Alec Peters thinks it's time for American fans to find their EuroLeague team / News - Basketnews.com

Alec Peters shares with BasketNews his thoughts on EuroLeague's deal with ESPN to broadcast games of the top European competition in the United States and breaks down Olympiacos' playoff series against Fenerbahce.

Credit: Panagiotis Moschandreou/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images Credit Panagiotis Moschandreou/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

Almost 45 minutes after Game 5 between Olympiacos Piraeus and Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul concluded, Ali Koc left his team's locker room and his discussions with staff and front office members to return to the Peace and Friendship Stadium arena.

Player of the Game EFF 27 Kostas Sloukas Points 22 Accuracy 7-11 Rebounds 3 Assists 6

That was the place where the Turkish team had seen their last hopes of making the Final Four crumble. So, along with his entourage, the president of Fenerbahce thought he'd get a glimpse of the atmosphere.

As soon as Koc and the men of his personal guard approached the door that linked the tunnel to the arena, police officers were expecting them to recommend they return to the locker room.

Hundreds of celebrating fans who had entered the court made the arena inaccessible, lit up flares, and created a huge misty cloud that limited visibility to the bare minimum.

In essence, anyone who would try to go from one side of the court to the other came across a spectacle rarely seen on basketball courts but one that has become a routine in that particular arena.

"Does this happen after every game?" Koc asked the security guards without concealing his surprise, only to receive a negative response. No, it doesn't. But it's also true that in Greece, old habits die hard.

After the events that followed last year's Olympiacos-Monaco Game 5, which brought the Reds to the Final Four for the first time since 2017, Koc should have been prepared.

This time, the fans' invasion did not take place before the contest was over, but a few instances after the two teams had moved to the interiors of the stadium.

The match that propelled Olympiacos to their second consecutive Final Four did, in fact, include a novelty. And that wasn't the crazy fans' celebrations, some of whom did find their way to the locker room area.

Alec Peters

Team:Olympiacos PiraeusPosition:PF, SFAge:28Height:206 cmWeight:107 kgBirth place:Illinois, United States of AmericaProfileNewsStatistics

It was the fact that the game was the first to be broadcast live in the United States after many years.

As the EuroLeague announced, its flagship competition is back to the ESPN platform, which will air all playoffs and Final Four games of the current season on ESPN 3. The agreement also includes the entire 2023-24 season.

But since the Olympiacos-Fener outing was scheduled for Tuesday, it drew the curtain on what looks like a promising, albeit somewhat belated, venture. If one was to point to the most excited person about the deal, there would be no need to look further than Alec Peters.

The American forward was among the first players to publicly react to the news. He did so via his Twitter account, where he shared his enthusiasm.

"So much opportunity in the US for the EuroLeague," the 28-year-old forward wrote.

"Games will be at a time in the US where there isn't anything else on TV. If the media personnel who have the eyes and ears of basketball fans in the US talk about it, then it will become massive," he argued.

"It opens the door for gambling opportunities which drives popularity in sports. Give people in the US an opportunity to gamble on it, and they will watch it. The product speaks for itself. Put it in front of a US audience and watch it spread like wildfire."

Peters tends to get particularly vocal when the issue in question strikes a chord. Even after a game full of emotion and intensity, the Washington-born player couldn't curb his excitement once the matter was brought to his attention again.

"Man, how much time have you got?" he asked. "It's huge news!"

Peters said he had 100 people telling him they couldn't wait to watch Olympiacos take on Fenerbahce. He broke down the benefits that would arise from such a deal and the doors it would open for Americans to be engaged in something they'd hardly been familiar with.

"You give it to a platform like ESPN that's recognizable, and that's in everybody's house. Nobody has to sign up for a separate subscription and pay money to do something else.

You just tell them, 'Hey, it's on ESPN3. You can watch it at a time of day when there are no sports on TV when there's nothing else to watch, and when people will be looking for something to get involved in,'" Peters continued.

Credit Panagiotis Moschandreou/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

The former NBA big man thinks sports in the US have started to attract immense interest.

'It's crazy!" he exclaimed. "You saw what happened with Formula 1 and golf. It's only going to go up from here. You're going to see it played in the middle of the afternoon in sports bars one of these days, and people are going to find the teams they want to support. It can turn into so much more."

Watching US fans turn into ultras for EuroLeague teams would be a sight to behold. But before that should happen, there's another factor that can guarantee involvement, if not identification with certain clubs.

"We know gambling drives everything in sports," he repeated. "If you give people in the US something to gamble on, they'll watch. That's a huge driving force."

Peters thinks many people don't realize how much US fans long for sports.

"The economy is so big, and people are craving moments like today -- a Game 5 where you can see the crowd and the intensity. People want that. They will go take a lunch break, and they'll make sure they'll catch a EuroLeague game. It's a time of the day when people want something else in their lives that will get them excited," he maintains.

That's one of the main reasons why Game 5 involving Olympiacos and Fenerbahce could go down in the States the way the EuroLeague had planned out.

"It was such a good game for people to watch for the first time," Peters confirmed.

Some strongly doubted whether themomentum for EuroLeague to have it broadcast in the States was the right one, but Peters isn't among them.

"People back home were able to catch that atmosphere for the first time. They're hooked on it. They're going to watch the Final Four and watch the next season. They're going to be like, 'Oh, my God! This is what it's all about -- the intensity." It's going to only help the viewership come next season."

In his fifth season overseas, Peters said he's trying to find the right balance between his professional and family life.

"I talk to my mom and dad almost every day. My wife's here with me. They do a good job of staying away from talking about the Final Four."

Eventually and inevitably, discussions about the upcoming trip to Lithuania will start.

"We can move into next week and talk about some details on who's coming to Kaunas. That's the exciting part. I'm superstitious a little bit, so I haven't made any preparations. It's go-time again."

Peters is definitely one of Olympiacos' players who carry the Final Four experience on their shoulders. Apart from the team's Greek veterans (Kostas Sloukas, Kostas Papanikolaou), he and his former CSKA Moscow teammate Joel Bolomboy are the only ones who have actually won the trophy.

He believes that having the experience is huge -- and especially in the EuroLeague, it becomes more obvious than anywhere else.

"You see the teams that have been there before. Even though I wasn't here last year, I've been a part of the Final Four in my career. That's so crucial and helpful. I know how last year's Olympiacos made it to the Final Four, but I also know how it feels," Peters said.

The No. 54 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft reflected on the series vs. Fenerbahce, calling it "unbelievable."

"It was a lot of back and forth between us and Fenerbahce. Just the different styles and see how it all came together in each game, it was a hard-fought series. We're very fortunate to be tested like this and play such a good team."

Peters thinks it wasn't a typical No.1 vs. No.8 matchup. It took Olympiacos two weeks to knock their opponents down, but -- like every team going through a victorious tie-breaking game knows -- the taste is sweeter when some frenzy accompanies a big win.

"Of course, we all wanted to finish this as quickly as possible, but you can't beat Game 5 at home in this atmosphere. The home-court advantage proved to be very helpful," Peters noted.

Looking back on the series, with the exceptions of Games 1 and 5, all the contests went down to the wire.

Game 2 was decided in the last minute when Sasha Vezenkov failed to put Olympiacos ahead, and Tyler Dorsey sealed Fener's win.

Game 3 was a testament to Kostas Sloukas' genius in a career-best performance for the Greek guard.

Game 4 had Nigel Hayes-Davis, Dyshawn Pierre, and Tyler Dorsey making everything down the stretch when Olympiacos had a five-point lead.

"There were a lot of changes from game to game," Peters observed.

"That's the wonderful thing about the playoff series, whether you watch it or play in it. You see the little things that teams are trying to do. At the end of the day, you need great players to make plays -- and this series had a lot of them."

Of course, no greater play than the one Sloukas pulled off in Game 3 in Istanbul, where he needed less than four seconds to score the buzzer-beating 3-point shot that largely changed the outcome of the series.

"If you think about that, it doesn't go away," Peters commented.

"Without that, we would be down 2-1 and would be playing with our backs against the wall. We wish Game 4 would have turned out differently, but we have great players with tons of experience on our team. They've been in these moments plenty of times."

Peters would probably have had the chance to make another Final Four in 2020 had the season finished. But COVID broke out, and Anadolu Efes Istanbul's exceptional run in the regular season didn't materialize.

Hence, this is only the second Final Four for the former Phoenix Suns player, who hopes he can contribute to his team getting two more wins.

"It's going to be two teams coming off big wins, and you just hope that you'll be better prepared," he said, referring to the clash between Olympiacos and AS Monaco in the semi-final.

"It's less about thinking and more about being ready to play the game. You want that game to hurry up and be as quick as possible because you don't want to lose momentum."

In that respect, Peters has nothing to complain about. Olympiacos played Fener on May 9, and only 10 days later, they'll be taking on Monaco. This year, the gap between the playoffs and the Final Four is smaller than ever before.

"When we got the schedule, I was very happy about it," he admitted.

"Closing that gap is huge. I didn't like it in the past, where you'd finish the EuroLeague playoffs, and you'd have almost a whole month before the Final Four. You'd kind of lose momentum."

Peters wished the Final Four could have taken place the weekend after the playoffs (May 12-14).

"Let's be honest," he said. "That would be ideal in a perfect world, but we know there are other things you need to consider."

If what Peters said about American viewers craving to tune in is true, he and the rest of the Final Four participants will have to make the 10-day wait worthwhile.

Subscribe to BN+ and get access to exclusive content.