There is a rich history of championship-caliber basketball in Greece led of course by Turkish Airlines EuroLeague stalwarts Panathinaikos OPAP Athens and Olympiacos Piraeus followed by the likes of AEK Athens and the Thessaloniki duo of PAOK and Aris all of whom have played in a EuroLeague Final Four. There is a new kid on the block looking to make a name for itself and judging by its maiden campaign in the 7DAYS EuroCup, Promitheas Patras has what it takes to get far.

Promitheas, located about 215 kilometers west of Athens in the city of Patras, is on the verge of making the EuroCup Quarterfinals. Head coach Makis Giatras's team has already racked up victories over well-known clubs such as Segafredo Virtus Bologna, MoraBanc Andorra, Umana Reyer Venice, EWE Baskets Oldenburg and ratiopharm Ulm, and it is 3-2 atop its Top 16 group with one round of games to play.

This is just Promitheas's second season on the European stage after reaching the Round of 16 in the Basketball Champions League last season. The club also reached the final of the Greek Cup for the first time this season by knocking off Peristeri in the semifinals, though it fell at the hands of AEK in the final.

Not bad for a club that was in Greece's fourth league Basket in 2014. Promitheas earned back-to-back-to-back promotions to climb to the A1 level in 2017 and then finished third in its first year in the top flight - which should almost be considered winning the championship considering the power of Panathinaikos and Olympiacos.

"If somebody would have told me that someday you would be in the first basketball league in Greece, I would have said you're mad, it's impossible," said Promitheas owner Evangelos Liolios, who purchased the club in 2005 after playing for it back in 1989 as an amateur. "The most important thing was not how many divisions we jumped each year but that from the third local division until now we are the same people and we have the same emotions that we had as basketball players in 1989. That's beautiful."

Liolios is a big basketball fan and he considers Promitheas to be another of his children. The father of four works as a pediatrician, but also owns the coffee company, Coffee Island, which has some 430 franchises around Greece as well as shops in Cyprus, London and Toronto. Liolios is a realist and understands that there is more than just having strong financial resources to growing a strong basketball franchise, a club needs a base upon which to build.

"It's very easy to have a very good professional team. It depends on how much money you spend," Liolios said. "But most important and most difficult is how good of an academy you have because you cannot just buy good under-16 and under-18 players. You have to spend not just money, but time in order to develop them. It's a very, very difficult thing."


Just like Giatris has a plan to beat some of Europe's biggest clubs, Liolios and Promitheas have a plan to establish themselves among those same clubs long term. The club started a youth academy in 2006 and developed a youth project called the Nous program.

"We provide all the athletes with the best tools to succeed in life and achieve all their own goals as far as not only being athletes but also being useful in society," said Athanasios Souflias, the Nous youth program director.

There are 500 kids between ages 6 and 18 in the academy as well as scholarships for the 28 top prospects around the country. Promitheas's youngsters also have the opportunity to train at a state-of-the-art youth facility; the club opened its new 2,500-square meter training center in September 2018 - after construction started in November 2017. There are three courts and a basement full of training equipment, which also looks into sports science and pushes multisport cross-training.

"We want to follow the latest research and are always trying to develop programs of our own in terms of protocols and algorithms that will better reveal the players' fatigue," said Panos Stavropoulos, the program’s performance coach and movement analyst. "We are constantly trying to be ahead of things to come. We are never satisfied. We are always hungry for more, for more technology assessments."

Promitheas has already been successful in developing young talents. The gem within the club is Lefteris Mantzoukas. The 2.07-meter forward has already appeared in five EuroCup games this season, but he made his Greek league debut on February 14, 2017, becoming at 14 years of age the second-youngest player to appear in a game in the country's top league since it became fully professional in 1992. Mantzoukas won't turn 17 until July.

Mantzoukas, who on May 24, 2017, became the youngest player to start a Greek League game, has already made history at the European youth level. At this season’s Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Munich, he scored 49 points against U18 ALBA Berlin to set the ANGT single-game scoring record - despite being only 16 in a U18 competition.

One key for Promitheas will be to keep Mantzoukas and not watch him get snapped up by the likes of Panathinaikos or Olympiacos. Promitheas management knows it needs him and more players like him to develop in their own system to legitimately challenge the likes of Greek basketball's superpowers and to become more well-known in their own right.

After rapid rice from Greece's fourth division to the top, Promitheas Patras continues to grow and strives to become a force domestically and on the European front.

The Club Scene: Promitheas Patras 

By returning to the 7DAYS EuroCup this season, Joventut Badalona completed a comeback that saw the team return to a competitive level in elite European competitions for the first time in a decade. Badalona is a city that breathes basketball mainly because of Joventut, its main club. Over the years, Joventut has not only been successful on the court, but it has become a factory developing top-level homegrown talent, which has made its fans even prouder of their team.

Among the elite players to star for Joventut over the last few decades are Josep María Margall, Jordi Villacampa, Tomas and Rafa Jofresa, Juanan Morales, Ricky Rubio, Rudy Fernandez, Alex Mumbru and Raul Lopez. More recently, products of the team's youth department such as Pau Ribas, Guillem Vives, Nacho Llovet, Alberto Abalde, Nenad Dimitrijevic and Xabi Lopez-Arostegui can be seen playing for some of Spain's top clubs. And Aito Garcia Reneses, Manel Comas, Pedro Martinez, Joan Plaza, Alfred Julbe and current Joventut head coach Carles Duran are among the outstanding head coaches to grace the sidelines in Badalona, too.

The pathway to greatness for all those big names was paved in 1930 when the club was founded as Penya Spirit of Badalona. The name was a tribute to Charles Lindbergh, who famously became the first to make a nonstop flight from New York to Paris back in those days. Lindbergh's plane was named Spirit of St. Louis.

Joventut is one of three teams that have always played in the Spanish elite, along with Estudiantes and Real Madrid. It started as a football club with several sports sections, including basketball, table tennis, and cycling. The club changed its name to Centre Esportiu Badaloni in 1932 and chose its definitive name, Club Joventut Badalona, in 1939. The club started to do well in regional and national competitions in the 1940s and conquered its first official title, the Spanish Cup, in 1948, by downing Real Madrid 41-32 in Burgos, led by Eduardo Kucharski. Joventut won win three more Spanish Cup titles in the next decade - in 1953, 1955 and 1958, during which the Spanish League was created. In its first edition, in the 1956-57 campaign, Joventut ranked sixth. It would go on to place fourth or higher every season until 1981.

Two of the club's legendary players, Enric Margall and Nino Buscato, came to the team in the 1960s. In the 1966-67 season, they joined forces with Josep Lluis Cortes, Guifre Gol, Alfonso Martinez, and Juan Fa to lead Joventut to its first Spanish League title. Played in a round-robin format, Joventut had to wait until the final round, in which a 55-77 win against FC Barcelona, added to a 77-75 win by Estudiantes against Real, allowed Joventut to celebrate the league title. Joventut had also made its European debut that season by taking part in the 1966-67 Cup Winners' Cup, in which it lost against Maccabi Tel Aviv amid controversy in the quarterfinals. Joventut grabbed a 32-point win in the first leg of the two-game total-points series and Buscato scored at the end of the second leg to give his team the lead in the series, 83-53. The referees disallowed the basket by calling a very improbable traveling violation, sending the series to a tie-break game in which Maccabi prevailed, 75-51. A year later, Joventut joined the 1967-68 European Cup as the Spanish League champion and reached the quarterfinals group stage. In 1969, Joventut conquered its fifth Spanish Cup by edging Real 82-81 in Orense behind 24 points from Enric Margall and 20 from Buscato.

No more titles came in the early 1970s, in which Joventut signed its first foreign player, Clinton Morris. In 1973, Joventut founded its basketball school, which has become a world-class institution and produced dozens of first-level players in the last five decades. Joventut remained a tough opponent in European competitions and reached the 1970-71 Cup Winners' Cup semifinals. Led by Buscato, Enric Margall, and Luis Miguel Santillana, fell to Soviet powerhouse Spartak Leningrad and its superstar center Alexander Belov. Margall had been joined by his brother Narcis and their younger brother Josep Maria would soon be promoted to the club's first team and become one of its greatest heroes. Joventut returned to the Cup Winners' Cup semifinals in 1972 and 1973, but lost against Crvena Zvezda and Spartak, respectively. Joventut went on to win another Spanish Cup in 1976, beating Real 99-88 in Cartagena behind 26 points from Juan Ramon Fernandez.

Two years later, before the 1977-78 campaign, Joventut signed one of the best players in Europe, playmaker Zoran "Moka" Slavnic, at the prime of his career. He led Joventut to its second league title, sealing it with a 68-115 victory over Baskonia. In European competitions, Joventut kept reaching semifinals stages, losing twice in the Korac Cup - against Torino in 1976 and Partizan Belgrade in 1978, and once more in the Cup Winners' Cup - against Radnicki in 1977.

Its continental competitions curse ended in 1981 when Joventut, coached by Comas and led by Josep Maria Margall, Gonzalo Sagi-Vela, and Joe Galvin, swept Zvezda in the Korac Cup semifinals to reach the championship game against Carrera Venice at nearby Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona, Spain. Venice, led by Spencer Haywood and Drazen Dalipagic, was the favorite and led 82-90 in the next-to-last minute of regulation but Joventut, pushed by an unbelievable crowd, forced overtime on a last-second jumper by Galvin. Joventut went on to prevail 105-104 after as Fabrizio Della Fiori missed near the basket at the buzzer, getting Joventut's party started.

Joventut kept bringing out young talents in the early 1980s, such as Jose Montero, Rafa Jofresa, Andres Jimenez and Villacampa, who became a legend and was almost a one-man club for 21 seasons before eventually becoming its president. It also had key foreign players such as Reggie Johnson, Greg Stewart, Art Housey, and Gerald Kazanowski plus Garcia Reneses as its head coach. They led Joventut to three consecutive Spanish Copa del Rey championship games and two Spanish League finals between 1985 to 1987, but came out empty-handed. Joventut also reached the Cup Winners' Cup championship game in 1988, however, Limoges CSP celebrated a 96-89 victory. Despite winning its first continental title in that decade, Joventut was a bit unlucky in the 1980s.

That would change in the 1990s. Led by 28-year-old coach Martinez, Joventut won its second Korac Cup in 1990 after downing Scavolini Pesaro in the finals. Villacampa had 29 points and Lemone Lampley and Montero each scored 21 in a 98-99 win in the first leg of the two-game finals. Joventut finished the job in Badalona, defeating Scavolini 96-86 behind 28 points from Montero.

Lolo Sainz joined the team as head coach in 1990 with Villacampa and Rafa Jofresa at the prime of their careers. The club signed a star foreign duo, Corny Thompson and Harold Pressey, and had promoted young players Morales, Pardo and Tomas Jofresa. Joventut was first in the Spanish League regular season with a 30-4 record and romped past Breogan, Atletico Madrid-Villalba, Baskonia and Barcelona to claim its third title. It also reached the Korac Cup semifinals and - despite downing Real 71-75 in the first leg, lost the return game 74-80 in Badalona.

Joventut qualified for the 1991-92 EuroLeague and kept the same core of players, which resulted in a fantastic campaign. The team was first in the group stage with an 11-3 record and swept Cibona in the playoffs to reach the Final Four in Istanbul, Turkey. Joventut overwhelmed Estudiantes in the semifinals, 91-69, to set up a championship game showdown with Partizan. An acrobatic basket by Tomas Jofresa put Joventut ahead, 68-70, with 10 seconds left. That is all Sasa Djordjevic needed to get the ball, race downcourt, stop at the three-point line and hit one of the most famous shots in EuroLeague history to give Partizan the title, 71-70. Joventut bounced back in the Spanish League, successfully defending its title in a five-game series against Real, winning Game 5 at home, 85-72.

Sainz was replaced on the bench by Zeljko Obradovic, who had led Partizan to the EuroLeague title in 1992. Obradovic only coached the team for one season but was enough to make history. Joventut qualified for the EuroLeague Playoffs and bested Real without the home-court advantage to reach its second Final Four, this time in Tel Aviv, Israel. It downed archrivals Barcelona in the semifinals, 79-65, to meet Olympiacos Piraeus in the championship game. Olympiacos led 52-57 but was held scoreless for the final 6 minutes. Joventut took the lead, 59-57, on a historic three-pointer by Thompson with 18 seconds left. Olympiacos had the chance to take the game to overtime and even win the game, but Zarko Paspalj missed from the foul line and the Reds missed 3 shots before Joventut started celebrating the EuroLeague title.

After Obradovic left, Joventut was not as competitive as it had been in the previous five years; it placed 10th or lower in the Spanish League five times between 1996 and 2001. Joventut, however, added another cup title to its roll of honors when Tanoka Beard and Andre Turner led the team to a 1997 triumph.

Joventut regrouped and found answers at its legendary basketball school, where the talents of Lopez, Mumbru, Ribas, Rubio and Fernandez, among many others, would help the club soar again. It reached the EuroCup semifinals in the competition's original campaign in 2002-03, but lost to Krka Novo Mesto despite a 13-point win in the first leg of their two-game series.

Garcia Reneses returned as head coach and the team started to challenge for titles again, playing a highly-attractive, intense and ahead-of-its-time brand of basketball. It went all the way to the Copa del Rey final in 2004 before losing against Baskonia. Fernandez, still a teenager, earned tournament MVP honors. Joventut won the FIBA EuroChallenge title in 2006, thrashing Khimki Moscow Region 88-63 in the final. A year later, Joventut played the 2006-07 EuroLeague and, led by Fernandez and a 15-year-old Rubio, reached the Top 16.

Joventut had one of its best campaigns in the 2007-08 season, winning two titles and reaching the Spanish League finals. Joventut lifted the Copa del Rey after beating Baskonia 80-82 in Vitoria-Gasteiz and had a EuroCup season for the ages, winning 16 of its 17 games and dumping Akasvayu Girona 54-79 in the championship game in Turin, Italy. Fernandez, who earned Final Eight MVP honors, and Rubio led a strong team that also featured Demond Mallet, Ribas, Lubos Barton, Jerome Moiso and Edu Hernandez-Sonseca - the first-ever player to win the EuroCup twice.

Joventut played the 2008-09 EuroLeague and the 2009-10 EuroCup, but then fell back and was out of both competitions until this season. The youth department kept bringing out young talents such as Llovet, Vives, Abalde, Albert Ventura, Henk Norel, David Jelinek and Marko Todorovic. Dimitrijevic, Lopez-Arostegui, Ventura, Joel Parra, Arturs Zagars, Pep Busquets and Arnau Parrado made their respective EuroCup debuts this season from Joventut's youth teams and the club has been able to bring in experienced players like Nico Laprovittola, who earned Spanish League MVP honors last season, Nikos Zisis and Klemen Prepelic, among others. Joventut advanced to the Copa del Rey semifinals and the Spanish League playoffs last season and reached the EuroCup Top 16 this year, showing it is taking the right steps to again challenge for big goals soon.

Former EuroLeague and EuroCup champion Joventut Badalona was away from the competitions for a decade before riding another wave of top talent from its famed youth academy back to the Top 16 this season.

The Club Scene: Joventut Badalona

The Principality of Monaco is a microstate on the French Riviera and the second-smallest country in the world after the Vatican. Despite its small size, it has a big club that is well-known all around the world. AS Monaco was mainly known as a soccer powerhouse, which won the French League title eight times and reached the UEFA Champions League final in 2004. In recent years, however, basketball has become quite popular in the Principality, drawing the attention of the very famous people living there, including reigning monarch Albert II, Prince of Monaco. Even though the club's basketball section opened in 1928, the sport has never been bigger in the country. It took Monaco 88 years to win its first trophy, but since returning to the French elite in 2015, it has captured three consecutive Leaders Cups and reached several finals in domestic and international competitions. This is a look back at a team that only looks forward, as there is no time like the present for AS Monaco.

The club was founded in 1924 and its first big success came in 1950, when Monaco finished second in the French League, back then called Nationale 1, behind only ASVEL Villeurbanne. Monaco won its group with an 11-3 record and defeated Racing 49-34 in the semifinals. ASVEL stood in its way to success in the championship game, winning 52-40 despite 14 points each from Jean Perniceni and Marc Albos. A season later, Monaco dropped to the French second division. It briefly returned to the French elite in 1955, but it wouldn't be back until the 1972-73 campaign.

From 1973 to 1991, Monaco would play in the French first division in all seasons but one. Monaco was promoted at the end of the 1972-73 campaign and ranked ninth out of 16 in its first season back in the French elite. Woody Edwards and Bill Phillips were its best players back in the mid-1970s. Monaco made its European debut in the 1974-75 season in the Korac Cup. It swept Levi's Flamingo of the Netherlands and downed Hapoel Ramat Gan of Israel in the qualifying rounds. It reached the group stage with ASVEL, Levski-Spartak of Bulgaria and Brina AMG Sebastiani Basket of Italy, but could get no further. Over the late 1970s and the 1980s, Monaco had some of the best French players, such as Philip Szanyiel, Eric Beugnot, Christian Garnier and George Brosterhous, as well as talented foreigners including Robert Smith, Rich Laurel, Mike Stewart and Rick Raivio, among many others. 

Monaco would spend 15 consecutive seasons in the French elite. It had a brilliant 1981-82 season, in which it ranked fourth in the French regular season with 14 wins, 3 ties and 9 losses and earned the right to play in the 1982-83 Korac Cup. It also went all the way to the French Federation Cup final where it fell at the hands of Limoges CSP 96-81. Laurel led Monaco with 43 points, but ASVEL's Ed Murphy did even better with 46. Monaco downed OAR Ferrol of Spain and Fortitudo Bologna of Italy to start the Korac Cup. In the group stage, Monaco bested Joventut Badalona of Spain and Partizan Belgrade of Serbia twice but was eliminated by Dynamo Moscow. Led by Smith and Szanyel, Monaco returned to the Korac Cup group stage in the 1987-88 season, but was unable to get past this stage against European giants like Real Madrid of Spain and Virtus Bologna of Italy. In the previous season, Monaco had reached the French League semifinals before losing to Limoges by a narrow margin. After three consecutive seasons reaching the French playoffs, Monaco was last with a poor 3-27 record and went back to the French second division.

The Monegasque team quickly vanished into the French lower divisions and became almost irrelevant. In 2013, Monaco was in the French third division when Sergey Dyadechko became its new president. Dyachenko had previous experience in elite basketball; he had been the president and main shareholder of Donetsk, a team that reached the EuroCup Quarterfinals in the 2011-12 season. Dyadechko invested enough money to bring in experienced players like Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champion Dusan Kecman, Derrick Obasohan and Anthony Christophe. Monaco only lost four games that season and earned promoted to the second division. That summer, the club brought in Cyril Akpomedah, Moustapha Fall and Darrel Mitchell. At the end of the 2014-15 season, Monaco earned the right to play in the French elite for the first time in 24 years.

Dyadechko made a key move by signing head coach Zvezdan Mitrovic, who had been successful coaching in Ukraine. It also brought in Sergiy Gladyr, DeMarcus Nelson, Jamal Shuler and Amara Sy and was strong from the very beginning of the 2015-16 season. A 13-4 record at the halfway mark of the regular season allowed Monaco to qualify to the French Leaders Cup, in which it downed Nanterre 92 and Strasbourg to reach the final against Chalon-sur-Saone. Shuler had 31 points in leading Monaco to a 74-99 win at Disneyland Paris. It was the club's first title, 88 years after its founding. Once it broke the curse, Monaco kept adding hardware to its roll of honors, winning more Leaders Cups in 2017 and 2018. Monaco downed ASVEL 91-95 in the 2017 final behind 22 points each from Gladyr and Dee Bost and topped Le Mans 83-78 in the 2018 final with 18 points from Gerald 

Coach Mitrovic guided Monaco to first-place regular season finishes in 2016, 2017 and 2018, but could not lift the French League title. Despite having the home-court advantage in all playoffs series, Monaco lost against ASVEL in the 2016 semifinals and the 2017 quarterfinals and against Le Mans in the 2018 finals, losing a do-or-die Game 5 at home, 74-76. It took the club 26 years to return to European competitions, but did so by taking part in the 2016-17 FIBA Champions League. Monaco did well in advancing past the group stage for the first time in European competition and then downing AEK Athens of Greece and Dinamo Sassari of Italy to make it to the final four in Tenerife, Spain. Banvit stood in its way in the semifinals, downing Monaco 83-74 despite 20 points from Shuler. Monaco did even better in the 2017-18 season, reaching the Champions League title game. Monaco defeated MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg in the semifinals, 65-87, behind 19 points from Elmedin Kikanovic, but was stopped by AEK in the championship game, 94-100.

A few months later, before the start of the 2018-19 season, Monaco decided to go for a bigger challenge, joining the EuroCup. Saso Filipovski stepped in as head coach and Monaco had a solid core of players led by Kikanovic, Yak Ouattara, Paul Lacombe and Eric Buckner. The team was competitive right away, finishing first in its regular season group with a 7-3 record and winning two of its first three Top 16 games. But Monaco did not add more wins and was eliminated. In the French League, Monaco returned to the playoffs and defeated Limoges and JDA Dijon to return to the finals against ASVEL, which had the home-court advantage. It would be a decisive factor; ASVEL won do-or-die Game 5 at home 66-55 for the title. 

Monaco remains ambitious in the 2019-20 season. It has already returned to the EuroCup Top 16 and depends on its own result in Game 6 to be able to advance to the playoffs for the first time. It is also very much alive in all three domestic competitions: Monaco is in the French Cup quarterfinals, will play the Leaders Cup tournament this weekend and is part of a three-way for first place atop the French League regular season standings. Monaco keeps growing and this could be the season in which everything clicks for a club that is quickly becoming the team to beat in France and a European powerhouse.

The Principality of Monaco is a microstate on the French Riviera and the second-smallest country in the world after the Vatican. Despite its small size, it has a big club that is well-known all around the world. AS Monaco was mainly known as a soccer powerhouse.

The Club Scene: AS Monaco

After almost two years away from European competitions, few people expected center Loukas Mavrokefalidis to be back to the 7DAYS EuroCup, but at age 35, he joined Promitheas Patras right at the start of the Top 16 -- and has delivered already. Mavrokefalidis earned the Top 16 Round 4 honor in his team's crucial road win against difficult Umana Reyer Venice, scoring 28 points and pulling down 13 rebounds for a performance index rating of 37. Mavrokefalidis is used to getting high PIRs in the competition; in fact, he shares the all-time single-game record PIR of 55, which he registered for AEK Athens on October 14, 2015 by amassing 42 points, 9 rebounds and 11 fouls drawn. Mavrokefalidis is in his seventh EuroCup season, having played previously with PAOK Thessaloniki, Maroussi Athens, Spartak St Petersburg, AEK and Rytas Vilnius. In 72 career games, Mavrokefalidis has amassed 998 points and 386 rebounds, ranking 18th and 17th, respectively. This season, he is averaging 12.5 points and 6.8 rebounds, and enjoying his time in Patras. "A lot of people really like basketball here, especially the president and the coach," Mavrokefalidis told EuroCupbasketball.com. "The project is great for any player, not only for me."

**Loukas, congratulations on beating Reyer in Venice, a tough place to win. What allowed your team to play such great defense on the road?**

"Thanks a lot. It was a very important win. Like you said, it is very hard to win on their home court. They are the Italian League champions and have experienced players who were together for a long time. It was like a final for us and we had a great day, defensively, but we also did well on offense. We deserved the win, clearly."

**Promitheas also stole a tie-break advantage. How important could that be for your team?**

"For sure, it will be important, because if you qualify to the playoffs, wins count but also points. At this moment, any win and any point is important from now on, because in our group, everyone has two wins and two losses. If you look at other groups, it is almost the same. Everything counts now: we must fight for every possession."

"At this moment, any win and any point is important." 

**You joined Promitheas in mid-season. What convinced you to do that?**

"Generally, it is a team that has big goals, not now, but also in the future. I am not young anymore, but I like the project they have and I am trying to help them. I think it is the most healthy club right now in Greece, except Panathinaikos. A lot of people really like basketball here, especially the president and the coach. They like their coach and the president loves what he is doing with the team. The project is great for any player, not only for me."

**You debuted in the EuroCup with PAOK more than 15 years ago. How has this competition changed since then?**

"There are stronger teams in the EuroCup. After the EuroLeague, this is the strongest competition by far, even compared to the FIBA Champions League, if you see the teams. It is always nice to play at a high level and try to do something with your team. I think it is also interesting that the EuroCup can give you a ticket to the EuroLeague. It is a big thing to play in the EuroCup."

**You tied the competition's all-time PIR record, 55, playing for AEK Athens against Krasny Oktyabr Volgograd in 2015. What do you remember about that game?**

"Well, the most important thing that I remember is that we lost! It was a good day for me and that can happen to some players sometimes, especially if they are talented offensively, to score and do other things. I had a very good day and tried to help my team but like I said, the most important thing is that we lost."

**With all Top 16 Group F teams tied at 2-2, your home game with Brescia this week is critical. What does Promitheas need to avenge the loss to them in Italy?**

"First, we need to beat a very strong and experienced team, with very good players. The first goal is to win the game, and then if we can take the tie-break advantage, even better. I hope we will be healthy before the game and see what happens. We lost against them by six points in Brescia and beat Oldenburg by 11." 

"Patras is a city that loves basketball." 

**How is it to play for your new coach, Makis Giatras?**

"I had many coaches in my career and what I can say about our coach is that he is a good person, a straight person with everybody. This is sometimes more important that being a very technical coach. For me, it counts more to be straight, it is more important. He is a good person and deserves to have this job and a good career." 

**Five years ago, Promitheas could not have imagined possibly playing the EuroCup Playoffs. What would that mean for the club and the city?**

"For sure, it would be the first time to be at that level, and I believe this is our goal. I am sure all of us in the team will do everything we can to make it happen. Also, Patras is a city that loves basketball and Promitheas has a lot of fans. Everyone will be very happy if we achieve this."

**Your best EuroCup season was a semifinals run with Spartak in 2012. Now, at age 35, you have the chance for another opportunity like that. How motivated are you?**

"Well, if I were not motivated to play at a high level, I would not play, believe me. I want to succeed with this team. It will be very hard, for sure. We don't have that much experience, in general, as a team, but I think we can go step by step, day by day, and try to improve as a team."

After almost two years away from European competitions, veteran center Loukas Mavrokefalidis arrived late to Promitheas Patras, but is doing his utmost to help the 7DAYS EuroCup newcomer reach the playoffs.

Loukas Mavrokefalidis, Patras: 'Everything counts now'

Umana Reyer Venice is one of the oldest clubs in European basketball and has a story that deserves to be told. After finding big success in the early 1940s, winning consecutive Italian League crowns, Reyer spent 75 years without winning any major title. In the meantime, great players both Italian and foreign wore the jersey as the club played its games on the first floor of a beautiful palace. It also lost a continental championship game against all odds, in the most incredible way, when everything seemed to be said and done. At some point in the 1990s, the club had to start over from the Italian sixth division. Reyer never gave up and not only returned to the Italian league, but has been able to win one title in each of the last three seasons, conquering Italian League crowns in 2017 and 2019, and a FIBA Europe Cup trophy in 2018. In its second 7DAYS EuroCup season, Reyer has had a terrific start, qualifying to the Top 16 with great authority. Now, it wants to add more hardware to its roll of honors.

The club was founded even before the game of basketball existed, in 1872, by a young teacher who moved to Venice, Pietro Gallo. He made a partnership with another young teacher, Costantino Reyer, and founded Societa Sportiva Costantino Reyer as a gymnastics club. The sports company was immediately welcomed in the city, which lent one of its best arenas, Palazzo Diedo, to host the club and its activities. The club quickly started to add new sports such as fencing, weightlifting, athletics, rowing, and boxing, among others. The club had its first contact with basketball in 1907, on the occasion of the 7th National Gymnastic Competition. It was a Tuscan teacher, Ida Pesciolini, who first showed the game to her students in a military facility. Seven years later, in 1914, the club moved to a bigger space in the heart of Venice, the Scuola Grande Della Misericordia, originally built in the Gothic style from 1308 onwards. Reyer Sports Club overcame logistic obstacles to transform it into a sports temple in Venice.

The club's basketball section was opened in 1925 and it would quickly become a driving force. A basketball court was opened on the first floor of the Misericordia building, famous for its wooden grandstands and its frescoes on the walls. With time, it became one of the greatest basketball temples in Italian and European basketball, hosting epic games and great basketball superstars, and one of the most unique basketball courts in the history of the game. The Misericordia was home to the Reyer Sports Club until 1991. Reyer started competing in Italian competitions in 1930, playing in the first division. Led by homegrown superstar Sergio Stefanini, who played for the team for a full decade, Reyer won back-to-back Italian League titles in 1941 and 1942. Stefanini would also play 62 games with the Italian national team, scoring 681 points and leading it to a silver medal at EuroBasket 1946. That year, Reyer also won its only women's Italian League crown. 

Reyer would compete in the Italian League elite until 1957, when it descended to the second division. The team was promoted to the elite again in 1964, but just for one campaign, and reached the Italian Cup semifinals in 1969, losing against Ignis Varese in a two-way series on points difference, 134-133. The club had to wait until 1976 to return to the first division. The following season, Reyer made its debut in European club competitions, taking part in the 1976-77 Korac Cup. After downing Karsiyaka of Turkey and ESM Challans of France, the club made it as far as the quarterfinals group stage. By 1977, the basketball team left Misericordia and started to play in PalArsenale, with room for 4,000 people. Even when the club went back to the second division, Reyer landed two of the best players available, who joined the team in the 1980-81 season: Yugoslavian basketball legend Drazen Dalipagic and former ABA MVP and NBA champion Spencer Haywood. They joined a good core of Italian players such as Fabrizio Della Fiori, Luigi Serafini, Lorenzo Carraro, and a young Andrea Gracis.

Reyer took part in the 1980-81 Korac Cup, in which Haywood and Dalipagic helped the club, called Carrera Venezia then, to an undefeated quarterfinals group stage, reaching the semifinals against mighty Dynamo Moscow. Reyer won the first leg, 119-104, behind 43 points from Dalipagic and 30 from Haywood, and held on to its lead in the second leg, qualifying despite a 104-101 loss, overcoming a dangerous 62-48 halftime deficit. Joventut Badalona was its opponent in the championship game, played at Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona. Carrera led 82-90 with less than 2 minutes left and kept a 90-92 lead and possession with 4 seconds left. Giovannoni Grattoni slipped and turned the ball over with a second left. Joe Galvin took an inbounds pass for Badalona sent the game to overtime with an unthinkable turnaround jumper, 92-92. Carrera had the final possession of the game but Della Fiori missed around the basket and Joventut won 105-104 with 27 points from Gonzalo Sagi-Vela. Haywood led Carrera with 30 points, Dalipagic had 25 and Della Fiori 20. The team was between the Italian first and second divisions in the 1980s. Dalipagic left to join Real Madrid but returned in 1985, playing there for three more campaigns and showcasing his legendary shooting skills. Reyer kept competing well in European competitions in the first half of the decade, reaching the Korac Cup's quarterfinals in 1982 and 1984 with head coaches like Waldi Medeot, Antonio Zorzi and the legendary Aza Nikolic (in the 1982-83 season) and players like Grattoni, Sydney Wicks, Bruce Seals, Alessandro Fantozzi, Wendell Alexis, Joe Binion or current head coach Walter Di Raffaele. It would take Reyer over two decades to return to European competitions. 

Reyer kept competing at a reasonable level in the early 1990s, with stars like Ricky Brown, Jeff Lamp, Mark Hughes, Steve Burtt, Aramis Naglic and Andrea Meneghin, but the team hit bankruptcy at the end of the 1995-96 season and went down to the Italian sixth division. It had to merge with another team, Chirignago-Gazzera, and change its management. Slowly but steadily, Reyer started to climb back in the Italian rankings, reaching the fourth division in 2000 and getting promoted to the third level in 2006. Reyer went up another level at the end of the 2007-08 season, reaching the Italian second division. Despite being close to promotion to the Italian elite in 2011, when another team failed to make its financial commitment, the Italian High Court of Sports Justice imposed the admission of Reyer to the 2011-12 Italian League.

It took Reyer 16 long seasons to get back to the Italian League, and its first goal was to establish itself in the elite. Reyer did much more than that, reaching the Italian League quarterfinals in 2012 and 2013 with Andrea Mazzon and stars like Keydren Clark, Tamar Slay, Yakhouba Diawara and Tim Bowers. Reyer lost against Milan in the 2012 playoffs and Varese in 2013 but did much better in the 2014-15 season. Veteran coach Carlo Recalcalti took Reyer to the Italian League Finals in 2015, putting together a very functional team led by Jeff Viggiano, Hrvoje Peric, Jarrius Jackson, Phil Goss, Pietro Aradori and Tomas Ress. Reyer finished second in regular Season with a 22-8 record and downed Cantu in the quarterfinals, 3-2, winning do-or-die Game 5 at home 88-73 behind 24 points from Goss. Reggio Emilia stood in its way in the best-of-seven semifinals, despite Reyer's 3-2 lead in the series. Reggio Emilia won Games 6 (82-78) and 7 (63-70).

Reyer returned to European club competitions in the 2015-16 7DAYS EuroCup. Led by Mike Green, Peric and Goss, Reyer survived the regular season but could not survive the Last 32 stage due to a critical home loss against Polish side Stelmet Zielona Gora in a do-or-die game in Round 6. It all clicked a year later, in which 75 years after its last title of any kind, Reyer lifted the Italian League trophy, starting a successful new era for the club. De Rafaelle had taken over as head coach and the team had new stars like MarQuez Haynes, Mike Bramos, Melvin Ejim and Tyrus McGee, joining Peric and Ress as the core of the team. Reyer was second in the regular season with a 21-9 record, defeating Pistoia in the quarterfinals and Scandone Avellino in the semis to storm into the championship series against Dolomiti Energia Trento. On June 20, 2017, Reyer beat Trento 78-81 in Game 6 of the finals to conquer its third Italian League title - and first since 1942! Ejim led the way with 15 points while Ariel Filloy and Haynes each added 14. 

Reyer has managed to lift a trophy every season since then. In the 2017-18 campaign, Reyer won the FIBA Europe Cup. The team joined the competition in the playoffs after being eliminated from the FIBA Champions League and went all the way, defeating Egis Kormend of Hungary in the eighthfinals, Nizhny Novgorod of Russia in the quarterfinals, Donar of the Netherlands in the semifinals, and Avellino of Italy in the finals. Reyer won both legs, 69-77 in Avellino behind 14 points from Austin Daye and 81-79 at home with 16 each from Peric and Haynes. Last season, Reyer managed to win another Italian League title with a similar path as in 2017. A second-place regular-season finish led to playoffs wins against Trento in the quarterfinals and Vanoli Cremona in the semifinals. The title series against Dinamo Sassari went down to do-or-die Game 7, played in Venice. Reyer gave Sassari no chance, roaring to an 87-61 behind 22 points from Bramos, 21 from Haynes and 13 from Daye. Back to the EuroCup for a second experience, Reyer made it to the Top 16 as the first-ranked place in Regular Season Group B with an 8-2 record. Reyer has found the way to be successful, opening a new golden era in club history, and wants to keep it going. 

Umana Reyer Venice is one of the oldest clubs in European basketball and has a story that deserves to be told. After finding big success in the early 1940s, winning consecutive Italian League crowns, Reyer spent 75 years without winning any major title.

The Club Scene: Umana Reyer Venice 

After playing basketball his entire life in his native Germany, Darussafaka Tefken Istanbul center Mahir Agva is getting a taste of a new style of game, a new country, not to mention a different version of one of his most-trusted foods: the doner kebab.

The 23-year-old Agva moved to Turkey this off-season after spending the past four seasons playing for three teams in Germany's first division.

"I'm still early in my career and I wanted to play in one of the best leagues in Europe and see how my game compares," said Agva, who had previously been with Walter Tigers Tubingen, Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt and, most recently, Giessen 46ers. 

Agva said the transition has been getting better after some early struggles. 

"I am super hungry to compete in the EuroCup." 

"At the beginning it was not that easy because all my life I played in Germany. This is the first time I have played in a different country. But I have some great teammates who help me a lot. I learn a lot from the vets like Sinan Guler or Erkan Veyseloglu," the 2.06-meter center said.

Agva said a move to the Turkish League has been in his thoughts for some time now.

"Turkey has always been on my mind. The last couple of years I have been in contact with [Darussafaka] coach Selcuk Ernak. And it finally worked out that we can work together," Agva said.

Agva has served a solid role as reserve big man, averaging 1.1 points and 1.3 rebounds in less than 10 minutes over eight 7DAYS EuroCup games so far and somewhat more with extra playing time in the Turkish League.

"It feels great to compete again in a European competition," said Agva, who played in the Basketball Champions League in 2016-17 with Frankfurt. "The last two years I didn't have the chance to do that. But I am super hungry to compete in the EuroCup."

Agva said the main thing he wants to contribute to his new team is his energy.

When asked what his former teammates would say about him, Agva answered: "They would say I play with a lot of energy, that I like to compete. Off the court, I'm a chill guy. I like to laugh and make jokes. But on the court, I always play with a high motor and with high energy."

But Agva is far from someone who is just basketball 24-7. 

"Mona Lisa is for sure one of my favorite pieces." 

Coming from Reutlingen, a city of 280,000 people and also playing in cities like Frankfurt (740,000), Ludwigsburg (90,000) and Giessen (84,000), the metropolis Istanbul with its 15 million people offers Agva a lot to see and do.

"I love it. Istanbul is an amazing city, and everybody who has been to Turkey knows that the food here is great. It's not easy to find a lot of free time with all the games and practice. But if I do have some free time, I like to spend it in Bebek and enjoy the vibe and enjoy some great coffee," Agva said of the historical Istanbul neighborhood along the shores of the Bosphorus.

Agva considers himself a big art and fashion fan, which is why he has often been seen wearing T-shirts with the famous Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci.

"Mona Lisa is for sure one of my favorite pieces," Agva said.

He also considers tattoos art and has made his body a bit of a canvas with various tattoos.

"I got my first tattoo when I was 18. I have stopped counting now. All of them have a big meaning to me. But the most important one for sure is the one on my left arm: a picture of my mother," he said.

Turkey is kind of a return home to Agva as both of his parents were born in southern Turkey. While Agva has made a name for himself in Germany with his basketball, his father has his own following back in Reutlingen, where he opened the first doner kebab shop about 25 years ago. 

"I would go there all the time after school when I was 6 or 7 years old. I went there, grabbed some lunch and did some homework and would help out in the restaurant," Agva said.

Doner kebab is a Turkish food which has developed into a favorite throughout Germany. The doner kebab that is beloved in Turkey is quite a bit different, though, as Agva found out.

"There is a big difference. It's different meat and they taste different. Both are really good but both are very different. In Germany they use a lot of sauce, and in Turkey there is no sauce at all," he explained. "I didn't know the taste was so different, so I was pretty shocked."

Yes, Agva's first basketball adventure outside of his native Germany has opened his eyes about more than just the hoops.

Darussafaka Tefken Istanbul center Mahir Agva's first basketball adventure outside of his native Germany has opened his eyes to more than just the hoops.

Spotlight, Mahir Agva, Darussafaka: 'Istanbul is an amazing city'

Whenever he's on a basketball court, Elijah Clarance of Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt is a must-watch player, capable of unleashing a highlight dunk at any moment. A big motivation behind the 20-year-old's heroics is to move his mother out of the tough Swedish neighborhood where he grew up.

Clarance finished the 7DAYS EuroCup Regular Season averaging 3.6 points, 1.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists over 13 minutes in five games. But in that limited time, the 1.95-meter rookie guard produced two of the top 10 dunks of the EuroCup Regular Season. 

"I'm just in attack mode at all times. When I go up to the rim, I am blessed enough to go up and dunk it," the Swede said.

Looking at his energy, it should not be a surprise that Clarance compares his game to those of Russell Westbrook and Damian Lillard.

"My favorite player is Russell Westbrook," he says. "It's their ability to playmake and create for themselves, but also create for their teammates. They are extremely aggressive and find ways to score." 

"At the end of the day, I embrace coming from Nydala because it made me who I am today." 

Quite a bit of Clarance's nature came from his upbringing in the Malmo neighborhood of Nydala in southern Sweden.

"It's definitely not a privileged area. There is a lot of violence and stuff going on, unfortunately. A lot of shootings," he said. "When I was younger it did affect me. My home situation was not the best but I stay positive and I had good people around me. At the end of the day, I embrace coming from Nydala because it made me who I am today."

Clarance was able to get out of Nydala, heading to the United States when he was 16 years old to attend St. Maria Goretti high school in Hagerstown, Maryland. After graduating, he stayed in the U.S. and spent last season at Illinois State University. Clarance's ability to showcase his game with the university team was limited as he missed four months with a foot injury and ended up contributing just 2.7 points and 1.1 rebounds in 11 minutes over 21 games.

"It definitely put a bigger chip on my shoulder because I felt going into college I just wanted to prove a lot to a lot of people and I wasn't able to do that," Clarance said. "All the adversity that I had to face in college I think helped me a lot."

Instead of using college to show the basketball world what he could do, Clarance wowed spectators in Chemnitz, Germany this past summer at the FIBA U20 European Championship 2018. Clarance took the tournament by storm, leading all scorers with 22.4 points to go with 6.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.9 steals, although Sweden finished 14th and was relegated to Division B. 

"I definitely used missing time in college as a motivation," said Clarance, whose scoring output has been matched by only Nikola Mirotic and Lauri Markkanen in U20 European history since 2010. "Those are great players, so it's definitely a blessing."

That performance sparked interest in Clarance from clubs in a few countries. What attracted Clarance to Skyliners was the club's recent history of developing young players, especially Isaac Bonga, who was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers last June. 

"I wake up with the purpose of trying to get my mother out of there." 

"I was just thinking it was a great youth program. I heard from a lot of people that (head coach) Gordie (Herbert) develops young players really well. That was the main reason for picking Frankfurt," Clarance said.

Clarance's move into professional basketball brings him closer to another major goal -- helping move his mother out of Nydala.

"She is definitely one of my motivations," he said. "I wake up with the purpose of trying to get my mother out of there."

Clarance would also like to help his Trinidad-born father get out of the area as well. His parents divorced but he still has great contact with both. 

Meanwhile, Clarance is working on improving his game, which includes playing with the Frankfurt club's second team in Germany's third division, where he is averaging 13.1 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.9 steals.

"I use the [third division] as a learning experience," he said. "I need to get better and read the game. I need to be more patient with the game and become a better point guard."

Practicing with Frankfurt's top team, and especially getting to learn from the 34-year-old team icon Quantez Robertson, has been a great experience for Clarance.

"Tez is a machine. He's been here for 10 years. What he is doing -- playing close to 40 minutes every game -- is amazing. He gives me advice all the time. I look up to him for sure," Clarance said.

Another player Clarance looked up to was Jonas Jerebko, who was the first non-American Swedish player in the NBA.

"I grew up thinking that if he can make it then I can make it," said Clarance, who talked to Jerebko as recently as after the Skyliners' last EuroCup Regular Season game. "He gave me great advice. He just said keep making your teammates better, become a better leader because that's what it takes to get to the next level."

Clarance may get a chance to make his senior national team debut on February 21 when Sweden hosts Denmark in a game taking place in Malmo.

"When I heard the news that it would be in my city, I was really shocked. It was an amazing feeling because they haven't played in Malmo in like 20 years," he said. "Just being able to be part of that would be amazing and everybody I know would be there for sure."

Whenever he's on a basketball court, Elijah Clarance of Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt is a must-watch player, capable of unleashing a highlight dunk at any moment. A big motivation behind the 20-year-old's heroics is to move his mother out of the tough Swedish neighborhood where he grew up.

Spotlight, Elijah Clarance, Skyliners: 'I'm just in attack mode at all times'



In almost three decades, Turk Telekom Ankara has done a little bit of everything – reaching finals, winning a title, playing in many different European club competitions, and even going down to the Turkish second division. The club stayed in the Turkish elite for 25 consecutive seasons and is now back at that level ready to make some noise. It is also Turk Telekom's fourth appearance in the EuroCup. Back in 2007-08, in arguably the club's best season ever, it was eliminated in the playoffs despite a 10-2 overall record. Some of the best Turkish players have worn Turk Telekom's jersey, but it was home also to many well-rounded, experienced foreign stars. Turk Telekom is now battling for a Top 16 spot, trying to make sure that its fans consider the 2018-19 season one to be remembered, too.

Founded in 1954 as a multi-sports club, Turk Telekom Genclik ve Spor Kulubu (GSK), it changed its name to PTT before opening its basketball section in 1991. The club made its official debut in the Turkish elite for the 1991-92 season, led by super scorer Mustafa Secerlioglu and a solid foreign duo like David Russell and Sergey Popov. PTT finished 9-17 that season, avoiding relegation. Edward Horton and local star Alper Yilmaz joined PTT the following season, reaching the 1992-93 playoffs after finishing in seventh place with a much-improved 19-11 record. PTT lost against Besiktas Istanbul 1-3 in the playoffs. The team's rise continued in the 1993-94 season. PTT won 15 of its first 16 games to finish the regular season first overall with a 27-3 record, with Mitch Smith and Viktor Berechnoi as its stars. PTT won its first playoffs round ever, downing Oyak Renault 3-1 in the quarterfinals, but lost against Ulkerspor 2-3 in the semis.

Its quick success allowed the club to make its debut in European club competitions in the 1994-95 season, surviving a couple of preliminary rounds in the Korac Cup before being swept by French side Cholet Basket. Back in Turkey, PTT ranked fourth overall in the Turkish regular season but did not go past the quarterfinals. PTT returned to the Korac Cup in 1995-96 but did not go past the second preliminary round. Efes Pilsen went on to win that competition, becoming the first Turkish team in any sport to lift a continental trophy. Meanwhile, PTT took a step back in the Turkish League, finishing eighth with a 14-16 record despite having a reliable foreign duo in Rickie Winslow and Mirko Milicevic. The club changed its name to Turk Telekom PTT before the start of the 1996-97 season, becoming just Turk Telekom in 1998.

Turk Telekom signed a young, promising head coach named Ergin Ataman who would later become the most successful one in Turkish basketball history, leading three different teams to Turkish League titles, lifting two European trophies – the 2002 Saporta Cup with Montepaschi Siena and the 2016 7DAYS EuroCup with Galatasaray Odeabank Istanbul – and giving Turkey its first Final Four qualifier, Anadolu Efes (the team he coaches again now) in 2000. Ataman's first season with the club -- which kept Winslow, Yilmaz, Milicevic and Richard Coffey as its main players -- was truly successful. Turk Telekom was really competitive in the 1996-97 Saporta Cup before stepping out in the quarterfinals against PSG Basket Racing of France. The club was second in the Turkish League regular season with a 24-6 record, defeating Tuborg (3-0) and Ulkersport (3-2, winning Game 5 at home 70-63 behind 19 points by Kemal Tunceri) to reach the finals against Efes. Since both teams exchanged regular season wins, the finals started 1-1 but Efes went on to win the next three games and lift the trophy. By reaching the final, Turk Telekom earned the right to make its EuroLeague debut in the 1997-98 season.

Rising to the challenge, Turk Telekom landed power forward Richard Scott and kept the core of its team. It beat teams like PAOK, Estudiantes and Split in the first group stage, finishing it with a 5-5 record, but a six-game losing streak ended all chances to make the playoffs. Playing the EuroLeague for the first time made Turk Telekom lose track in its domestic competition, falling to sixth place in the regular season and stepping down in the quarterfinals. The club kept fighting hard in European competitions, reaching the 1998-99 Saporta Cup eighthfinals and the 1999-2000 Korac Cup quarterfinals, before losing against Partizan Belgrade and Limoges CSP, respectively. Murat Evliyaoglu, Goran Jagodnik and Jerry McCullough were its best players in those two years, in which Turk Telekom returned to the Turkish League playoffs but did not go past the quarterfinals.

With Acie Earl as its superstar, Turk Telekom bounced back in the 2000-01 season, ranking fourth in the Turkish regular season with a 20-6 record and losing against soon-to-be champ Ulkerspor in the semifinals. Back in the semifinals in 2003, Ulkerspor again stood on its way despite solid contributions from Ivica Jurkovic and Semsettin Bas. Meanwhile, Turk Telekom reached the playoffs in the 2002 Saporta Cup and the 2004 FIBA Europe League but was eliminated in the first round, losing to Panionios of Greece and Nahariya of Israel, respectively. Turk Telekom made its EuroCup debut in the 2004-05 season, led by Willie Deane and Sasa Stefanovic, but quickly dropped out with a 0-10 record.

When the team returned to the EuroCup in the 2007-08 season, it was the other way around. Turk Telekom came off a strong 2006-07 season, in which Erwin Dudley and Jan Jagla took the club back to the Turkish League semifinals. Then the club made history in golden letters by lifting its first trophy, the 2007-08 Turkish Cup, led by Khalid El-Amin and Erwin Dudley, and coached by Ercument Sunter. That victory tasted sweeter because four previous trips to the final -- in 1996, 1998, 2001 and 2003 -- had ended in disappointment. This time, Turk Telekom gave its opponents no chance, downing Oyak Renault 80-61 behind 25 points from El-Amin, who earned MVP honors. The club had defeated Banvit and Fenerbahce to reach the title game. Turk Telekom also did well in the EuroCup, finishing the regular season with a 9-1 record, becoming the only team to down eventual champion DKV Joventut that season, by 96-94 in Ankara with 33 points from El-Amin. Turk Telekom, however, lost in the Last 32 against UNICS Kazan, which won the two-way series on points differential. The club bounced back in the Turkish League, upsetting regular-season champion Besiktas Istanbul in the semifinals to reach the title series for the second time ever. Fenerbahce Ulker prevented the team from winning the Turkish double, but the 2007-08 season was a historical won for Turk Telekom, arguably its best ever.

Turk Telekom made it to the EuroCup Last 16 in both the 2008-09 and the 2009-10 seasons, in which the club also returned to the Turkish League playoffs. Quality, experienced players like Serkan Erdogan, the late Michael Wright, Roderick Blakney, Huseyin Besok and Demond Mallet wore the club's jersey in those two seasons. The team went on to miss the Turkish League playoffs for four consecutive seasons, from 2011 to 2014, and also stopped competing in Europe. Josh Carter and Kristaps Valters helped Turk Telekom return to the Turkish League playoffs in the 2014-15 season, losing in the quarterfinals against Anadolu Efes, but everything went wrong a year later. The club finished the 2015-16 Turkish regular season with a 7-23 record and was relegated to the second division after 25 years in the country's elite. It took the club two years to return where it always belonged. An eighth-place finish in the 2016-17 Turkish second division left the team with little chance in the playoffs. The club fully bounced back in the 2017-18 season, getting promoted to the Turkish League with a league-best 29-5 record. T.J. Campbell and veterans Kaya Peker and Ender Arslan, who are still with the team now, were some of the players who made it possible.

The club accepted a wild card to participate in the 2018-19 EuroCup and played a big role in the off-season market, landing players like Vladimir Stimac, Reggie Redding and Sylven Landesberg. Despite a 0-3 start, Turk Telekom bounced back and now has a 3-5 record in Regular Season Group C, safe in the knowledge it will qualify for the Top 16 if it wins its two remaining games. Expect this historical team to keep taking giant steps, as Ankara is a basketball city and will be behind its trademark team through thick and thin!


The signature basketball club of the Turkish capital, Turk Telekom Ankara, is reminding everyone of its rich history during a return to the 7DAYS EuroCup this season.