.

Euroleague
Season	2000–01
Number of teams	24
Finals
Champions	Kinder Bologna (2nd title)
Runners-up	Tau Cerámica
Finals MVP	Manu Ginóbili
Awards
Regular Season MVP	Dejan Tomašević
Statistical leaders
Points Alphonso Ford 26.0 Rebounds Dejan Tomašević 11.5 Assists Ivica Marić 5.9 Index Rating Dejan Tomašević 30.9
← 1999–2000 2000–01 SuproLeague 2001–02 →

This season did not feature all of the top-tier level European club basketball 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. It was the first time in European basketball that several clubs did not qualify to a European competition based on performance, but instead wild cards were given. Top clubs also signed licences with the right to participate in upcoming seasons regardless of their domestic league ranking.

A total of 24 teams competed for the EuroLeague title, which was in the end won by Kinder Bologna. Dejan Tomašević was the EuroLeague Regular season MVP, and Manu Ginóbili was the EuroLeague Finals MVP.

European Champions' Cup teams divided

Main article: FIBA–EuroLeague dispute

The FIBA 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. Euroleague Basketball Company was created by ULEB clubs in 2000. At the time the leagues of ULEB were Spain, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Portugal, England and Switzerland.^[2] However against the will of their domestic leagues clubs from Lithuania, Croatia, Russia, Israel and Slovenia opted for the Euroleague competition despite the fact their leagues were not members of ULEB.

FIBA had never trademarked the "EuroLeague" name and had no legal recourse on the usage of that name, so they had to find a new name for their league. The following 2000–01 season started with two top European professional club basketball competitions: FIBA SuproLeague (renamed from the FIBA EuroLeague) and Euroleague.

Top clubs were split between the two leagues: Panathinaikos, Maccabi Elite 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. Lugano Tigers the Swiss champions were the last team to join the ULEB side and enter the competition.

Rules, format changes and dates

On 11 July 2000 in Thessaloniki during the ULEB Assembly format changes and dates were set for the new competition ^[3] The Official List of the teams will include a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 16 players. Ten players will be allowed on the bench while 2 USA players per team were permitted. There was no Final Four but a best of three series in the Final.

Andrea Bassani (ex-General Manager of the Italian League) was appointed in the Assembly as the Manager of Marketing and Media of the Euroleague.

Referees

Kostas Rigas was elected the commissioner. Three referees will officiate every Euroleague game. The team of Officials will be made up of 45 referees which signed guaranteed contracts for three years with no age restriction. However FIBA did not allow them to officiate in their domestic leagues in 2000-01.

Dates

Games will be played on Thursdays, with the possibility of moving them forward to Wednesday when necessary.

• Regular season: 19 October 2000 to 8 January 2001
• Play-offs 1/8 finals- 1,8,15 February 2001
• Play-offs ¼ finals: 22 Feb, 1, 8 March 2001
• Semi-finals: 27, 29 March, 3, 5, 12 April 2001
• Finals: 17, 19 April, 1, 3, 10 May 2001

Team allocation

A total of 24 teams from 14 countries participate in the competition.

Distribution

The table below shows the default access list.

	Teams entering in this round	Teams advancing from previous round
Regular season (24 teams)	4 best-placed teams from: Greece Italy Spain 2 best-placed teams from Croatia 1 best-placed teams from: Belgium Germany Great Britain Lithuania Portugal Slovenia Switzerland Yugoslavia 2 Wild cards
Playoffs (16 teams)		4 group winners from the regular season 4 group runners-up from the regular season 4 group third-placed teams from the regular season 4 group fourth-placed teams from the regular season

The competition culminated in a best 3 out of 5 playoff series.

Teams

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round

• 1st, 2nd, etc.: League position after Playoffs
• WC: Wild card

Regular season
Paf Bologna (1st)	AEK (4th)	Cibona VIP (1st)	Opel Skyliners (3rd)
Benetton Treviso (2nd)	Peristeri (5th)	Zadar (2nd)	Union Olimpija (3rd)
Kinder Bologna (3rd)	Real Madrid Teka (1st)	Žalgiris (2nd)	Region Wallone Spirou (4th)
Müller Verona (4th)	FC Barcelona (2nd)	Budućnost (1st)	Ovarense Aerosoles (1st)
PAOK (2nd)	Adecco Estudiantes (3rd)	Hapoel Jerusalem (WC)	Lugano Snakes (1st)
Olympiacos (3rd)	Tau Cerámica (4th)	Saint Petersburg Lions (WC)	Haribo London Towers (1st)

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 were level on won-lost record, tiebreakers were 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 were 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

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qualification		PAF	PER	ZAL	EST	LUG	ZAD
1	Paf Bologna	10	8	2	812	760	+52	Advance to Playoffs		—	71–69	91–85	81–72	81–66	81–77
2	Peristeri	10	7	3	841	786	+55			83–70	—	74–92	91–81	85–68	92–73
3	Žalgiris	10	6	4	866	816	+50			73–56	86–73	—	77–80	105–89	97–85
4	Adecco Estudiantes	10	4	6	820	821	−1			76–90	86–91	87–77	—	97–76	93–81
5	Lugano Snakes	10	3	7	777	914	−137			72–100	80–91	95–87	77–76	—	75–74
6	Zadar	10	2	8	840	859	−19			87–91	79–92	86–87	80–72	118–79	—

Source: Euroleague

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qualification		KIN	AEK	TAU	CIB	SPL	RWC
1	Kinder Bologna	10	9	1	835	734	+101	Advance to Playoffs		—	81–66	76–73	106–88	84–78	106–87
2	AEK	10	8	2	805	746	+59			78–77	—	64–52	83–75	84–73	97–73
3	Tau Cerámica	10	6	4	749	700	+49			59–65	85–65	—	92–66	97–88	76–64
4	Cibona	10	3	7	773	832	−59			69–74	72–81	62–60	—	75–70	85–70
5	Saint Petersburg Lions	10	2	8	778	840	−62			78–82	69–90	79–81	92–90	—	83–77
6	Region Wallone Spirou	10	2	8	769	857	−88			58–80	89–97	71–74	100–91	80–68	—

Source: Euroleague

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qualification		OLY	RMB	UOL	BEN	JER	OVA
1	Olympiacos	10	7	3	861	738	+123	Advance to Playoffs		—	91–84	82–70	82–73	102–69	101–67
2	Real Madrid Teka	10	7	3	859	789	+70			75–73	—	82–70	64–75	104–64	116–94
3	Union Olimpija	10	7	3	823	752	+71			69–73	88–79	—	78–74	95–68	102–79
4	Benetton Treviso	10	6	4	847	777	+70			95–87	87–88	69–71	—	78–71	106–81
5	Hapoel Jerusalem	10	3	7	784	881	−97			83–70	74–87	76–88	79–104	—	106–71
6	Ovarense Aerosoles	10	0	10	746	983	−237			53–100	73–80	70–92	76–86	82–94	—

Source: Euroleague

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qualification		FCB	PAO	POD	VER	LON	SKY
1	FC Barcelona	10	8	2	856	757	+99	Advance to Playoffs		—	58–67	92–75	96–84	82–76	86–60
2	PAOK	10	7	3	846	773	+73			91–102	—	89–72	97–94	70–58	100–70
3	Budućnost	10	7	3	844	819	+25			77–85	83–71	—	77–73	101–83	79–73
4	Müller Verona	10	6	4	920	854	+66			94–90	102–88	86–91	—	102–76	90–70
5	Haribo London Towers	10	1	9	775	878	−103			82–97	61–93	88–95	89–98	—	86–61
6	Opel Skyliners	10	1	9	696	856	−160			51–68	73–80	79–94	80–97	79–76	—

Source: Euroleague

Playoffs

Bracket

Teams in bold advanced to the next round. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding, the numbers to the right indicate the result of games including result in bold of the team that won in that game, and the numbers furthest to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round.

	First Round								QuarterFinal								SemiFinal										Final
	A1	Paf Bologna	76	75		2
	B4	Cibona	64	74		0
									A1	Paf Bologna	74	57	88	2
									C2	Real Madrid Teka	68	88	70	1
	C2	Real Madrid Teka	91	76		2
	D3	Budućnost	63	62		0
																	B1	Kinder Bologna	103	92	74			3
																	A1	Paf Bologna	76	84	70			0
	B1	Kinder Bologna	113	85		2
	A4	Adecco Estudiantes	70	80		0
									B1	Kinder Bologna	80	81		2
									C3	Union Olimpija	79	79		0
	D2	PAOK	75	77	69	1
	C3	Union Olimpija	64	85	73	2
																											B1	Kinder Bologna	65	94	80	79	82	3
																											B3	Tau Cerámica	78	73	60	96	74	2
	C1	Olympiacos	94	96		2
	D4	Müller Verona	92	84		0
									C1	Olympiacos	72	76		0
									B3	Tau Cerámica	78	98		2
	A2	Peristeri	79	68		0
	B3	Tau Cerámica	81	81		2
																	B2	AEK	67	65	62			0
																	B3	Tau Cerámica	70	90	76			3
	D1	FC Barcelona	85	82		0
	C4	Benetton Treviso	86	99		2
									B2	AEK	97	74	71	2
									C4	Benetton Treviso	89	90	56	1
	B2	AEK	69	73		2
	A3	Žalgiris	60	71		0

First Round

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.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg	3rd leg
Paf Bologna	2–0	Cibona	76–64	75–74
Kinder Bologna	2–0	Adecco Estudiantes	113–70	85–80
Peristeri	0–2	Tau Cerámica	79–81	68–81
AEK	2–0	Žalgiris	69–60	73–71
Olympiacos	2–0	Müller Verona	94–92	96–84
FC Barcelona	0–2	Benetton Treviso	85–86	82–99
Real Madrid Teka	2–0	Budućnost	91–63	76–62
PAOK	1–2	Union Olimpija	75–64	77–85	69–73

Quarterfinals

In a best-of-three series the remaining eight teams were placed against each other. The games were held between 21 February and 7 March 2001, with the top 4 teams advancing to the semifinals.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg	3rd leg
Paf Bologna	2–1	Real Madrid Teka	74–68	57–88	88–70
Kinder Bologna	2–0	Union Olimpija	80–79	81–79
Olympiacos	0–2	Tau Cerámica	72–78	76–98
AEK	2–1	Benetton Treviso	97–89	74–90	71–56

Semifinals

In a best-of-five series the remaining four 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	3–0	Paf Wennington Bologna	103–76	92–84	74–70
AEK	0–3	Tau Cerámica	65–90	67–70	62–76

Finals

Main article: 2001 Euroleague Finals

The culminating stage of the Euroleague season, the two remaining teams that won the semifinal 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	3–2	Tau Cerámica	65–78	94–73	80–60	79–96	82–74

2000–01 Euroleague Champions
Kinder Bologna 2nd Title

Awards

Top Scorer

Player	Team
Alphonso Ford	Peristeri

Regular Season MVP

Player	Team
Dejan Tomašević	Budućnost

Finals MVP

Player	Team
Manu Ginóbili	Kinder Bologna

Finals Top Scorer

Player	Team
Manu Ginóbili	Kinder Bologna
Elmer Bennett	Tau Cerámica
Victor Alexander	Tau Cerámica

All-Euroleague First Team

Player	Team
Louis Bullock	Müller Verona
Alphonso Ford	Peristeri
Derrick Hamilton	Saint Petersburg Lions
Gregor Fučka	Paf Wennington Bologna
Dejan Tomašević	Budućnost

All-Euroleague Second Team

Player	Team
Jemeil Rich	Lugano Snakes
Panagiotis Liadelis	PAOK
Pau Gasol	FC Barcelona
Ioannis Giannoulis	PAOK
Rashard Griffith	Kinder Bologna

Round MVP

Main article: EuroLeague MVP of the Round

Regular season

Week	Player	Team	PIR
1	Panagiotis Liadelis	PAOK	42
2	Dejan Tomašević	Budućnost	34
	Gianluca Basile	Paf Wennington Bologna
3	Milenko Topić	Budućnost	39
4	Dejan Tomašević (2)	Budućnost	42
5	Derrick Hamilton	St. Petersburg Lions	38
6	Darko Krunić	Zadar	39
7	Gregor Fučka	Paf Wennington Bologna	42
8	Kebu Stewart	Hapoel Jerusalem	47
9	Derrick Hamilton (2)	St. Petersburg Lions	40
10	Marcelo Nicola	Benetton Treviso	36

Playoffs

Game	Player	Team	PIR
8thF G1	Alphonso Ford	Peristeri	45
8thF G2	Dejan Tomašević (3)	Budućnost	34
	Dino Rađja	Olympiakos
	Riccardo Pittis	Benetton Treviso
8thF G3	Angelos Koronios	PAOK	20
	Emilio Kovačić	Union Olimpija
4F G1	Gregor Fučka (2)	Paf Wennington Bologna	43
4F G2	Rashard Griffith	Kinder Bologna	32
4F G3	Carlton Myers	Paf Wennington Bologna	45
SF G1	Saulius Štombergas	Tau Cerámica	43
SF G2	Elmer Bennett	Tau Cerámica	33
SF G3	Fabricio Oberto	Tau Cerámica	25
Final G1	Victor Alexander	Tau Cerámica	32
Final G2	Antoine Rigaudeau	Kinder Bologna	21
Final G3	Manu Ginóbili	Kinder Bologna	31
Final G4	Elmer Bennett (2)	Tau Cerámica	28
Final G5	Rashard Griffith (2)	Kinder Bologna	25

Individual statistics

Rating

Rank	Name	Team	Games	Rating	PIR
1.	Dejan Tomašević	Budućnost	12	371	30.92
2.	Derrick Hamilton	Saint Petersburg Lions	10	283	28.30
3.	Alphonso Ford	Peristeri	12	305	25.42

Points

Rank	Name	Team	Games	Points	PPG
1.	Alphonso Ford	Peristeri	12	312	26.00
2.	Dejan Tomašević	Budućnost	12	275	22.92
3.	Panagiotis Liadelis	PAOK	13	295	22.69

Rebounds

Rank	Name	Team	Games	Rebounds	RPG
1.	Dejan Tomašević	Budućnost	12	138	11.50
2.	Dino Rađa	Olympiacos	14	137	9.79
3.	Ron Ellis	Region Wallone Spirou	10	96	9.60

Assists

Rank	Name	Team	Games	Assists	APG
1.	Ivica Marić	Zadar	10	59	5.90
2.	Elmer Bennett	Tau Cerámica	22	120	5.45
3.	Riccardo Pittis	Benetton Treviso	14	54	3.86

Other statistics

Category	Player	Team	Games	Average
Steals	Ivica Marić	Zadar	10	3.70
	Jemeil Rich	Lugano Snakes
Blocks	Grigorij Khizhnyak	Žalgiris	12	3.17
Turnovers	Sergei Bazarevich	Saint Petersburg Lions	10	4.50
Fouls drawn	Panagiotis Liadelis	PAOK	13	7.08
Minutes	Derrick Hamilton	Saint Petersburg Lions	10	38:35
2P%	Stéphane Risacher	Olympiacos	14	73.7%
3P%	Jorge Racca	PAOK	13	59.3%
FT%	Henry Williams	Müller Verona	12	94.7%

Individual game highs

Category	Player	Team	Statistic
PIR	Kebu Stewart	Hapoel Jerusalem	47
Points	Carlton Myers	Paf Wennington Bologna	41
	Alphonso Ford	Peristeri
Rebounds	Victor Alexander	Tau Cerámica	19
Assists	Elmer Bennett	Tau Cerámica	13
Steals	Manu Ginóbili	Kinder Bologna	7
	Bojan Bakić	Budućnost
Blocks	Stojan Vranković	Paf Wennington Bologna	10
Three pointers	Saulius Štombergas	Tau Cerámica	9
Turnovers	Sergei Bazarevich	Saint Petersburg Lions	11

Aftermath

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 ULEB 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.

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 did so jointly until 2016.

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 and merged to the FIBA Europe Champions Cup in 2002 which was when Euroleague Basketball launched the ULEB Cup.

See also

• 2000–01 FIBA SuproLeague
• 2000–01 FIBA Saporta Cup
• 2000–01 FIBA Korać Cup

References and notes

1. "EL.net interview: Eduardo Portela". Archived from the original on 2008-06-06. Retrieved 2008-03-19.

Sources

• 2000-01 at Eurobasket.com

External links

• 2000–01 Euroleague
• 2000–01 Euroleague
• Eurobasket.com 2000–01 Euroleague