By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
The opening press conference of the 2025 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four Abu Dhabi tipped off with Euroleague Basketball CEO Paulius Motiejunas joined by Marko Pesic and Maurizio Gherardini on a panel to discuss the 25th anniversary of the EuroLeague.
“We created something that is very difficult to copy or recreate,” Motiejunas talked about the future of the league, “I know even different sports would want to have it. But based on that, the expansion, the future is whatever we choose to do with our future. The clubs, whatever they decide, should be the direction.”
“I truly believe we have strong enough teams to join and keep the level of competition at the same level. We have new markets, as Paris showed this year what it can do, we have Hapoel Tel Aviv, the winner of EuroCup coming in, and also shaking up the status quo,” he added on the planned expansion, “I think new clubs coming in, learning from the old ones, sharing information, but with the focus on putting a good product on the court, full arenas, sell-out arenas, and all the entertainment around it. These are the fundamentals that we are going to grow on.”
Euroleague Basketball president Dejan Bodiroga followed on, the second panel, alongside Zeljko Obradovic, Kyle Hines, and Nando de Colo.
Discussing the demanding schedule for all clubs, the head coach of Partizan Mozzart Bet, Obradovic, focused on the players.
“It’s not so easy for the players,” mentioned the legendary tactician, “I always talk about how we need to care about our players. They do not have much time to rest and the season is very long. This is something we need to discuss and help them play basketball at the level everybody would like to see.”