The Euroleague Final Four will tip off later today in London. Whichever team lifts the trophy on Sunday will be great, and they will also be flawed.
CSKA Moscow is a chunk of sinewy bulk molded by Ettore Messina into something definitely powerful, but lacking sustained chemistry and therefore only occasionally special. Olympiacos has MVP Vassilis Spanoulis and last year’s championship trophy to wave around, but they’ve also brought a bunch of forward-sized centers to a center-sized centers party.
Barcelona has the impenetrable defense and Juan Carlos Navarro’s big-game penchant to lean on but are missing Pete Mickeal and now possibly Nathan Jawai due to injury. And Real Madrid’s loaded with scoring options but can go just as ice cold as they can white hot.
Nope. None of these teams are perfect. And Sinan Guler should know: he’s beaten three of them.
The Anadolu Efes shooting guard was a part of back-to-back wins over Madrid and Moscow during the Top 16, then Efes went five games deep with Olympiacos in a thrilling playoff series that saw the home team win every game.
Guler never had a chance to finish the London sweep, however, as Anadolu Efes never faced the 2010 champs Barcelona. Having watched Xavi Pascual’s defense syphon off any and all fluidity from their opposition on a weekly basis this season, it’s probably not something Guler should be all that bummed about.
And after rallying back from a 2-0 deficit against Olympiacos, Efes was dangerously close to being here themselves. Alas, they couldn’t take game five from the Reds in Piraeus, so Sinan did not go to London. But considering he also lost to those same three teams this season, he can tell us a few things about the folks who did.
We’ll start with Olympiacos, the team with which Guler was most recently and repeatedly entangled.