Let's admit it: Final Four is a thing of the past / News - Basketnews.com

EuroLeague's Final Fours can provide surprises, but it leaves little to teams and fans. A change of playoffs format is possible even with the current schedule, Jonas Miklovas argues in a BN+ opinion article.

Credit: EuroLeague basketball via GettyImages Credit EuroLeague basketball via GettyImages

With all the talk about future final fours in Dubai, Berlin, Kaunas and so on, I find myself questioning over and over again: are final fours here to stay? Is this the right way to find out the best team of EuroLeague? Why can't we have proper playoffs?

Previous EuroLeague CEO, Jordi Bertomeu, was clear - as long as he was in charge, Final four was the event to end the season.

It is the creme de la creme of EuroLeague, with four best teams, players, coaches, sponsors, media and VIP guests gathering in the same city for 4-5 days to celebrate the end of the season.

If done right, it can be a marvelous event. Fans pack the arena, high-intensity do-or-die games, youth tournament with future stars, in addition to all the ceremonies, official and unofficial parties.

But more often than not you get the feeling that it is an event for the EuroLeague management and their business partners and not for the main protagonists, teams and their fans.

Those teams spend 28 weeks playing regular season games, then battle in intriguing and intense best-of-five quarter-final series, and all of that could be erased in 40 minutes of one semifinal game.

This is just not right.

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