The EuroLeague, known as the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague for sponsorship reasons, is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier men's league in Europe. The league consists of 18 teams, of which 16 are given long-term licences and wild cards, making the league a semi-closed league. The league was first organized by FIBA in 1958, subsequently by ULEB in 2000 and then solely the Euroleague Basketball.
A EuroLeague game, in 2019.
The setting of the 2014 EuroLeague Final Four in Milan
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball through the defender's hoop, while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own hoop. A field goal is worth two points, unless made from behind the three-point line, when it is worth three. After a foul, timed play stops and the player fouled or designated to shoot a technical foul is given one, two or three one-point free throws. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but if regulation play expires with the score tied, an additional period of play (overtime) is mandated.
Chris Dudley (#22), playing for the New Jersey Nets, squares off with Michael Jordan (#23), of the Chicago Bulls on March 28, 1991. Other players including Chicago's Bill Cartwright (#24) are present on the court.
James Naismith c. 1920
The first basketball court: Springfield College
The 1899 University of Kansas basketball team, with James Naismith at the back, right