Before flying to Madrid this week, I was thinking of the last Final Four I went to. Well, I was quite surprised that I have not been to a Euroleague Final Four for a long time. In fact, my one and only time was in Barcelona in 1998.
So it is exactly ten years ago that I have visited a Final Four and I hope the next is not that far away. I remember being on holiday with my parents at the time in Southern France and reading “L’Equipe” where I found an article about the Euroleague Final Four to be played in Barcelona that week. In those ancient times, there was of course no Internet and all the info I could get came from the written press. And I also remember making Excel sheets where I wrote down the boxscores to get averages of the different players; of every Euroleague team. Long time ago…
Luckily, in the newspaper was written a telephone number to call in Barcelona to get some tickets. Ten years ago, the Final Four was not as big an event as these days when it’s sold out months before. So without any Spanish, I managed to buy some tickets and convince my parents to drive me to Barcelona for the semi-finals. Partizan Belgrade – Kinder Bologna and Benetton Treviso – AEK Athens sound pretty different from where we are these days.
So I arrived at the Palau Sant Jordi on Montjuic with my little brother and there were not that many people. I guess the arena was half empty. However, we could see fantastic basketball games and such great players as Antoine Rigaudeau, Victor “Pasta” Alexander, Pedrag Danilovic, Zoran Savic and a young Pedrag Drobnjak. What I also remember pretty well was the fact that there was no real security in the arena so that I could walk into the Press VIP Area and grab lots of Kinder Schokolade which were, of course, not intended to be eaten by us. This was a great experience for me (the chocolate and the games) even if I was just getting familiar with basketball in 1998.
Well about the games, I cannot really remember anything so I checked to find a bit of youtube action. Nothing to be found about the semis but here are the final minutes of the 1998 Euroleague Final between AEK Athens and Kinder Virtus Bologna:
Which Final Four was your first? Do you still remember it? Would be nice to hear your stories…
