Mirsad Türkcan
Mirsad Türkcan is a Turkish former professional basketball player of Serbian origin. Standing at a height of 6 ft 9 in, he played at the power forward position. A three-time All-EuroLeague Team member, he is the fourth best rebounder in the EuroLeague, since the year 2000, with 1,287 total rebounds. Born in Novi Pazar, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia as Mirsad Jahović, he moved to play basketball in Turkey. At the same time, he obtained Turkish citizenship, started playing international basketball with the senior Turkish national team. In 1999, he became the first Turkish basketball player to play in the National Basketball Association. In the EuroLeague, Türkcan amassed total of 50 double doubles, is one of only three players since the year 2000, to record a 20-point, 20-rebound game, he led the EuroLeague in rebounding five times. He was nominated for the EuroLeague 2001 -- 10 All-Decade Team, he became a EuroLeague Legend in 2017. Türkcan grew up with Efes Pilsen's junior teams, he made his professional debut with the Efes Pilsen senior men's team, during the 1994–95 season.
He won two Turkish Super League championships, in the 1995 -- 1996 -- 97 seasons with Efes. Türkcan was selected by the Houston Rockets in the 1998 NBA Draft. A few days after the draft night, he said in an interview: "This is a big step for me, but I played in Turkey, I am the first Turkish player to come into the NBA; this is important for me, for my family, for my country." Because of the 1998 -- 99 NBA lockout, he returned to Istanbul. His rights were traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, in January 1999, to the New York Knicks, in March, he signed with the Knicks, debuted in the 1999–00 season, in which he played in only 7 games. After being waived in February 2000, he finished his NBA adventure by playing 10 games for the Milwaukee Bucks. In January 2001, Türkcan moved to France, signing for the remainder of the season with Paris Basket Racing, he signed a contract with the Russian club CSKA Moscow, for the 2001–02 season. He signed a contract for the 2002 -- 03 season, he moved back to Russia for the 2003 -- 04 season.
Türkcan played with Dynamo Moscow of the Russian Championship, in the 2004–05 season. In the summer of 2006, he signed a contract with the Turkish team Fenerbahçe. During the EuroLeague 2008–09 season, he became the first basketball player to amass at least 1,000 total rebounds in the EuroLeague, since the start of the 2000–01 season. In the summer of 2009, he extended his contract with the Turkish club for the next two seasons. In February 2011, Türkcan ruptured the anterior cruciate ligaments in his left knee, during the Turkish Cup final, because of that, he missed the rest of the season. In July 2012, it was reported that Türkcan would announce his retirement, after 19 years of playing professional basketball. Türkcan ended his playing career with a farewell exhibition game, in September 2012. Note: The EuroLeague is not the only competition in which the player participated for the team during the season, he played in domestic competition, regional competition if applicable. Türkcan was a member of the senior Turkish national team that won the silver medal at the EuroBasket 2001.
He played with Turkey's senior national team at the following major international tournaments: the EuroBasket 1995, the EuroBasket 1997, the EuroBasket 1999, the 2002 FIBA World Championship, the EuroBasket 2003, the EuroBasket 2005. Mirsad Jahović was born in Serbia, he is known for various humanitarian activities in his hometown. His sister, Emina Jahović, is a pop singer, the former wife of singer Mustafa Sandal. Türkcan is known to have financially helped jump start her recording career. On December 18, 2005, Mirsad married 19-year-old Dina Džanković, his girlfriend of the time of five months, the 2005 Miss Serbia and Montenegro, they have three children together. The couple divorced in 2012. In 2015, Mirsad married Dušica Drljević, who gave birth to Rejjan Mete, the same year. 5× Turkish Super Cup Winner: 6× Turkish Cup Winner: 8× Turkish Super League Champion: FIBA Korać Cup Champion: 2× EuroLeague Final Four Participant: Russian League Champion: EuroLeague Regular Season MVP: EuroLeague Top 16 MVP: 3× All-EuroLeague Team: All-EuroLeague First Team: 2× All-EuroLeague Second Team: 5x Rebound leader of the EuroLeague: Rebound leader of the Italian League: Rebound leader of the Russian Super League: No. 6 retired by Fenerbahçe: EuroLeague Legend: Mirsad Türkcan at basketball-reference.com Mirsad Türkcan at euroleague.net Mirsad Türkcan at legabasket.it Mirsad Türkcan at tblstat.net
Greece
Greece the Hellenic Republic, self-identified and known as Hellas, is a country located in Southern and Southeast Europe, with a population of 11 million as of 2016. Athens is largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is located at the crossroads of Europe and Africa. Situated on the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, Turkey to the northeast; the Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a large number of islands, of which 227 are inhabited. Eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres; the country consists of nine geographic regions: Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace and the Ionian Islands.
Greece is considered the cradle of Western civilisation, being the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, Western literature, political science, major scientific and mathematical principles, Western drama and notably the Olympic Games. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as poleis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Philip of Macedon united most of the Greek mainland in the fourth century BC, with his son Alexander the Great conquering much of the ancient world, from the eastern Mediterranean to India. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming an integral part of the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine Empire, in which Greek language and culture were dominant. Rooted in the first century A. D. the Greek Orthodox Church helped shape modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World. Falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence.
Greece's rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The sovereign state of Greece is a unitary parliamentary republic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, a high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the tenth member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001, it is a member of numerous other international institutions, including the Council of Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Greece's unique cultural heritage, large tourism industry, prominent shipping sector and geostrategic importance classify it as a middle power, it is the largest economy in the Balkans. The names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages and cultures.
The Greek name of the country is Hellas or Ellada, its official name is the Hellenic Republic. In English, the country is called Greece, which comes from Latin Graecia and means'the land of the Greeks'; the earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, in the Greek province of Macedonia. All three stages of the stone age are represented for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries, as Greece lies on the route via which farming spread from the Near East to Europe. Greece is home to the first advanced civilizations in Europe and is considered the birthplace of Western civilisation, beginning with the Cycladic civilization on the islands of the Aegean Sea at around 3200 BC, the Minoan civilization in Crete, the Mycenaean civilization on the mainland; these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek.
The Mycenaeans absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC, during a time of regional upheaval known as the Bronze Age collapse. This ushered from which written records are absent. Though the unearthed Linear B texts are too fragmentary for the reconstruction of the political landscape and can't support the existence of a larger state contemporary Hittite and Egyptian records suggest the presence of a single state under a "Great King" based in mainland Greece; the end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to the year of the first Olympic Games. The Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, which spread to the shores of the Black Sea, So
2000–01 FIBA SuproLeague
The 2000–01 FIBA SuproLeague was the FIBA European professional club basketball Champions' Cup for the 2000–01 season. Up until that season, there was one cup, the FIBA European Champions' Cup, though in this season of 2000–01, the leading European teams split into two competitions: the FIBA SuproLeague and Euroleague Basketball Company's Euroleague 2000–01; the season started on October 18, 2000, ended on May 13, 2001. The competition's Final Four took place in Paris, France; the EuroLeague was established by FIBA, it operated under its umbrella from 1958, until the summer of 2000, concluding with the 1999–00 season. That was. Amazingly, FIBA had never trademarked the "EuroLeague" name, Euroleague Basketball used it without any legal ramifications, because FIBA had no legal recourse to do anything about it, so they had to find a new name for their league. Thus, the following 2000–01 season started with 2 separate top European professional club basketball competitions: the FIBA SuproLeague and the brand new Euroleague 2000–01 season.
The rift in European professional club basketball showed no signs of letting up. Top clubs were split between the two leagues: Panathinaikos, Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv, CSKA Moscow, Efes Pilsen stayed with FIBA, while Olympiacos, Kinder Bologna, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Tau Cerámica, Benetton Treviso joined Euroleague Basketball. 20 teams, playing in a tournament system. The first phase was a regular season, in which the twenty competing teams were drawn into two groups, each containing ten teams; each team played every other team in its group at home and away, resulting in 18 games for each team. The top 8 teams in each group advanced to the Round of 16, the winners of this round advanced to the Quarterfinals. Both of the rounds were played in a Best-of-three playoff system; the winning teams of the Quarterfinals qualified to the SuproLeague Final Four, held in the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, in Paris, on 10–13 May 2001. If one or more clubs were level on won-lost record, tiebreakers were applied in the following order: Head-to-head record in matches between the tied clubs Overall point difference in games between the tied clubs Overall point difference in all group matches Points scored in all group matches Sum of quotients of points scored and points allowed in each group match May 11, Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, Paris May 13, Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, Paris May 13, Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, Paris Miroslav Berić Nate Huffman Ariel McDonald Dejan Bodiroga In May 2001, Europe had two continental champions, Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv of the FIBA SuproLeague and Kinder Bologna of Euroleague Basketball Company's EuroLeague.
The leaders of both organizations realized the need to come up with a new single competition. Negotiating from the position of strength, Euroleague Basketball Company dictated proceedings and FIBA had no choice but to agree to their terms; as a result, the EuroLeague was integrated under Euroleague Basketball Company's umbrella, teams that competed in the FIBA SuproLeague during the 2000–01 season joined it as well. It is today admitted that European basketball had two champions that year, Maccabi of the FIBA SuproLeague and Kinder Bologna of the Euroleague Basketball Company's EuroLeague. A year Euroleague Basketball Company and FIBA decided that Euroleague Basketball's EuroLeague competition would be the main basketball tournament on the continent, to be played between the top level teams of Europe. FIBA Europe would organize a European league for third-tier level teams, known as the FIBA Europe League competition, while Euroleague Basketball would organize its own second-tier level league, combining FIBA's long-time FIBA Saporta Cup and FIBA Korać Cup competitions into one new competition, the EuroCup.
In 2005, Euroleague Basketball and FIBA decided to cooperate with each other and did so until 2016. In essence, the authority in European professional basketball was divided over club-country lines. FIBA stayed in charge of national team competitions, while Euroleague Basketball took over the European professional club competitions. From that point on, FIBA Saporta Cup and FIBA Korać Cup competitions lasted only one more season before folding, when Euroleague Basketball launched the EuroCup. 2000–01 Euroleague 2000–01 FIBA Saporta Cup 2000–01 FIBA Korać Cup 2000–01 FIBA SuproLeague Eurobasket.com 2000–01 FIBA SuproLeague 2000–01 FIBA SuproLeague At The FIBA Europe Site
Serbia and Montenegro
Serbia and Montenegro the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1992 - 2003, was a country in Southeast Europe, created from the two remaining federal republics of Yugoslavia after its breakup in 1992. The republics of Serbia and Montenegro together established a federation in 1992 as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. For the first several years of its existence, the state aspired to be recognized as the sole legal successor to Yugoslavia, but those claims were opposed by other former constituent republics; the United Nations denied its request to take up Yugoslavia's membership. After the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević from power as president of the federation in 2000, the country rescinded those aspirations and accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession, it re-applied for UN membership on 27 October and was admitted on 1 November 2000. The FRY was dominated by Slobodan Milošević as President of Serbia and President of Yugoslavia.
Milošević forced the removal of several federal presidents and prime ministers. However, the Montenegrin government enthusiastic supporters of Milošević, started distancing themselves from his policies; that culminated in regime change in 1996, when his former ally Milo Đukanović reversed his policies, became leader of Montenegro's ruling party and subsequently dismissed former Montenegrin leader Momir Bulatović, who remained loyal to the Milošević government. As Bulatović was given central positions in Belgrade from that time, Đukanović continued to govern Montenegro and further isolated it from Serbia, thus from 1996 to 2006 Montenegro and Serbia were only nominally one country—governance at every feasible level was conducted locally, in Belgrade for Serbia and in Podgorica for Montenegro. As a loose union or confederacy and Montenegro were united only in certain realms, such as defence; the two constituent republics functioned separately throughout the period of the Federal Republic, continued to operate under separate economic policies, as well as using separate currencies.
On 21 May 2006, the Montenegrin independence referendum was held, 55.5% of voters voted in favour of independence. The last remnants of the former Yugoslavia, after 88 years since its creation, came to an end upon Montenegro's formal declaration of independence on 3 June 2006, Serbia's formal declaration of independence on 5 June. After the dissolution, Serbia became the legal successor of the union, while the newly independent Montenegro re-applied for membership in international organizations; the country was known as the "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" from 1992 to 2003. The name Yugoslavia, an Anglicised transcription of Jugoslavija, is a composite word made up of jug and slavija; the Slavic word jug means'south', while slavija denotes a'land of the Slavs'. Thus, a translation of "Jugoslavija" would be'South-Slavia' or'Land of the South Slavs'; when Serbia and Montenegro was known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia or Yugoslavia for short, some nations, such as the United States, had referred to it as Serbia and Montenegro as their governments viewed its claim to Yugoslavia's successorship as illegitimate.
With the collapse of Yugoslavia during the 1990s, only the republics of Serbia and Montenegro agreed to maintain the Yugoslav state, established a new constitution for a new Yugoslavia in 1992. With the collapse of communism across Eastern Europe, the new state followed the wave of free market change, it abandoned communist symbolism: the red star was removed from the national flag, the communist coat of arms was replaced by a white double-headed eagle with the arms of both Serbia and Montenegro within it. The new state established the office of the president, held by a single person appointed with the consent of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro until 1997 after which the president was democratically elected. With the collapse of Yugoslavia and its institutions from 1991 to 1992, the issue of unity of the two republics remaining in the collapsing federation, Montenegro, as well as Serb-majority territories in Croatia and Bosnia that wished to remain united, became an issue. In 1991 diplomatic talks chaired by Lord Carrington with the leaders of the six republics of the collapsing federation, resulted in all the republics except for Serbia agreeing that Yugoslavia had collapsed and that each republic should become an independent state.
The Serbian government was surprised and outraged by Montenegro's decision in favour of terminating Yugoslavia, as the Bulatovic government had been allied with Milosevic's government in Serbia. Yugoslavia's collapse began in 1991 when Slovenia and the Republic of Macedonia declared independence. On 26 December 1991, Serbia and the Serb rebel-held territories in Croatia agreed that they would form a new "third Yugoslavia". Efforts were made in 1991 to include SR Bosnia and Herzegovina within the federation, with negotiations between Miloševic, Bosnia's Serbian Democratic Party, the Bosniak proponent of union – Bosnia's Vice-President Adil Zulfikarpašić taking place on this matter. Zulfikarpašić believed that Bosnia could benefit from a union
EuroLeague Final Four MVP
The EuroLeague Final Four Most Valuable Player Award is presented and awarded to the basketball player who has exhibited the most exceptional play during the EuroLeague Final Four. The award goes to the best player on the European-wide top-tier level EuroLeague's best team, it is considered to be the most prestigious individual award in European professional club basketball. The Final Four MVP award was first given at the end of the 1987–88 season, when the competition that would become called EuroLeague, was known as the FIBA European Champions Cup. Prior to the 1987–88 season, the Top Scorer of the EuroLeague Finals was noted. However, an actual MVP was not named until the first EuroLeague Final Four of the modern era was held. From the 1958 to 1986–87 seasons, the Top Scorer of the EuroLeague Finals was noted, regardless of whether he played on the winning or losing team. However, there was no actual MVP award given. From the 1988 EuroLeague Final Four through the 2016 EuroLeague Final Four, the voting for the EuroLeague Final Four MVP was done by the accredited media members in attendance.
Starting with the 2017 EuroLeague Final Four, the voting for the award includes an online vote of fans as well. Since the end of the 1987–88 season, when the first EuroLeague Final Four was held, an MVP is named at the conclusion of each Final Four. † The 2000–01 season was a transition year, with the best European teams splitting into two different major leagues: The SuproLeague, held by FIBA, the EuroLeague, held by Euroleague Basketball. That season's EuroLeague Basketball tournament did not end with a Final Four tournament. Instead, it ended with a 5-game playoff series. So, Manu Ginóbili was named the EuroLeague Finals MVP that season. NB: Kukoč won his first two awards in 1990 and 1991, as a citizen of SFR Yugoslavia. Bodiroga won his first award as a citizen of FR Yugoslavia; the country changed its name to Serbia and Montenegro in February 2003, three months before he won his second award. NB: Players from the former Yugoslavia are classified by their nationality in one of the current post-Yugoslav states.
Rice won his award as a citizen of both the United States and Montenegro. EuroLeague Awards EuroLeague Final Four EuroLeague All-Final Four Team EuroLeague Basketball 2001–10 All-Decade Team EuroLeague Season MVP Euroscar FIBA Europe Player of the Year Award FIBA Europe Young Men's Player of the Year Award 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors Mr. Europa EuroLeague official webpage InterBasket EuroLeague Basketball Forum TalkBasket EuroLeague Basketball Forum Euroleague's channel on YouTube
Polish Basketball League
Polska Liga Koszykówki is a professional men's club basketball league in Poland. It constitutes the highest-tier level of the Polish league pyramid; the winning team of the final round are crowned the Polish Champions of that season. It began in 1947–48, with the name of I Liga, was organized by the Polish Basketball Association; the league changed to its current form, beginning with the 1997–98 season, after the Polska Liga Koszykówki SA, PLK SA took control over the league. In 2000–01 season the league turned professional; the PLK, played under FIBA rules consists of 17 teams. A PLK season is split into a playoffs stage. At the end of the league stage, the top eight teams qualify for the playoff stage; the competition Polish basketball men's championships has existed since the year 1928. Śląsk Wrocław is the record holder for most titles, with 17. Due to sponsorship reasons, the league has known several names: As of the 2017–18 season, the teams playing in the PLK are: Most seasons:Śląsk Wrocław Single game scoring record:90 – Mieczysław Młynarski All-Time Scoring leaders:Highest attendance in a game:10,152 – Trefl Sopot vs Asseco Prokom Gdynia, at Ergo Arena on 14 April 2012 After the end of each season, individual honors are given to the best performing players of a season.
A select group of press members vote for the winners of individual awards. Basketball in Poland Polish basketball league system I Liga Basket Liga Kobiet Polish Basketball Cup Polish Basketball Supercup Polish Basketball Association Polska Liga Koszykówki - Official Site Polish League at Eurobasket.com
Unipol Arena
Unipol Arena is an indoor sporting arena located in Casalecchio di Reno, Province of Bologna, Italy. The seating capacity of the arena for basketball games is 11,000 people, the seating capacity for concerts is 18,000 people, it was opened in December 1993. It is home to the Virtus Bologna basketball team. During the year 2008, the arena had restyling works, which included a new museum dedicated to Virtus' history, four new JumboTrons, new white seats and black stairs, new white parquet. In October 2011, the arena changed its name to the current Unipol Arena, in a name sponsorship marketing deal, scheduled to last through 2016. In summer 2016, the capacity of the arena for basketball games increased from 8,650 up to 11,000; the arena was connected to a suburban train station. Other museums will be built, one dedicated to Futurshow, one dedicated to Luciano Pavarotti. Official Site Facebook page
Panathinaikos (3rd title)
Kinder Bologna
Mirsad Türkcan
Dejan Bodiroga
Alphonso Ford 
FC Barcelona (1st)
ALBA Berlin (1st)
Telindus Oostende (1st)
Kinder London Towers (WC)
Ural Great (1st)
Maccabi EliteTH (1st)
Žalgiris (1st)
Cibona VIP (1st)
Ülker (1st)
Idea Śląsk (1st)
Union Olimpija (1st)
Pau-Orthez (1st)
Budućnost (1st)
Portugal Telecom (1st)
Lugano Snakes (1st)
Alvik (1st)
Alphonso Ford
Manu Ginóbili
Grigorij Khizhnyak
Roger Huggins
