By Antonis Stroggylakis / astroggylakis@eurohoops.net
ABU DHABI (United Arab Emirates) – Dimitris Diamantidis needs no introduction, and his inclusion in the All-25 EuroLeague team was a no-brainer. The Greek legend among a sea of reporters wished for his former team to win the trophy in an all-Greek final.
As he said, “I am happy to be here. In my eyes, those are the four teams that deserved to be here. It is the Final Four. I think we will have two great semi-finals. For my part, I hope that Panathinaikos will win the Euroleague. But we are happy, first of all, for being here”.
And for the elusive Greek final that never happened before in the history of the EuroLeague, Diamantidis, generally a man of few words, added: “I would like to see an Olympiacos–Panathinaikos final, I would really like it.”
On a personal note, when asked if he imagined as a kid having such a career, Diamantidis admitted that this was not on his mind: “No, little Dimitris didn’t start playing basketball for this. He started playing because he loved basketball, and he liked what he was doing. God gave me this blessing to be able to experience through the sport of basketball some amazing moments, and we managed to be here with 25 other players, who are a special group, and it’s a great honor for us”.
His teammate in Panathinaikos and currently assistant coach in Toronto, Mike Batiste, added: “I am very happy to be here. When you retire you look back at your career and you don’t want to have any regrets. There’s no regrets for how I did it and the choices that I made to be here now”.
Nando De Colo is all Fenerbahce
On the other hand, another member of the All-25 EuroLeague team has another affiliation. French former champion and former Fenerbahce player Nando De Colo feels that his former team has more than a chance.
As he said, “I will support Fenerbahçe. Of course, every team here can be champions. If you ask me who will be the champions, I can put Fenerbahçe a little bit ahead of the other teams because I played there. Still, at the end of the day, one match will determine the winner, so anything can happen. Fenerbahçe is a more experienced team compared to last year. This could be a factor in their ability to win the cup.”
Rudy on Spanish teams missing the Final Four, EuroLeague opening borders, and playing at Santiago Bernabeu
Another member of the All-25 team, Spanish icon Rudy Fernandez, addressed the fact that after 20 years, there’s no Spanish team competing in the Final Four: “It’s a wake-up call, it means we need to focus on next year. All Spanish teams need to take that step forward”.
Rudy, who has won everything but a gold Olympic medal with the Spanish national team and on the club level with Real Madrid, has one small regret. Spain will host the 2029 Eurobasket, and the opening game will be held in Real Madrid‘s football stadium, “Santiago Bernabeu,” in front of 80.000 fans.
So Rudy would love to be part of this: “You can imagine, being able to play at the Bernabeu is something incredible. It’s going to be historic, a global opportunity to host a game in a football stadium.”
The Spanish legend also approved the move of the EuroLeague, moving the Final Four to Abu Dhabi: “EuroLeague needs to open the borders and grow”.
And speaking about another member of the All-25 EuroLeague team, here’s Rudy Fernandez’s reaction to Luka Doncic’s trade from Dallas to the Lakers
🇪🇸🗣 Rudy Fernandez talked to Eurohoops and described his first reaction when he heard the news of the Luka Doncic to the Lakers trade. pic.twitter.com/iYV2FmACHu
— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) May 23, 2025