u/Npvl2000

For some reason the sound is not available. Just imagine fur elise playing while watching it

Per Butasport.rs

The Final Four officially started yesterday, and honestly, I’m more hyped than I expected to be, especially considering Panathinaikos didn’t even qualify. From everything I’ve seen so far, EuroLeague seems to have done a genuinely good job organizing the event outside the four lines.

All four teams arrived at the same hotel yesterday, everything went smoothly. No fans screaming at coaches in the lobby, no airport drama, no mysterious beverages causing gastroenteritis, and unfortunately no “Where is the EuroLeague?”either.

That alone already feels like progress.

Every year I watch the Final Four press conference while fighting the urge to mute the stream because of the painfully awkward questions. To be fair, though, the quality has somewhat improved over the years. This time, a couple of things stood out to me.

First of all the kid in the photo above,MK. Don’t ask me for his full name because I genuinely have no idea. He’s some kind of basketball content creator who makes short-form videos playing street basketball that looks like a mix between one-on-one basketball and UFC.

And somehow, EuroLeague absolutely loves him.

For the last few months, he’s been everywhere. Social media, events, interviews — and now he’s asking questions at the biggest basketball event in Europe.

Maybe I’m just getting old, but I honestly don’t understand the direction. I get that EuroLeague wants to attract younger audiences and become more social-media friendly, but there’s a difference between modernizing your product and making everything feel unserious. The overly laid-back attitude, the body language, the whole presentation — to me it just doesn’t match the image EuroLeague should want for its biggest stage.

The second thing was the lack of live translation from Spanish to English during the broadcast.

How is there still no proper live translation?

We all know Spanish teams usually prefer answering in Spanish even when they speak English perfectly well, and honestly, that’s their right.But there is also such a thing as respecting the audience and the setting. This isn’t a local Spanish league press conference — it’s EuroLeague Final Four media day.

Last but not least, I want more from the coaches. And when I say more, I mean something different from the generic answers that sometimes don’t address the questions at all. For instance, I love Saras, but all his answers can basically be summed up as: “It doesn’t matter what I say now. Everything will be forgotten, and only winning matters.”

Maybe he’s not wrong, but then why are we even having the press conference in the first place?

Anyway that's just my thoughts. What do you think?

"I think we presented ourselves well. Could it have been better? Of course.

The squad was selected by a different coach. We had to adapt during the season, and there were many returning and injured players - that also had an impact."

Per Eurohoops