Three teams receive wild cards for ANGT Finals in Belgrade / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images Credit Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

The future of European basketball will take center stage at the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four from May 18 to 21, when the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Finals brings to Belgrade, Serbia, the best and brightest talents from four qualifying events to determine a champion of the 19th edition of the continent's top junior event.

Three teams – U18 Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade, U18 Maccabi Tel Aviv and U18 Mega Mozzart Belgrade – received wild cards to complete the eight-team field, which includes three former champions.

The three invitees will join the four teams that booked their tickets for Belgrade by taking first place at their respective qualifying events:

U18 ASVEL Villeurbanne (ANGT Belgrade) U18 Stellazzurra Rome (ANGT Patras) U18 PFYM INSEP Paris (ANGT Varese) and U18 Real Madrid (ANGT Ljubljana).

The eighth team at the finals will be made up of players from the four different U18 Next Generation teams that participated at the qualifying events and were coached by Vassilis Spanoulis, the newly-named Euroleague Basketball Legend who will lead them again in Belgrade.

Real – winner of the last two titles, in 2019 and 2021, as well as 2015 – is tied with U18 CSKA Moscow for a record three ANGT crowns. PFYM has claimed the trophy in 2010 and 2017 and Zvezda did so in 2014. Mega has twice reached and lost the ANGT Championship Game – in 2017 and 2019 – and Stellazzurra came up one step short in 2018.

In Belgrade, 12 group games will be played over the first three days at the Ranko Zeravica Arena, which will also host Saturday's ANGT Championship Game between the two group winners.

The nearly two decades of the ANGT have seen a host of tomorrow's biggest and brightest stars pass through. The ever-growing list of players currently on EuroLeague rosters who previously dazzled in the ANGT includes:

• Marcus Eriksson, Jonas Mattisseck, Tim Schneider and Yovel Zoosman (ALBA Berlin)

• Vasilije Micic and Yigitcan Saybir (Anadolu Efes Istanbul)

• Danilo Andjusic, Rudy Demahis, Donatas Motiejunas and Armel Traore (AS Monaco)

• Davide Alviti, Luigi Datome, Riccardo Moraschini and Giampaolo Ricci (AX Armani Exchange Milan)

• Simone Fontecchio and Vanja Marinkovic (Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz)

• Ognjen Dobric, Marko Gusic, Stefan Lazarevic, Branko Lazic, Luka Mitrovic and Aleksa Uskokovic (Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade)

• Marius Grigonis, Alexander Khomenko, Nikita Kurbanov, Andrei Lopatin, Nikola Milutinov and Alexey Shved (CSKA Moscow)

• Michael Caicedo, Rokas Jokubaitis, Nikola Mirotic and Sergi Martinez (FC Barcelona)

• Nihad Dedovic, Jason George, Ognjen Jaramaz, Leon Radosevic, Adreas Obst and Zan Sisko (FC Bayern Munich)

• Ismet Akpinar, Tarik Biberovic, Metecan Birsen and Marko Guduric (Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul)

• William Howard, Elwin Ndjock, Matthew Strazel and Victor Wembanyama (LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne)

• Ante Zizic (Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv)

• Livio Jean-Charles (Olympiacos Piraeus)

• Eleftherios Mantzoukas and Nemanja Nedovic (Panathinaikos OPAP Athens)

• Alberto Abalde, Thomas Heurtel and Juan Nunez (Real Madrid)

• Mario Hezonja and Artem Komolov (UNICS Kazan)

• Marek Blazevic, Niels Giffey, Mantas Kalnietis, Lukas Lekavicius, Karolis Lukosiunas and Edgaras Ulanovas (Zalgiris Kaunas)

• Arturas Gudaitis and Dmitry Kulagin (Zenit St Petersburg)

Entrance to all ANGT Finals games is free of charge, allowing both local and visiting fans to see many elite young talents in European basketball, the future stars of the EuroLeague and the 7DAYS EuroCup, compete against each other.

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