VR experiences all weekend at FanZone and on EuroLeagueTV

At the 2023 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four in Kaunas, Lithuania, basketball fans can get a taste of a first-class basketball experience without paying the thousands it costs for courtside seats. By heading to the VR stand at the [FanZone](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/news/the-euroleague-fanzone-comes-to-kaunas/), basketball enthusiasts can try out the state-of-the-art VR Experience, which is presented by Turkish Airlines, the EuroLeague's naming and innovation partner. From 10:00 am to 6:00 pm local time on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, there is the chance to test this technology and watch highlights in VR from this season and last year's Final Four, all from a courtside seat that has a 360-degree view of the parquet.

What's more, you can switch the angle of the camera, going underneath the basket or from the control room, all in the blink of an eye.

Fans watching the Final Four from home will be able to watch both semifinals, the third-place game and the championship game in VR, courtesy of the [EuroLeagueTV VR app](https://euroleague.tv/signup).

Final Four Landscape

Come and join us through [www.euroleagueland.net](http://www.euroleagueland.net)

After the success of the Final Four Metaverse: EuroLeague Land last season, Euroleague Basketball and Turkish Airlines have partnered up again to bring it back for the 2023 Final Four in Kaunas. With a virtual trip to EuroLeague Land, fans of Europe's premier basketball competition can engage with all things basketball and EuroLeague, play games, earn points and win rewards!

By playing the mini-games in EuroLeague Land, fans can earn basketZ tokens, which they can use to build and personalize their own basketball courts. They can also interact with other fans as if they were at the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague FanZone in Kaunas through chats and animations. Each participant in EuroLeague Land can customize his or her own 3D Avatar and then visit the different rooms to engage in a range of activities.

The longer you play and more basketZ you accrue, you improve your chances to unlock more rewards which will help you to build your dream court!

One of the highlights of Final Four Metaverse: EuroLeague Land will come on Saturday morning, May 20 at 11:30 CEST when players from the Final Four teams will enter the metaverse and interact with fans, too. Stay tuned to the EuroLeague's Instagram channel for more details.

EuroLeague Land is back for the 2023 Final Four!

The city of Kaunas and the fabulous Zalgirio Arena are the epicenter of European basketball for the next four days, as the 2023 Turkish Airlines Final Four comes to town. The good news for fans all across the world is that the action gets underway in just under 48 hours' time!

Wednesday has seen the final touches applied, both inside and outside the arena, as well as at Unity Square, the location of the FanZone. If you are a basketball fan, make sure to head to the FanZone to join thousands of fellow basketball lovers from all over the world.

The city itself is ready to welcome fans from all corners of the globe, and even though the games are two days away, you can already hear different languages being spoken on the streets and in local bars and restaurants, especially on Laisves Aleja, the city's most prominent pedestrian street.

Kaunas is also ready to welcome the four teams – Olympiacos Piraeus, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and AS Monaco – all of which are set to arrive in the city on Wednesday evening.

So, buckle up because, being here on the ground, there is a great amount of anticipation as this city and a country, which views the sport of basketball as a second religion, gets ready to host a memorable event: the 2023 EuroLeague Final Four.

Final touches applied to Zalgirio Arena and Kaunas

FINAL FOUR BLOG

Later on Wednesday night, all four Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four clubs are expected to arrive in Kaunas, Lithuania in a two-hour period, 30 minutes spaced in between one another. Before jetting off, AS Monaco, Olympiacos Piraeus, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid all posted tweets ahead of their flights to Kaunas. They are just a few hours away from landing!

<center>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr">🔜 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/F4GLORY?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#F4GLORY</a> 🙌 Lᴇᴛ’s Gᴏ 🏁 <a href="https://t.co/Y07RjCSlo7">pic.twitter.com/Y07RjCSlo7</a></p>&mdash; AS Monaco Basket 🇲🇨 (@ASMonaco_Basket) <a href="https://twitter.com/ASMonaco_Basket/status/1658825616513200128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 17, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">✈️ Off to 📍 Kaunas! <br><br>For more 📸 <a href="https://t.co/8JBLBvQ7No">https://t.co/8JBLBvQ7No</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OlympiacosBC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OlympiacosBC</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeAreOlympiacos?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeAreOlympiacos</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TogetherWeFight?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TogetherWeFight</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RoadToKaunas?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RoadToKaunas</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/F4Glory?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#F4Glory</a> <a href="https://t.co/6WX0agUVrH">pic.twitter.com/6WX0agUVrH</a></p>&mdash; OLYMPIACOS BC (@Olympiacos_BC) <a href="https://twitter.com/Olympiacos_BC/status/1658826856571830277?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 17, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="in" dir="ltr">Cap a Kaunas 🇱🇹 <a href="https://t.co/Nz2xYuHC6Y">pic.twitter.com/Nz2xYuHC6Y</a></p>&mdash; Barça Basket (@FCBbasket) <a href="https://twitter.com/FCBbasket/status/1658839263222329346?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 17, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">🛫 ¡Ponemos rumbo a Kaunas!<br>🔜 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/F4GLORY?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#F4GLORY</a> <a href="https://t.co/DszIrQzJPk">pic.twitter.com/DszIrQzJPk</a></p>&mdash; Real Madrid Basket (@RMBaloncesto) <a href="https://twitter.com/RMBaloncesto/status/1658842713159258112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 17, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The teams are on their way to Kaunas!

The championship game pregame and halftime shows at the 2023 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four in Kaunas aim to once again send shockwaves around the world with its first-in-class entertainment. This year, the internationally renowned [DJ Dynoro](https://www.instagram.com/dynoro/) and award-winning dance troupe [V-Team](https://www.instagram.com/megustavteam/) will take center stage.

By using cutting-edge technology, including augmented reality and kinetic set elements for the very first time during a pregame show, they will add an extra layer of excitement for basketball fans from all over the world.

"The choice of involving artists from Lithuania, such as DJ Dynoro and the V-Team dancers, is Euroleague Basketball's way of paying tribute to the host city of Kaunas, which deserves a special place in the hearts and minds of fans from all over Europe due to its passionate support for the Final Four and its devotion to basketball," Roser Queralto, Chief Business Officer of Euroleague Basketball.

The shows are produced by Filmmaster Events, which is an expert in the field and also produced the pregame shows at the Final Fours in Vitoria (2019), Cologne (2021) and Belgrade (2022), for which it captured prized for international Best Event Awards in the categories of Best Sports Events (Vitoria), and Use of Technology and Digital Transformation (Cologne, for the use of Augmented Reality).

Fans will be able to spot the catchy key messages and visual content, but the show also embodies the very essence of a constantly evolving brand that is in dialogue with its audience. The creative theme of the show, 'Echoes of Glory', conveys the idea of an energetic wave that comes from the DJ booth, flows across the court and splashes in the stands, while also getting fans watching at home excited about the top-tier basketball that is set to take place. The spectacle begins with DJ Dynoro playing a mashup that includes some of his most successful hits before an epic finale sees the unveiling of the EuroLeague Trophy.

Pregame and halftime shows feature Lithuanian artists

Witness Final Four games from a first-person perspective

EuroLeague fans will have the chance to experience the most thrilling momentum of the season from a first-person perspective as the referees officiating the two semifinals and the championship game at the 2023 Final Four in Kaunas will do so while wearing revolutionary Mindfly AI ultralight-powered bodycams during the action.

The semifinals, which will be played on May 19, will mark the first time that Mindfly technology will be deployed in a Turkish Airlines EuroLeague game, with the bodycams poised to capture an immersive experience that provides both video and audio feeds, replicating the closest experience that anyone can have on the court.

All fans will have the possibility to experience the immersive content that will be created with this revolutionary technology with the special clips that will be created and published on Euroleague Basketball's official web and social media platforms.

EuroLeague x Mindfly!

Euroleague Basketball and Mindfly bodycam to transport fans onto the court

If you are wondering what common denominator might predict a Final Four team's success, look first at the playmakers.

Euro playmakers have thrived at Final Fours

If you are wondering what common denominator might predict a Final Four team's success, look first at the playmakers.

In 20 editions of the Final Four since 2002, the MVP list is dominated by guards who either played the point full-time or had the ball in their hands consistently as double threats to score and pass. Such players have walked away as champions and MVPs on 13 of those 20 occasions.

The list includes the only three-time MVP this century, Vassilis Spanoulis, and a pair of two-time honorees as voted by the media on hand at the event, Dimitris Diamantidis and [Vasilije Micic](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/players/vasilije-micic/002580/).

A closer look shows that all but one of those 13 MVPs, with the exception of Tyrese Rice in 2014 with Maccabi Tel Aviv, were European. Whether formally listed as point guards or not, one-time Final Four MVPs like Luka Doncic and Juan Carlos Navarro more than met the criteria as playmakers.

Of course, that's not to say that playmakers from outside of Europe haven't had major impact on title runs.

Besides Rice, whose main running mate for Maccabi in 2014 was Ricky Hickman, one of the finest Final Four performers of the late 2000s was CSKA Moscow floor general J.R. Holden. Although he shared the point guard role with another of the MVPs, Theo Papaloukas, it is Holden who still holds the record for total points in Final Fours since 2002. In the same light, Acie Law had the highest PIR when Olympiacos repeated as champion in 2013 and Spanoulis won his third MVP award.

Some of the single Final Four MVPs – like Sarunas Jasikevicius, who won it with Maccabi in 2005, and [Nando De Colo](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/players/nando-de-colo/002100/), with CSKA in 2016 – were also instrumental in more than one title run. That was the case with Jasikevicius, in both 2003 with Barcelona and 2009 with Panathinaikos Athens, and De Colo in 2019 with CSKA. In other cases, the presence of European point guards who never won the MVP award was crucial to winning teams. That was the case for Ricky Rubio with Barcelona in 2011, [Sergio Llull](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/players/sergio-llull/tgb/) and [Sergio Rodriguez](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/players/sergio-rodriguez/cvm/) with Real Madrid in 2015, especially, and [Milos Teodosic](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/players/milos-teodosic/jdr/) for CSKA in 2017, when he had the highest PIR in the championship game.

Why European playmakers? Experience, mainly.

While non-European point guards usually have to learn the nuances of the game here – defensive freedom, spacing dynamics, tempo shifts and pacing – those who grew up here are steeped in those nuances from an early age. And, course, the intricacies of the high-speed chess match that is elite European basketball are most pronounced at the Final Four.

Sergio Rodriguez's Game 5 second half highlights

When an opponent successfully shuts down one aspect of a team's offense, another advantage usually opens up. The head coach may say as much in a timeout, but it takes the player with the ball in his hands to expose the defense's new weakness. Skills are essential, yes, but many years’ worth of playing high-pressure games in similar situations gives the point guard a sixth sense as to when to pull and when to push, and what arrows to pull out of his quiver.

A great example of such decision-making virtuosity was on display in the second half of Real's Game 5 win over Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade in the playoffs. Down 18 points early in the second half, Real's 36-year-old point guard, Sergio Rodriguez, started pulling all the strings he has used over the years. He exploited perimeter openings to hit and feed his teammates for three-pointers. When Partizan pressured outside, he practically found paths to the basket, where spaces had opened, to score what looked like easy layups. And when Partizan sent help defense at him to stop the layups, El Chacho lobbed to teammates for dunks. He found the hot hand of Llull for a crucial three-pointer off an inbounds with dwindling seconds on the shot clock. And he generally outfoxed Partizan at every turn and Real became the first team ever to come back from a 0-2 deficit to the Final Four. That was experience at work.

Every Final Four is different, but most winning teams have depended on Euro playmakers to a large extent. Let's see if that holds true this weekend in Kaunas, too.

When Olympiacos point guard Kostas Sloukas and Real Madrid playmaker Sergio Llull enter their respective games this weekend at Zalgirio Arena, each will appear in his ninth EuroLeague Final Four. That will tie them for second-most all-time with Theo Papaloukas, Kyle Hines and Andrey Vorontsevich, behind only Victor Khryapa, who is the all-time leader having played at 12 Final Fours.

Sloukas, a three-time EuroLeague champion, and Llull, who has two continental crowns to his name, enter this Final Four with 16 appearances apiece, which is [tied for fourth all-time](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/stats/key-stats-players/?size=25&misc=&category=GamesPlayed&seasonMode=All&sortDirection=descending&aggregate=accumulated&phase=FF). If they play in two games this weekend, they will move into a tie with Hines and Papaloukas for second place, with Khryapa safely in first place having played in 23 Final Four games.

The more time Llull and Sloukas spend on the floor, the better chances they will have to move up the all-time Final Four charts.

Llull currently [sits at 191 points](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/stats/key-stats-players/?size=25&misc=&category=Score&seasonMode=All&sortDirection=descending&aggregate=accumulated&phase=FF) at the Final Four and with 3 more he will catch J.R. Holden who scored 194, the most in Final Fours since 2002. Real Madrid's former EuroLeague MVP has an outside shot to even catch Nikos Galis, who sits in first place in scoring in the Final Four era with 231 points.

Sergio Llull's Final Four scoring

Llull is already [the all-time Final Four leader in assists](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/stats/key-stats-players/?size=25&misc=&category=Assistances&seasonMode=All&sortDirection=descending&aggregate=accumulated&phase=FF) with 62, a category where Sloukas ranks fourth (51). Lull is also tied with his teammate Sergio Rodriguez as well as Milos Teodosic for third in three-pointers made with 26. Only Juan Carlos Navarro (31) and J.R. Holden (30) have made more triples in Final Four history.

Rodriguez, who shined in Games 4 and 5 of the playoffs when he totaled 13 assists, is in third place in Final Fours all-time with 56 helpers and needs 4 more to pass second-placed Papaloukas (59). Rodriguez also has 163 career points in the Final Four and 10 more in Kaunas will get him behind only Galis, Llull and Holden on the all-time list.

That's not the end of the list of Real Madrid players who have a chance to shoot up the Final Four rankings.

Another Los Blancos veteran, Rudy Fernandez, is in [third place in Final Fours all-time](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/stats/key-stats-players/?size=25&misc=&category=Steals&seasonMode=All&sortDirection=descending&aggregate=accumulated&phase=FF) with 21 steals, which is 1 behind Victor Khryapa and 3 behind the all-time leader J.R. Holden (24).

All-EuroLeague First Team center and this season's EuroLeague Best Defender Walter Tavares enters the Final Four tied with Sasha Kaun for [fourth place all-time with 12 blocks](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/stats/key-stats-players/?size=25&misc=&category=BlocksFavour&seasonMode=All&sortDirection=descending&aggregate=accumulated&phase=FF); Maceo Baston and Ekpe Udoh are tied for second with 15, while Kyle Hines is the all-time leader with 16. It gives Tavares, who averaged 2.2 blocks this season, a clear shot to become the all-time Final Four shot-blocking leader.

Jan Vesely to go up two-point charts

FC Barcelona center Jan Vesely, who will play his first Final Four in four years, ranks fourth in Finals Fours since 2002 in [two-point shots made](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/stats/key-stats-players/?size=25&misc=&category=FieldGoalsMade2&seasonMode=All&sortDirection=descending&aggregate=accumulated&phase=FF) (48), and with 9 more would tie David Andersen's mark of 57. When it comes to the entire Final Four era, it would leave him behind only Galis and his record 87 two-pointers made.

Former EuroLeague MVPs Vesely and his teammate Nikola Mirotic are closing in on [the top five all-time in rebounds](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/stats/key-stats-players/?size=25&misc=&category=TotalRebounds&seasonMode=All&sortDirection=descending&aggregate=accumulated&phase=FF), with Mirotic ranking sixth (56) and Vesely seventh (54), just behind fifth-placed Mike Batiste (58). Vesely is also tied with Batiste for [seventh place with 20 offensive rebounds](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/stats/key-stats-players/?size=25&misc=&category=OffensiveRebounds&seasonMode=All&sortDirection=descending&aggregate=accumulated&phase=FF), with Gustavo Ayon and David Andersen tied for fifth with 21 apiece. Victor Khryapa and Luis Scola are tied for second (25) in this category; Kyle Hines is the runaway all-time leader with 39 offensive rebounds.

Llull, Sloukas among players nearing major Final Four milestones

Both Arvydas Sabonis and Walter Tavares will be in the same building, Zalgirio Arena, this weekend, which sparks the imagination to wonder: What if they played each other? 

Imagine that: Sabonis vs. Tavares

One was raised up in Kaunas, Lithuania, perhaps the one city in the world where basketball is indisputably the king of sports.

The other was discovered on a sparsely populated island in Cape Verde that is dedicated to salt production. He didn't touch a basketball until age 17.

Both grew to be more than 2.20 meters tall and came to dominate either end of the court at basketball cathedrals across Europe.

Arvydas Sabonis is widely considered the greatest offensive player his size in European basketball history. The Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four takes place this week in his home city, where he is an icon like no other.

Walter Tavares continues making a claim as the greatest defensive player his size that the EuroLeague has known. He will aim for his second continental title this week for the team with whom Sabonis lifted his only such trophy, Real Madrid.

Both will be in the same building, Zalgirio Arena, this weekend, which sparks the imagination to wonder: What if they played each other?

### The legend of Sabonis

Sabonis dominated in three different decades. In the mid-1980s, in his early 20s, he was a freak of nature, a super-sized center who could run the floor like a guard and jump through the roof. He led Zalgiris Kaunas to the 1986 EuroLeague championship game, but lost to Cibona Zagreb.

A series of injuries, including two Achilles tendon tears, limited his explosiveness and mobility. Still, Sabonis made the most out of his magic passing skills and extremely deep shooting range to find other ways to be dominant. After moving to Spain, he would become the 1995 Final Four MVP for what was Real's only EuroLeague title between 1981 and 2015. After going to the NBA to average 12.0 points and 7.3 rebounds in 420 career games with Portland, he returned to Zalgiris for his final season, in 2003-04. About to turn 40 years old, he averaged 16.7 points, 10.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.6 blocks in 18 games, coming up seconds short of taking his hometown team back to the Final Four.

In his international career, Sabonis won three Olympic medals: gold with Soviet Union in 1988, bronze with Lithuania in 1992 and 1996. He has been honored as a member of both the FIBA Hall of Fame and Basketball Hall of Fame.

Arvydas Sabonis Highlights

### The odyssey of Tavares

From being discovered by chance in Cape Verde, the teenage Tavares learned basketball with Gran Canaria, the club that recently won the 7DAYS EuroCup, and made the All-EuroCup First Team in his debut 2015-16 season in that competition, at age 23. He went from Gran Canaria to the NBA for a couple of years before returning to Europe with Real as an injury replacement early in the 2017-18 season. Six months later, he and Real were lifting the EuroLeague trophy together.

Tavares arrives to Kaunas in the prime of his career and in a very sweet moment. He was just tabbed as the EuroLeague MVP for April and May, was voted to the All-EuroLeague First Team for the third consecutive season, and was chosen by EuroLeague head coaches for his third Best Defender Trophy in six seasons.

### Sabonis: many ways to attack Tavares

Sabonis was a much better defender than most people remember, using his big body to box out and making the most out of his extremely high basketball IQ to find advantages. Tavares is an elite rim protector, so Sabonis would have to make the most out of his passing skills and mid-range shooting to keep Tavares honest. He would also probably find ways to put Tavares in foul trouble. Curiosly, however, Sabonis rarely played against taller opponents in Europe, and when he faced a taller player, his numbers weren't as great.

That happened in the 1992-93 season, when Real played against Pau-Orthez and 22-year-old center Gheorghe Muresan twice. At 2.30 meters, Muresan was likely the tallest opponent Sabonis ever faced. Real won both games, but Sabonis was outpowered by Muresan. Sabonis averaged 11.0 points and 11.5 rebounds to Muresan's 22.0 and 12.5, respectively, over those two games.

### Tavares: an underrated offensive player

Tavares would match up, size-wise, against Sabonis and could match his mobility even at his prime. This season, he set a single-season EuroLeague mark with 84 blocks and moved into first place all-time with 368 -- and counting. His quick feet and great timing to block shots would work in Tavares's favor, but he's also better and better on offense.

Tavares ranks third overall in two-point shooting percentage (69.0%) all-time in the EuroLeague. That includes loads of dunks, yes, but Tavares developed a nice array of effective shots in the paint, from mid-range jumpers to jump hooks. He has also improved his free throw shooting percentage to reach 79.0% this season.

Walter Tavares of Real Madrid has been chosen as the 2022-23 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Best Defender for the third time in his career.

2022-23 EuroLeague Best Defender: Walter Tavares

### What if they met on the floor?

Tavares is in the prime of his career and beginning to establish himself as an all-time great and perhaps the greatest defensive center in EuroLeague history. If ever there was a player who an opposing coach might tap to stop Sabonis, it would be Tavares. However, no player in EuroLeague history has ever stopped Sabonis.

 More than an all-time great, Sabonis is a living legend. The numbers he posted as a 39-year-old with limited mobility far exceed those of the best season of Tavares's career. Sabonis fused a combination – never seen before or since – of size, strength, understanding of the game, passing ability and overall skills. While it's true Tavares would challenge Sabonis, if they met in their primes, no one could ever stop Sabonis. 