26-05-2025
EuroLeague basketball: Fenerbahce find Final Four glory in Abu Dhabi classic
27 May 2025 00:44
KUUMAR SHYAM (ABU DHABI)The 2025 Final Four of the basketball's second-biggest event – the EuroLeague – will go down as a special one for various reasons, and not just because it was staged outside of Europe for the first time, with Abu Dhabi playing the neutral host to the top four clubs of the Türkiye fans, the Turkish Airlines-sponsored event saw Fenerbahce being crowned EuroLeague champions and after an eight-year wait for the club's second title. They were favourites on paper to win the title against Monaco, whom they beat 70-81 in a low-scoring final at the Etihad Arena on Sunday Monaco were no pushovers. Both finalists were responsible for knocking out two more illustrious Greek sides in the semi-finals – Panathinaikos and Olympiacos.'We were prepared to suffer, as I reminded the boys, before the match. And we had to work hard, man to man, quarter by quarter,' said coach Sarunas Jasikevičius, who incidentally became only the fourth player in history to win the EuroLeague both as a player and a coach; Sunday's feat adding to his four titles as a a satisfactory twist in the happy ending for the Turkish club was the fact that Nigel Hayes-Davis was adjudged Most Valuable Player, the American having fallen out of favour with Jasikevičius at their previous club, Barcelona. A season non-regular Hayes-Davis moved to Fenerbahce first and immediately notched the record for most points (50) scored in a game in his first season. But then Fenerbahce chose to bring in Jasikevičius as they coveted the EuroLeague title. And on Sunday, Jasikevičius admitted relations with the power forward sidelined had been frosty early in the season. 'After I arrived, we had a talk and Nigel told me what were the areas where he disagreed with my plans. And he was right. So I decided to change and now all is good,' the coach said absorbed early pressure as Monaco took a slender lead in the first quarter at 20-18. However, the Turkish side fought back for a 17-13 score in the second quarter and led 35-33 after the first half. The third quarter was even more keenly fought with Fenerbahce edging ahead 54-51 in the low-scoring encounter. But then Fenerbahce found an extra gear when it mattered, taking the fourth quarter by a 27-19 led the way with 23 points and nine rebounds, with Marko Guduric scoring 19, while Devon Hall and Wade Baldwin netted 13 apiece. Alpha Diallo paced Monaco with 19 points, Mike James scored 17, Matthew Strazel had 13 and Daniel Theis contributed 12. While the coach was his usual animated self as he called out instructions, players rallied around the calm Hayes-Davis, who remained non-fussed in expressing his delight at becoming the MVP. 'I thought I'd be probably crying or something like that, but I've just played it over so much in my mind that, you know, in life if you do something a thousand million times, it's not that exciting on the millionth time. And I feel like that's what I'm a victim of right now,' Hayes-Davis said, words struggling to come out of his the new-found harmony between the duo showed as Hayes-Davis explained the team's strategy - quoting from his coach's playbook - to neutralise Monaco's 'physicality' in their approach.
And then in a dramatic moment before Hayes-Davis left the news conference, he poured a full bottle of water over the coach in a moment of light-hearted celebration. The Lithuanian coach took it on the chin amid loud cheers from the back where the support staff were seated.
