Time for the first jembol of her new era Euroleague arrived. Now with Dejan Bodiroga in charge in place of the visionary Jordi Bertomeu and the gap with FIBA ​​narrowing daily, the second leading intercollegiate basketball competition on the planet is starting with optimism, revenue growth, leveling up as nearly all teams have been buffed, but also with three new appearances. for Valencia, Virtus Bologna and Zeljko Obradovic’s Partizan, as well as with a record number of season tickets (11,500 allocated to the Stark Arena).

Today will slightly open the curtain matches Villeurbanne – Armani, Maccabi – Zalgiris, Valencia – Baskonia, Bavaria – Fener and of course Panathinaikos – Real. “Queen” Mario Ezonia has arrived in Athens with a new coach and a lot of problems. Chusa Mateo will not have Fernandez, Hanga, Alosen, Randolph, Goss and Abalde at his disposal. However, Panathinaikos will also lose the services of key Nate Walters at OAKA, which is expected to be filled again.

Tomorrow, Olympiacos also enters the fray, which will have a very difficult task against Barcelona in Barcelona. Other matches tomorrow: Efes – Red Star, Alba – Partizan, Bologna – Monaco.

Giorgos Bartzokas said: “We show that we are at a good level. I think all teams will initially have problems with homogeneity. Maybe the tournament is better and harder than last year. Often the teams you don’t expect are better than last year, while others are worse, who have all the guarantees to do well. We hope that we will be one of the positive surprises, not the negative ones.”