In the opening hours of the FanZone at the 2023 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four, located at Unity Square in the center of Kaunas, people from all over the world – and supporters from a plethora of different teams – came together to celebrate their shared love of EuroLeague basketball.

Perhaps fittingly, upon walking into the FanZone, one fan was seen proudly wearing the jersey of Anadolu Efes Istanbul, the outgoing back-to-back champ. This weekend, a new champion will be crowned, with Olympiacos Piraeus, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and AS Monaco all hoping to come away from Kaunas, Lithuania with the championship trophy.

The red of Olympiacos dominated much of the FanZone, but as the hours went by, fans of Barca, Real and even Monaco began to appear. The family friendly atmosphere meant that some mothers and fathers had come with their sons and daughters, while there were also many groups of friends who decided to enjoy the festivities by taking part in the abundance of activities available.

In fact, even those whose teams didn’t make it to the Final Four still decided to make the trip to the Final Four, with supporters of the hometown Zalgiris Kaunas, as well as fellow EuroLeague teams Efes, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz and Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, all joining together at the FanZone. There were even fans of former EuroLeague sides Limoges and Jugoplastika Split present, in addition to some smaller teams that have never made the EuroLeague, such as Santo Andre of Portugal.

Fans from all corners of the globe have come together at the FanZone and the fun is going to continue throughout the day, so make sure to get down there if you haven't been already!

The Final Four FanZone opens its doors to the world!

Real Madrid swingman Rudy Fernandez is still going strong at age 38 and has a chance to add more hardware to a unique roll of honors. One of the few players whose popularity is great enough for him to go by just his first name, Rudy has been one of the most prolific winners in basketball, not just due to the quantity of his achievements, but also for the quality of them.

Rudy Fernandez: Celebrating a unique career

Real Madrid swingman [Rudy Fernandez](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/players/rudy-fernandez/bmt/) is still going strong at age 38 and has a chance to add more hardware to a unique roll of honors. One of the few players whose popularity is great enough for him to go by just his first name, Rudy has been one of the most prolific winners in basketball, not just due to the quantity of his achievements, but also for the quality of them.

Rudy has found success with his two European clubs, Joventut Badalona and Real, as well as with the Spanish national team. He has led Real to Turkish Airlines EuroLeague titles in 2015 and 2018, helping Los Blancos reach a new golden age. Fernandez had a starring role at first, making it to the All-EuroLeague First Team in the 2012-13 and the 2013-14 campaigns and earning 2014-15 All-EuroLeague Second Team honors. In recent years, he has been equally effective as a glue guy, defensive leader and all-around contributor on offense.

Los Blancos, with Fernandez as one of its leaders, has been a dominant force in Spanish basketball. He's helped Real win six Spanish League titles, six Spanish Copa del Rey crowns and lifted the Spanish SuperCup title eight times. And the only time Real was given the opportunity to play the Intercontinental Cup this century, Fernandez delivered again, leading Los Blancos to its 2015 title.

With Joventut, Rudy won the 7DAYS EuroCup in 2008 and earned Finals MVP honors. He lifted the Spanish Copa del Rey trophy with La Penya earlier that season. A year earlier, he won the FIBA EuroChallenge title with Joventut, which gives him three different European club titles in his career.

Rudy Fernandez, Real: 'I try to focus on the present'

Rudy has been just as successful with the Spanish national team, winning two World Cups and four EuroBasket gold medals. He is one of three players to win multiple EuroBasket, EuroLeague and World Cup crowns: Dejan Bodiroga and the late Sergei Belov are the other two. It gets better: Fernandez won three Olympic medals (silver in 2008 and 2012, bronze in 2016) and two more EuroBaskets medals.

That gives him 31 official titles and he is far from done. He has a chance to add a third EuroLeague title this week in Kaunas, where he helped Spain to the gold medal at EuroBasket 2011. If Spain qualifies in 2024, Fernandez may have the chance to become the first athlete to take part in six Olympics Games. Rudy is eager to continue adding hardware to a one-of-a-kind roll of honors. When the dust settles and he hangs up his shoes, he will go down in history as one of the greatest winners in the game of basketball.

For many of the volunteers staffing the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four, the opening activity was a One Team welcome session at Kaunas Hall opened by the City of Kaunas' Head of Sports, Tadas Vasiliauskas, and Euroleague Basketball's Director of Sustainability, Abigail Martín, thanking all volunteers in advance for the importance of the role they play for the success of the event. Before the Final Four games begin, the volunteers, who hail from across Europe and many other countries around the globe, broke the ice at the One Team session. 

Using the activities that One Team coaches from Zalgiris Kaunas employed during the season, the annual welcome session was a fun and dynamic team-building event, at the same time aiming to raise awareness among the volunteers on the need to help those who are at risk of social exclusion. While building camaraderie ahead of a busy and exciting Final Four weekend, volunteers also learned more about One Team's goals and the positive impact that the program continues to have on the local communities of Euroleague Basketball clubs.

Final Four Ambassadors also took part in the hour-long session on Thursday and helped show appreciation for the efforts of the volunteers.

"Everybody knows what One Team is all about; we try to help as many people as we can," Joe Arlauckas, a Final Four Ambassador, said. "Here in this type of situation, it's an incredible thing what the volunteers do for the tournament. The Final Four is only as good as it can be with the volunteers. The exercises we do here help people get to the next level."

"It's very nice to meet volunteers who are here for a third or fourth time," Ramunas Siskauskas, a former EuroLeague MVP from Lithuania, said. "It's very important to involve all the people and all the communities to become one big family. It's very nice to see people from all over the world come here and they attend the events. I am very glad to be part of One Team and this community. I'm proud and happy for Euroleague that they decided many years ago to start this project."

The volunteers needed only a little bit of instruction to know that One Team was for them, too.

"It was amazing to see some stars who played EuroLeague before and just to know more about how One Team works, the components of it," Egle Stankeviciute, one of the volunteers, said. "I think it's amazing and that everybody should learn more about One Team."

"We are all One Team," said Darius Maciulevicus, another volunteer. "We are all together from the highest level to the lower levels. Whatever time we have, it all adds up to help others and also help ourselves. Giving is a big happiness if you can share."

 Final Four volunteers gather for One Team welcome session  

FC Barcelona combo guard Nicolas Laprovittola is having what could be an unforgettable season, both on and off the court. Last December, Argentina's soccer team beat France on penalties to win the 2022 FIFA World Cup, giving the 33-year-old Laprovittola his first opportunity to see the Albiceleste become world champion. Now, Laprovittola has the chance to lift the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague title for the first time in his career.

Nicolas Laprovittola adds Argentinean flavor to the Final Four

FC Barcelona combo guard Nicolas Laprovittola is having what could be an unforgettable season, both on and off the court. Last December, Argentina's soccer team beat France on penalties to win the 2022 FIFA World Cup, giving the 33-year-old Laprovittola his first opportunity to see the Albiceleste become world champion. Now, Laprovittola has the chance to lift the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague title for the first time in his career.

 

Should Barca come away from Kaunas, Lithuania with the EuroLeague trophy, Laprovittola will become the sixth Argentinean player to lift Europe's biggest prize. Some of his best friends are already EuroLeague champions, including Facundo Campazzo, the current point guard for Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade, who won the EuroLeague with Real Madrid in 2015 and 2018. Even though they speak often, they prefer to speak about off-court topics.

 

"We speak every day, but not about who won what. I would rather talk about how our daughters are and how things are in general. We don't really speak about titles," Laprovittola revealed during Barca's media session at the Final Four.

 

In terms of other Argentinian players who have become a European champion, Andres "Chapu" Nocioni led Real to the 2014-15 EuroLeague title, earning Final Four MVP honors in the process. Before him, Manu Ginobili grabbed the 2001 Finals MVP, allowing the then-called Kinder Bologna, now Virtus Segafredo Bologna, to lift the EuroLeague trophy. Nocioni has played with Laprovittola in the Argentinian national team, and Laprovittola had some advice for him.

 

"He is a basketball commentator now! He is giving a lot of advice on Twitter," the Barca guard noted. "I know that I have his support and Facu's support, of course, being friends. We always want another Argentinean to win. That is very valuable, and I hope it pushes me to play a good game tomorrow."

Hugo Sconochini (Virtus in 2001) and Pepe Sanchez (Panathinaikos Athens in 2002) complete the list of Argentineans who have won the EuroLeague. Come the end of the weekend, Laprovittola hopes to join that list.

 

"It would be a dream come true," Laprovittola stated. "First of all, just being here is something really big for me, and I enjoyed it a lot in Belgrade last year. It is also a big challenge for me and my career. Being the only Argentinean here \[due to Gabriel Deck's injury\] is also important for me, but more than anything else, I have to get ready to help the team."

It was December of 2021, AS Monaco had started its first Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season with a 5-9 record, and was on a five-game losing streak. The club parted ways with head coach Zvezdan Mitrovic, the man who guided them to the 7DAYS EuroCup crown a season earlier, and appointed Sasa Obradovic as his replacement on the bench.

Obradovic, who previously had a one-year stint with Monaco in the Covid 19-shortened 2019-20 campaign, met the team, held a practice, and 48 hours later was coaching them for the first time on the road against Zalgiris Kaunas. 

"I remember that I had to pack my things and go straight to the game," Obradovic said, looking back to his start on Monaco's bench. 

Fast forward a year and five months later and Obradovic is set to guide his troops in club's first-ever EuroLeague Final Four, at the same venue where he made his Monaco coaching debut – Zalgirio Arena.

"Ending up in this situation, I could not have even dreamt about it, honestly," Obradovic told [EuroLeague.net](http://EuroLeague.net) during the session with the media after Thursday's practice and ahead of its Final Four semifinal clash against Olympiacos Piraeus on Friday. 

AS Monaco star guard Mike James talked to EuroLeague.net about the journey to the Final Four.

Mike James, Monaco: 'Everybody comes here to win'

That makes the game against the Reds, which is a rematch of their five-game playoff series last season, a full circle moment for Obradovic and Monaco in their journey together, one that started in Kaunas and now has reached new heights in the exact same city and arena.

In that game on December 15, 2021, also the first time that Monaco ever visited Zalgirio Arena, Obradovic guided Monaco to a dramatic 98-107 overtime win with star guard Mike James dishing a career-high 14 assists.

"Sometimes things happen for a reason and stars align," James says.

"That win was the beginning of a new story for Monaco," says team captain Yakuba Ouattara who knows a thing or two about the club, having spent all but one season with Monaco since 2015.

Sasa Obradovic, Monaco: 'I could not even dream about this'

Monaco has come a long way since that first visit to Kaunas. The team reached the playoffs last season and took another major step this season by making their first-ever Final Four.

But being new at the event does not mean Obradovic and his men want to stop.

"It is very satisfactory, but it is not the end of the story," Obradovic said.

"We want to win, we are here to win," Ouattara added. "We know nothing is going to be easy because it is our first experience playing the Final Four, so we are kind of an underdog team. But we like to be in that position because we have everything to prove to everybody."

Obradovic, James, Monaco come full circle in Kaunas 

On the eve of the semifinals at the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four, the four aspirants to the title are holding their first full practices at Zalgirio Arena on Thursday evening and attending to the hundreds of accredited media on hand this weekend in Kaunas. 

The traditional media availability is a final opportunity for the journalists who have flocked to Kaunas to get the pulse of the players and coaches before they count down to the first tipoff on Friday between Olympiacos Piraeus and AS Monaco, whose winner will face the victor in the second semifinal, FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid.

FINAL FOUR BLOG

Between the practices for the first game, many questions were aimed at Donatas Motiejunas of Monaco, who is playing his first Final Four in his hometown.

"I think such event in a place like this should happen at some point and it's better that it happens now," Motiejunas said. "I hope it's not not a last event that's going to come to this beautiful place that loves basketball so much."

Thomas Walkup on returning to Kaunas: 'It feels like home'

Another popular interviewee was Thomas Walkup of Olympiacos, who spent three seasons in Kaunas before moving to Athens, and joked about the weather difference between the two.

"The long winters I think were the best part," Walkup said, tongue planted firmly in cheek. "Yeah, I really miss the snow. The Athens weather is terrible."

Local fans might do a double-take at the length of Walkup's red beard, which he decided not to shave as Olympiacos marched to first place in the regular season and through the playoffs to get to its second consecutive Final Four.

"Yeah, not just myself but the team is pretty superstitious in general," he said, "so it's only fitting that we got a playoff beard going. And, from there, I've just kind of kept it."

Final Four teams meet the media at Zalgirio Arena!

The 2023 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four Press Conference took place at the FanZone on Thursday lunchtime, and one team's presence stood out more than the rest. While there were representatives of the Final Four teams on the stage, there was already a sizeable contingent of Olympiacos's supporters both inside and outside the venue.

In fact, the chants from the Reds fans' outside on the street could be heard inside the venue, leading to a funny question from one reporter, who asked AS Monaco's Mike James what he thought. "It's fun. It's nice to have fans, I guess," James responded with a grin on his face.

In this new format for the press conference, which also featured questions posed by fans on social media and saw a surprise reveal for the MVP award, some specially selected supporters were also able to attend the event and watch on from an elevated stand. Speaking after the event, one Olympiacos fan gave his thoughts on the experience:

"We found it by luck. We were roaming the EuroLeague website and we found that we could register for this one. It's amazing," he said. "It's really nice that the EuroLeague this year set a whole bunch of seats for fans in order to experience the whole thing and get into the spirit of the press conference. Of course, it was very good to see Sasha \[Vezenkov\] win the MVP award, Coach \[Georgios\] Bartzokas to win the Best Coach Award this year, because we are from Greece and we've come here for Olympiacos. We're season ticket holders in Greece, so I would say that we're very enthusiastic about the sport. It's really nice, the setting. We see it happening in the next years, of course. Since it's our first touch with the whole organization and the Final Four this year, we expect it to be really, really well produced and the experience to be shared with our kids, our grandkids and whoever comes our way."

Olympiacos fans at the Tip-off Event

Outside, a group of Olympiacos supporters were there waiting for Coach Bartzokas, Papanikolaou and Vezenkov to leave, and Bartzokas even posed for a photo with the fans before heading back to the team's hotel. The atmosphere provided by the travelling Olympiacos supporters is likely to be a sign of things to come, as the Reds are expected to have the largest group of fans at the 2023 Final Four.

Olympiacos brings the atmosphere to the FanZone Press Conference

It's hard to imagine any city loving basketball more than Kaunas. The city of roughly 300,000 has five basketball academies, which is two and half times as many soccer academies as there are in Kaunas. The largest and most well-known of them is Zalgaris Basketball Academy. 

Originally known as Sabonis Basketball Academy, it merged with the Kaunas Basketball School several years ago and now has more than 1,000 players aged 7 through 18. Among the many stars to have gone through the ranks at the academy to become future stars is Paulius Jankunas, who after retiring from a glorious playing career now serves as Zalgiris's assistant general manager. 

An inside look at Zalgiris Basketball Academy with Paulius Jankunas

A native of Kaunas, Jankunas welcomed the EuroLeague cameras for a tour of the pride and joy of Zalgiris. The complex features four basketball courts, nine dressing rooms, a fitness center and a conference hall. The academy has 26 experienced coaches and most players have five practices plus one game a week. Zalgiris operates the academy in conjunction with the City of Kaunas, which allows it to heavily subsidize the costs. Players pay just 20 euros per month!

Jankunas takes the cameras to see the two main practice halls, one of which features huge photos of the academy's famous graduates, such as Marius Grigonis, Lukas Lekavicius, Mantas Kalnietis and Jankunas himself. Let's have a look at one of the best basketball schools in the world, guided by Zalgiris legend Paulius Jankunas.

All four coaches and a player per team met the press and some surprise guests at the 2023 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four Tip-Off Event, sharing their impressions ahead of an exciting basketball weekend in Kaunas. 

The first questions, however, came from fans around the world. Vasilis Bolovnis asked Olympiacos team captain Kostas Papanikolaou in which moment of the season he told himself his team would go very far. 

"I don't think in this year's EuroLeague you could, at any point, tell that this could be a good year or not. It was a very competitive season, as Joe \[Arlauckas} said, the most competitive," Papanikolaou said. "I don't think that any team, at any point, had confidence or was 100% sure that it was going to be a great season."

"Honestly, this is my first Final Four and it is an amazing feeling to be here, in this event. It has been my dream since I watched as a kid the 2006 Final Four in Prague, my hometown," FC Barcelona guard Tomas Satoransky answered to EuroLeague fan Chrysanth Spanopoulou's question. "It is one of those things you want to experience as a player, being in that position. This season has been fun, but it is also a big challenge to be here." 

There were more surprises, one for each team, three-time champion Kyle Hines, former tennis player Alex Corretja, Final Four amabassador Jonas Maciulis and former Final Four MVP Luka Doncic sent videos with questions. 

Hines asked Coach Bartzokas and Papanikolaou what they remembered the most about the 2012-13 EuroLeague-winning squad. "Kyle Hines was a big part of that 2013 title in London. I am really happy to see him playing even now," Coach Bartzokas said. "It wasn't easy at all, especially for me, as a newcomer at the highest level. But we had a very strong team from the previous season with some new pieces. The team had a lot of confidence, they believed in themselves. Olympiacos always has some amazing players like Kyle, Kostas, Spanoulis, Printezis and those legendary players. But the team effort in our club was always the key." 

Maciulis asked Mike James how happy he was to take Monaco to the Final Four for the first time. "As organization, I think it is big to be here and experience it with everybody else for the first time. It kind of feel like my first time," James said. "It is fun to be here, it is a good event. I am just trying to enjoy the moment and trying to get some wins. 

Doncic asked about Real's playoffs mentality. "I believe that our team is in a good spot right now," Musa answered. "We have great momentum coming into the Final Four and of course, as Luka said, we will try to get the same momentum in the Final Four. It won't be easy, but we try to live the moment, go game by game, play by play and see what happens in the end." 

"I think this is the easiest Final Four. If you think about it, my whole family is here, they don't have to travel, I just have to pay for the tickets, that's it!," Coach Sarunas Jasikevicius joked about having the Final Four in his hometown. "All the surroundings are very comfortable, the arena is like home. So far, everything is extremely comfortable." 

"It is nice to have fans, I guess," James answered on playing in front of Olympiacos fans, making everyone laugh. "I am excited for the first game and ready to go." 

Asked about his team's virtues, Coach Chus Mateo of Real was clear: "We got the home-court advantage and in the end, it was key to get past the playoffs. Iy was hard to qualify and now, there is no turning back. The past, injuries, stats, favorites don't matter. We have to enjoy the Final Four after the job we did and of course, we want to win it. We are here to compete and give our best." 

"It is a great honor for me, for the players, for Monaco, for basketball fans in our country. I believe that throughout the season, we promoted basketball in the best possible way," Coach Sasa Obradovic said. "Even though sometimes there ws less appreciation to what we did, those comments motivated us even more to do the job over the line, and I think we definitely did it." 