Official Web Site Other Seasons __________________ 2008-2009 2007-2008 2006-2007 2005-2006 2004-2005 2003-2004 2002-2003 2001-2002 2000-2001 CSKA Moscow celebrating the Euroleague Championship 2008 (Photo: Eurobasket)

Finals: Game 1Semi-Finals: Game 1Quarter-Finals: Game 3Quarter-Finals: Game 2Quarter-Finals: Game 1Top 16: Round 6Top 16: Round 5Top 16: Round 4Top 16: Round 3Top 16: Round 2Top 16: Round 1Regular Season: Round 14Regular Season: Round 13Regular Season: Round 12Regular Season: Round 11Regular Season: Round 10Regular Season: Round 9Regular Season: Round 8Regular Season: Round 7Regular Season: Round 6Regular Season: Round 5Regular Season: Round 4Regular Season: Round 3Regular Season: Round 2Regular Season: Round 1 Coach Messina lead CSKA Moscow to the Euroleague Championship 2008 (Photo: Eurobasket) CSKA Moscow celebrating the Euroleague Championship 2008 (Photo: Eurobasket) The Final Four is over (Photo: Eurobasket) Eurobasket crew at Euroleague Final Four 2008 (Photo: Eurobasket)

CSKA Moscow (2007-2008)
Messina	Langdon	Smodis	Siskauskas	Papaloukas	Zisis

21	Langdon Trajan	192 (6'4'')	G	76
8	Smodis Matjaz	205 (6'9'')	F	79
9	Siskauskas Ramunas	197 (6'6'')	G	78
4	Papaloukas Theodoros	200 (6'7'')	G	77
6	Zisis Nikos	195 (6'5'')	G	83
22	Goree Marcus	201 (6'7'')	F	77
10	Holden J.R.	185 (6'1'')	G	76
14	Savrasenko Alexei	215 (7'1'')	C	79
24	Van Den Spiegel T.	214 (7'0'')	C	78
13	Andersen David	212 (7'0'')	C	80
31	Khryapa Viktor	204 (6'9'')	F/G	82
23	Shved Alexey	196 (6'5'')	G	88
7	Kashirov Anatoly	215 (7'1'')	C	87
15	Zabelin Artem	215 (7'1'')	F/C	88
20	Vorontsevich Andrey	204 (6'9'')	C	87
11	Pashutin Zakhar	195 (6'5'')	G	74
Head Coach: Messina Ettore (ITA) Assistant: Pashutin Evgeni Assistant: Molin Emanuele (ITA) Assistant: Poluyanov Vladimir

  CSKA captures the Euroleague Championship !!! 
Similarly like in previous seasons, also this year Eurobasket has live coverage from the most important European clubs event - Euroleague Final Four.

Final: Maccabi Tel-Aviv - CSKA Moscow 77-91 (21-22, 20-20, 16-21, 20-28)
Half of the arena was yellow as the Maccabi supporters were definitely the visible majority. CSKA support section was alot smaller, but they were joined by Montepaschi and Tau fans, who also cheered for the Russian team. Most of journalists predicted that CSKA would win the game as they more quality players on the paper, and at the beginning of the season not many predicted Maccabi making it to the Final Four. But after they changed the coach in the mid-season, they improved dramatically and made it all way to the Euroleague final.
Both of these teams are considered the the finest professional franchises in European basketball boosting annual budgets over $40 million dollars per season.
Maccabi Tel Aviv has won back to back Euroleague titles in the new millenium and CSKA has appered in the last six final fours.
CSKA powered their way to the Euroleague championship with a 91-71 victory and was lead by Trajan Langdon (192-G-76, college: Duke) 21 points, who mas named MVP of the Final Four.
The Russian team was a lot more disciplined on offense and Maccabi falter with a sluggish third quarter and individual play.
Maccabi's center Nikola Vujcic (211-C-78, agency: Interperformances) scored the first basket of the game. CSKA seemed to be a little pressed by the loud support of Maccabi fans which inspired the Yellows to a 5-0 lead.
CSKA's Trajan Langdon scored five points in a row cutting Maccabi's lead and Australian David Andersen (212-C-80) followed with a two pointer taking the first lead of the game for the Russian team.
Both teams got their rhythm while exchanging many baskets and CSKA opened up a small lead, but could not increase as both teams traded baskets like a good heavyweight fight.
Maccabi had a chance to knot the score but missed four consecutive free throws in a row. The first quarter ended with CSKA leading 22-21.
The second quarter started with a perfect play from both teams and the lead changed every few seconds.
Finally Maccabi made two turnovers and CSKA thanks to Matjaz Smodis (205-F-79) and his great inside game managed to get four point lead.
Maccabi took the time out but it did not help because they ended up loosing three out of the next four posessions and CSKA was more disciplined increasing the lead to seven points (38-31).
Maccabi's American Will Bynum (180-G-83, agency: Priority Sports, college: Georgia Tech) took charge and scored two consecutive baskets cutting the CSKA lead to just three points.
Maccabi took another time out then David Bluthenthal (201-F-80, college: USC/a>)'s three pointer tied the game. CSKA took a one point advantage to the halftime break (42-41).

CSKA Moscow started the third quarter very focused and after two three pointers in a row, they increased the lead to seven points. J.R. Holden/a> (185-G-76, college: Bucknell) and David Andersen was playing some good basketball during this time period.
Will Bynum on the other hand missed a couple of drives in a row and Maccabi suffered from too much one on one play and lost their composure.
Maccabi could not penatrate the strong defense of CSKA and the the Russian got the ball to their inside players increasing the lead to 9 points.
Three minutes before the end of the quarter Maccabi asked for the timeout but It did not help a lot and CSKA kept similar lead till the end of the quarter.

The fourth quarter started with CSKA playing very smart and controlled game. Maccabi's approach did not change too much and we could see the end coming soon. CSKA had a small fan contingent but was very loud considering their size compared to the Yellows and their fanatical supporters.
The Russian fans went crazy after Matjaz Smodis hit a three pointer giving CSKA fourteen point (71-57) lead. Maccabi took another timeout with the saame result.
The Russian team still controlled the game and was very successful defending the one-on-one play by the Israeli team.
Maccabi woke up exactly in the middle of the forth quarter, when they scored their first two baskets in this period.
CSKA took time out seeing the Yellows getting their rhythm. Maccabi was determined to change the result, but CSKA played very smart game and controlled the tempo of the contest.
Two and a half minutes before the end of the game Maccabi took its last time out since they had nothing to lose as the game was really over at this point.
At this time the security personnel already arrived on the court in a large number just to make sure they would have full control of the fans.
The final minutes belonged to Greek Theodoros Papaloukas (200-G-77, agency: Interperformances) and his Russian team. They had too mucch class to allow the victory slip out of their hands.
The Montepaschi fans who stayed to watch the final game after their team won 3rd place, started cheering in support of CSKA team, upcoming Euroleague champion.
It took CSKA 35 years to win the Euroleague title since it lifter the trophy in 1971, but won it twice in 2006 and now in 2008. It makes the Russian team the second most winning team in Euroleague history. Ettore Messina becomes the second most winning coach in Euroleague history with 4 titles, just behind Zeljko Obradovic with 6 titles.


  Eurobasket.com All-Euroleague Awards 2007-08 

All-league 1st Team 2007-08
Pekovic	Solomon	Massey	Spanoulis	Siskauskas

Nikola Pekovic (210-C-86) of Partizan Igokea Beograd (SRB) was voted Euroleague Player of the Year by Eurobasket correspondents. It was a very close vote with Jeremiah Massey (202-F-82) of Aris Thessaloniki (GRE).
Massey had slightly better stats. He had only 0.6 ppg, 1.5 rpg and 1.4 index rate per game more than Pekovic but he played 3 games less than Pekovic because of Euroleague quarter finals. Massey spent 33 minutes per game on the court while Pekovic had 27 mpg. Guard of the Year goes to Will Solomon. He had strong competition coming from Papaloukas, McIntyre and Diamantidis. But he posted better final stats. But there was no doubt who gets the award of the best defensive player. It goes to Terence Morris of Maccabi Elite who was top blocker and grabbed most of the rebounds. We had some problems with selecting top 5 import players. Tau's Tiago Splitter should make that list. But he has also Spanish passport, so is already counted as domestic player.

Player of the Year: Nikola Pekovic of Partizan Igokea
Guard of the Year: Will Solomon (187-G-78) of Fenerbahce Ulker
Forward of the Year: Jeremiah Massey of Aris
Center of the Year: Nikola Pekovic of Partizan Igokea
Import Player of the Year: Jeremiah Massey of Aris
Domestic Player of the Year: Nikola Pekovic of Partizan Igokea
Defensive Player of the Year: Terence Morris (206-F-79) of Maccabi Elite
Coach of the Year: Simone Pianigiani of Montepaschi

1st Team
Will Solomon of Fenerbahce Ulker
Vasilis Spanoulis (193-G-82) of Panathinaikos
Ramunas Siskauskas (197-G-78) of CSKA
Jeremiah Massey of Aris
Nikola Pekovic of Partizan Igokea

2nd Team
Dimitris Diamantidis (196-G-80) of Panathinaikos
Dusan Kecman (197-G/F-77) of Partizan Igokea
Trajan Langdon (192-G-76) of CSKA
Terence Morris of Maccabi Elite
Tiago Splitter (211-C/F-85) of Tau

Honorable Mention
Ksystof Lavrinovic (210-C-79) of Montepaschi
Matjaz Smodis (205-F-79) of CSKA
Lynn Greer (186-G-79,) of Olympiacos
Felipe Reyes (203-F/C-80) of Real
Michael Batiste (203-F-77) of Panathinaikos
Marc Salyers (205-F-79) of Roanne
Marc Jackson (206-C/F-75) of Olympiacos
Hollis Price (186-G-79) of Lietuvos Rytas
Igor Rakocevic (191-G-78) of Tau

All-Domestic Players Team
Dimitris Diamantidis of Panathinaikos
Vasilis Spanoulis of Panathinaikos
Dusan Kecman of Partizan Igokea
Felipe Reyes of Real
Nikola Pekovic of Partizan Igokea

All-Imports Team
Will Solomon of Fenerbahce Ulker
Igor Rakocevic of Tau
Trajan Langdon of CSKA
Jeremiah Massey of Aris
Michael Batiste of Panathinaikos

All-Defensive Team
Terrell McIntyre (175-G-77) of Montepaschi
Dimitris Diamantidis of Panathinaikos
Dusan Kecman of Partizan Igokea
Terence Morris of Maccabi Elite
Michael Batiste of Panathinaikos

Notice: The awards are done before Final Four, so they are nto effected by the last 4 games and they give more credit to overall- season, not just final stage.
The final votes were combined by Dragan Jankovski of Eurobasket Serbia/Euroleague