By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The Basketball Champions League is closing a decade with a bang.
Former champions AEK, nicknamed the “Queen”, and Rytas Vilnius, the club formerly known as Lietuvos Rytas, will play each other in the 10th final of the competition, which is preparing for an even more interesting future.
However, the focus today will be exclusively on the court.
While former two-time champions Unicaja Malaga and La Laguna Tenerife will face off in the 3rd place game (9/5, 17:00 CET) in a very awkward game that nobody really wants to be part of, the big final (9/5, 20:00 CET) is a must-see event.
Not only because it is a celebration of European basketball between two clubs representing two basketball-crazed countries, Greece and Lithuania, but also due to a clash of styles and high ambitions of both contenders.
Fourth BCL Final for AEK – First for Rytas
AEK have reached the BCL Final for the third time, after 2018 (100-94 vs. Monaco) and 2020 (74-85 vs. San Pablo Burgos), while Rytas will be the first Lithuanian team to feature in the title game in the competition.
AEK will attempt to become the fourth team – and the first non-Spanish one – to win the title game multiple times after Tenerife, Unicaja, and Burgos.
AEK and Rytas will face each other for the first time in the BCL, despite having respectively played 155 and 68 games; AEK have won all their previous four games played against Lithuanian teams in the BCL, while Rytas have only won three of their last eight BCL games against Greek teams, but scored 90+ points in three of the most recent four.
The MVP and the star
AEK’s Frank Bartley, who was named season MVP, has scored 294 points in the 2025-26 BCL and could become only the third player to reach 300 points in a single season under the current format (since 2020-21), after TJ Shorts II (331) and Marcus Foster (309), both in 2022-23.
Following his 29-point performance in the Semi-Final against Tenerife, Rytas’ Jerrick Harding will attempt to become the first player to score 25+ points in his two games of the Final Four.
He has already faced AEK once in the competition, it was during his very first BCL appearance, back in October 2020 with ERA Nymburk, when he finished the night with 16 points.
So sit back and enjoy, because this is a final that, no matter what, will be remembered.