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| Euroleague | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | 2000–01 | ||||||||||||
| Number of teams | 24 | ||||||||||||
| Finals | |||||||||||||
| Champions |  Kinder Bologna (2nd title) | ||||||||||||
| Runners-up |  Tau Cerámica | ||||||||||||
| Finals MVP |  Manu Ginóbili | ||||||||||||
| Awards | |||||||||||||
| Regular Season MVP |  Dejan Tomašević | ||||||||||||
| Statistical leaders | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
The 2000–01 Euroleague was the inaugural basketball season of the EuroLeague, under ULEB and its newly formed Euroleague Basketball Company authority. Overall it was the 44th season of the premier competition for European men's professional basketball clubs overall. Initially not recognised or sanctioned by FIBA and considered a breakaway competition. It started on October 16, 2000, with a regular season game between hosts Real Madrid Teka and Olympiacos, which was held at the Raimundo Saporta Pavilion, in Madrid, Spain,[1] and it ended with the last championship finals game on May 10, 2001, which was held at the PalaMalaguti arena, in Bologna, Italy.
This season did not feature all of the top-tier level European club basketball teams, as some of them opted to compete in the 2000–01 FIBA SuproLeague competition instead, after the row erupted between the previous EuroLeague governing body, FIBA, and the newly established Euroleague Basketball Company. It was the first time in European basketball that several clubs did not qualify to a European competition based on performance, but instead wild cards were given. Top clubs also signed licences with the right to participate in upcoming seasons regardless of their domestic league ranking.
A total of 24 teams competed for the EuroLeague title, which was in the end won by Kinder Bologna. Dejan Tomašević was the EuroLeague Regular season MVP, and Manu Ginóbili was the EuroLeague Finals MVP.
European Champions' Cup teams divided
The FIBA European Champions' Cup was originally established by FIBA and it operated under its umbrella from 1958 until the summer of 2000, concluding with the 1999–2000 season. Euroleague Basketball Company was created by ULEB clubs in 2000. At the time the leagues of ULEB were Spain, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Portugal, England and Switzerland.[2] However against the will of their domestic leagues clubs from Lithuania, Croatia, Russia, Israel and Slovenia opted for the Euroleague competition despite the fact their leagues were not members of ULEB.
FIBA had never trademarked the "EuroLeague" name and had no legal recourse on the usage of that name, so they had to find a new name for their league. The following 2000–01 season started with two top European professional club basketball competitions: FIBA SuproLeague (renamed from the FIBA EuroLeague) and Euroleague.
Top clubs were split between the two leagues: Panathinaikos, Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv, CSKA Moscow, and Efes Pilsen stayed with FIBA, while Olympiacos, Kinder Bologna, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Tau Cerámica, and Benetton Treviso joined Euroleague Basketball. Lugano Tigers the Swiss champions were the last team to join the ULEB side and enter the competition.
Rules, format changes and dates
On 11 July 2000 in Thessaloniki during the ULEB Assembly format changes and dates were set for the new competition [3] The Official List of the teams will include a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 16 players. Ten players will be allowed on the bench while 2 USA players per team were permitted. There was no Final Four but a best of three series in the Final.
Andrea Bassani (ex-General Manager of the Italian League) was appointed in the Assembly as the Manager of Marketing and Media of the Euroleague.
Referees
Kostas Rigas was elected the commissioner. Three referees will officiate every Euroleague game. The team of Officials will be made up of 45 referees which signed guaranteed contracts for three years with no age restriction. However FIBA did not allow them to officiate in their domestic leagues in 2000-01.
Dates
Games will be played on Thursdays, with the possibility of moving them forward to Wednesday when necessary.
- Regular season: 19 October 2000 to 8 January 2001
- Play-offs 1/8 finals- 1,8,15 February 2001
- Play-offs ¼ finals: 22 Feb, 1, 8 March 2001
- Semi-finals: 27, 29 March, 3, 5, 12 April 2001
- Finals: 17, 19 April, 1, 3, 10 May 2001
Team allocation
A total of 24 teams from 14 countries participate in the competition.
Distribution
The table below shows the default access list.
| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | |
|---|---|---|
| Regular season (24 teams) |
|
|
| Playoffs (16 teams) |
|
The competition culminated in a best 3 out of 5 playoff series.
Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round
- 1st, 2nd, etc.: League position after Playoffs
- WC: Wild card
| Regular season | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Paf Bologna (1st)
|
 AEK (4th)
|
 Cibona VIP (1st)
|
 Opel Skyliners (3rd)
|
| Benetton Treviso (2nd)
|
Peristeri (5th)
|
Zadar (2nd)
|
 Union Olimpija (3rd)
|
| Kinder Bologna (3rd)
|
Real Madrid Teka (1st)
|
 Žalgiris (2nd)
|
 Region Wallone Spirou (4th)
|
| Müller Verona (4th)
|
FC Barcelona (2nd)
|
 Budućnost (1st)
|
 Ovarense Aerosoles (1st)
|
| PAOK (2nd)
|
Adecco Estudiantes (3rd)
|
 Hapoel Jerusalem (WC)
|
 Lugano Snakes (1st)
|
| Olympiacos (3rd)
|
Tau Cerámica (4th)
|
 Saint Petersburg Lions (WC)
|
 Haribo London Towers (1st)
|
Regular season
The first phase was a regular season, in which the competing teams were drawn into four groups, each containing six teams. Each team played every other team in its group at home and away, resulting in 10 games for each team in the first stage. The top 4 teams in each group advanced to the next round, The Top 16. The complete list of tiebreakers is provided in the lead-in to the Regular Season results.
If one or more clubs were level on won-lost record, tiebreakers were applied in the following order:
- Head-to-head record in matches between the tied clubs
- Overall point difference in games between the tied clubs
- Overall point difference in all group matches (first tiebreaker if tied clubs were not in the same group)
- Points scored in all group matches
- Sum of quotients of points scored and points allowed in each group match
Group A
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Qualification | PAF
|
PER
|
ZAL
|
EST
|
LUG
|
ZAD
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paf Bologna
|
10 | 8 | 2 | 812 | 760 | +52 | Advance to Playoffs | — | 71–69 | 91–85 | 81–72 | 81–66 | 81–77 | |
| 2 | Peristeri
|
10 | 7 | 3 | 841 | 786 | +55 | 83–70 | — | 74–92 | 91–81 | 85–68 | 92–73 | ||
| 3 | Žalgiris
|
10 | 6 | 4 | 866 | 816 | +50 | 73–56 | 86–73 | — | 77–80 | 105–89 | 97–85 | ||
| 4 | Adecco Estudiantes
|
10 | 4 | 6 | 820 | 821 | −1 | 76–90 | 86–91 | 87–77 | — | 97–76 | 93–81 | ||
| 5 | Lugano Snakes
|
10 | 3 | 7 | 777 | 914 | −137 | 72–100 | 80–91 | 95–87 | 77–76 | — | 75–74 | ||
| 6 | Zadar
|
10 | 2 | 8 | 840 | 859 | −19 | 87–91 | 79–92 | 86–87 | 80–72 | 118–79 | — |
Source: Euroleague