Bilbao becomes the first city to host a Champions League Final Four in which the host team does not participate. Things from Miribilla, the magic pavilion where everything is possible. Lenovo Tenerife and Baxi Manresa are trying to prolong this weekend the supremacy of the Spanish teams in the tournament promoted by FIBA, which coexists with the Euroleague and the Eurocup as club events on the Old Continent. The German Ludwigsburg, rival of the islanders, and the Israeli Hapoel Holon, the one that has fallen in luck to Manresa, will try to avoid a Spanish final, as happened in the 1999 Korac Cup (Barça-Estudiantes) and in the Eurocup in 2008 (Joventut-Girona) and 2017 (Unicaja-Valencia).
The representatives of the ACB have prevailed in three of the five editions disputed by this young tournament. AEK of Athens and Vitus Bologna have also conquered it. The only one that has repeated victory has been Burgos, winner of the last two editions and this year eliminated almost at the first chance. The champion pockets a million euros and the ticket to fight for the Intercontinental, the Club World Cup. The incentives are varied. For example, Vidorreta tries to be a prophet in his homeland, in Bilbao, at the head of a Tenerife team that is a Champions League classic: he won the first edition and was a finalist in the thirda. There are five Lenovo players who feel at home after playing for Bilbao Basket at different stages: Huertas, Borg, Rodríguez, Todorovic and Sulejmanovic. They face a Holon with players with an ACB past like point guard Ragland and three former Burgos players this year: Zach, Dalton and McGee.
The Manresa It arrives endorsed by its extraordinary results. They were group champions both in the regular phase and in the round of 16 and dispatched Unicaja in the quarterfinals. A historic player who faces his great challenge: a continental title. His coach, Pedro Martínez, already has it, with Joventut, the 1990 Korac. It will be the most supported team with almost 2,500 fans. Their rival, Ludwigsburg, struggled in the quarterfinals against Romanian side Cluj-Napoca. It has 10 Americans, among them the veteran Tremmell Darden, ex-Madrid and Unicaja, 40 years old.
