By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
ATHENS — The vast majority of Olympiacos Piraeus players marched into the 2026 Final Four pursuing an elusive first EuroLeague championship title they have been chasing for a long time.
Not Alec Peters though. Apart from longtime captain Kostas Papanikolaou, who was a key member of the Olympiacos team that won the back-to-back titles of 2012 and 2013, Peters was the only player of the Reds with a EuroLeague cup in his case from 2019 when he was a player of CSKA Moscow in his debut season in the competition.
This one though on Sunday night felt much, much different.
“I think this one [tastes sweeter],” Peters admitted, trophy in hand, minutes after the celebrations on the floor were over following the win over Real Madrid. “I think I was telling my family and wife about this. The first one I won, I was so new. It was my first year. And I had such great veterans on the team and I watched them how they reacted and celebrated to it.”
Being now a EuroLeague veteran himself, Peters came to a place of even deeper understanding and appreciation of what winning this title means. Especially if you’ve been going after this goal for so long.
“I think I’ve been chasing that moment ever since,” Peters said. “And now I know exactly what they felt like. For 7 years now I’ve been trying to get back. Trying to get another one and feel more a part of it. It all happens. I think about those guys. I think about Kyle Hines out there. I see Sergio [Rodriguez] with Madrid. Playing against Nando [De Colo]. The guys over there I was with in 2019. The impact they had on me. What it meant to them when we won.”
It’s only natural to feel that way also since the American sharpshooting forward had a much more significant role in the 2026 Final Four of Olympiacos than in 2019 with CSKA.
In the Athens tournament, Peters delivered an impeccable performance of 16.5 points and 4.5 rebounds over the semifinal and the Final, missing only 1 out of his 13 field goal attempts. Some of his buckets came at key moments in each of the two games, under shot clock pressure.
Apart from being the leading scorer of Olympiacos he also contributed 4.5 rebounds.
“Now I get it. Now I get it,” Peters added.
Peters’ EuroLeague experience with Olympiacos until Sunday night was the definition of “Close but no Cigar”. The 31-year-old player joined the Greek powerhouse in 2022 and made three straight Final Four trips from 2003 to 2025 only to endure an equal number of heartbreaks.
The 2026 championship was more than enough to wash away all the bitter disappointments from the previous Final Fours for the entire Red squad.
“Man… I don’t know. But it just feels like we’ve been climbing a mountain for a long time and we’ve finally reached the top,” Peters said. “It feels like we deserve it. We are the best team in Europe and we finally have something to show for it.”
It wasn’t easy for sure. Real Madrid went into the game as tough as they come despite multiple absences and a decimated frontline.
Even when Sergio Scariolo’s players fell behind 88 – 80 with 36 seconds to play they managed to come at a shooting distance within moments and make it 88 – 85. Yet they saw their championship dreams fading for when Andres Feliz missed a wide open 3-pointer to tie the game with 16 seconds left and Peters secured the win of Olympiacos on the other end with a pair from the line.
It was a rather stressful minute for Peters and the rest of the Olympiacos players before the happy finale.
“When crazy stuff starts happening like purposely missed free throws and we can’t get the rebound and we turn the ball over,” Peters commented. “Then you start just feel like: Alright, can we finish this game already? Thankfully, we did just enough to settle ourselves. And we were all relieved.”
Peters, now a two-time EuroLeague champion, becomes a free agent this summer. Does he look forward to increase his silverware collection with the same team?
“Next season’s far from my mind right now,” Peters said. “I’m going to celebrate with my family right now and enjoy this with my teammates. I’m more worried about how much sleep I get tonight – if any. And if my daughter goes to school tomorrow.”
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