2000–01 Euroleague

Euroleague
Champions	Kinder Bologna (2nd title)
Runners-up	Tau Cerámica
Teams	24
Awards
MVP	Dejan Tomašević
Finals MVP	Manu Ginóbili
Statistical leaders
Points	Gregor Fucka 19.7
Rebounds	Rashard Griffith 8.7
Assists	Elmer Bennett 5.5
← 1999–00 2001–02 →

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 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

Main article: FIBA European Champions Cup and Euroleague history

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 1999-00 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 2000–2001 season started with 2 separate top European professional club basketball competitions: the FIBA SuproLeague (previously known as the FIBA Euroleague) and the brand new Euroleague 2000-01 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:

Head-to-head record in matches between the tied clubs
Overall point difference in games between the tied clubs
Overall point difference in all group matches (first tiebreaker if tied clubs are not in the same group)
Points scored in all group matches
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.	Paf Wennington Bologna	10	8	2	812	760	+52
2.	Peristeri	10	7	3	841	786	+55
3.	Žalgiris	10	6	4	866	816	+50
4.	Adecco Estudiantes	10	4	6	820	821	-1
5.	Lugano Snakes	10	3	7	777	914	-137
6.	Zadar	10	2	8	840	859	-19

Group B

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

Group C

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

Group D

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	FC Barcelona	10	8	2	856	757	+99
2.	PAOK	10	7	3	846	773	+73
3.	Budućnost	10	7	3	844	819	+25
4.	Müller Verona	10	6	4	920	854	+66
5.	London Towers	10	1	9	775	878	-103
6.	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 leg	3rd leg
Paf Wennington 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	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 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 leg	3rd leg
Paf Wennington Bologna	2–1	Real Madrid	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 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	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 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	3–2	Tau Cerámica	65–78	94–73	80–60	79–96	82–74

2000-01 Euroleague Champions
Kinder Bologna 2nd Title

Awards

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.

References and notes

↑ EL.net interview: Eduardo Portela

External links

Euroleague.net - Official Euroleague homepage.
Eurobasket.com - Popular basketball news site.
TalkBasket.net - Basketball forum.

Kinder Bologna 2000–01 Euroleague Champions

6 Ginóbili (Finals MVP) 7 Abbio 8 Bonora 9 Jestratijević 11 Ambrassa 12 Frosini 13 Andersen 14 Rigaudeau 15 Griffith 18 Smodiš 19 Jarić Coach Messina

FIBA European Champions Cup and Euroleague

FIBA European Champions Cup era, 1958–2001

1958 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01

Euroleague Basketball era, 2000–present

2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16

Euroleague Finals

1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Euroleague 2001 SuproLeague 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015