The Euroleague Final Four activities officially began today, from rumours to stories. Here is what went down.
RICKY RUBIO SIGHTING AT THE NIJT
During the first quarter of Joventut Badalona’s junior game against Lietuvos Rytas, Minnesota Timberwolves guard Ricky Rubio made an appearance to support his former club.
Rubio left Badalona to join Barcelona, eventually moving to the NBA, but the Spaniard cheered on his first professional side to a 77-65 win over last year’s NIJT champions.
NIJT “hosts” Team England gave a good accounting of themselves but in the end lost 69-58 to Barcelona in their first game of the tournament at the London Soccerdome.
FINAL FOUR FINALLY A SELL-OUT?
At the moment, they are still unconfirmed rumours, but members of the Spanish media present in London were informed that the last remaining tickets for the Euroleague Final Four have now sold out.
The Euroleague’s ticket supplier Viagogo began selling the remaining tickets at just £5.00 [€5.93] earlier last week, and despite them not being totally sold during the afternoon, they have now all been purchased within the last few hours.
EUROLEAGUE QUIETLY CONFIDENT OF LONDON NEXT YEAR?
Even though no decision has been made until Saturday’s press conference at 12pm, Euroleague officials are confident that the O2 Arena will also host the 2014 Final Four.
Despite a lack of interest from British media, which includes the BBC who have been present at the last four Final Four tournaments but decided not to cover the event in their own backyard, it is understood that the Euroleague are impressed with the set-up at the 20,000 capacity arena and its infrastructure.
GOINGS ON AT THE MEDIA AVAILABILITY
Today marked the first day of media availability for all four teams. TalkBasket managed to get in the action.
It’ll be a first “el Clasico” meeting outside of Spain since 1996 but both Barcelona and Real Madrid are looking at it as just another game.
“It doesn’t feel weird at all, we played against each other in the Kings Cup and that was on neutral terms,” Barcelona guard Marcelinho Huertas said.
“It’s good though, not at home or away which is what we’re used to. Tomorrow will be a game played in front of a different crowd, different circumstances and I’m sure it’s the same for Madrid when I say that it’s another game that we’re aiming to win.”
Barcelona veteran Sarunas Jasikevikvicius, who rode the London Underground today without being noticed added: “To tell you the truth, it hasn’t even thought that this was an el Clasico with Barca and Real Madrid.”
Real Madrid’s Marcus Slaughter shared the same opinions of his opponents for tomorrow’s clash.
“End of the day it’s a Euroleague game, not a Spanish league game, man,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where we play, if it’s in Spain or England or wherever, the stakes will always be high and we just getting ready to play and our aim is to reach the final.”
