The EuroLeague Dreams of 3.4 Billion Euros, While in the Arenas From Belgrade to Skopje People Still Spit

Olympiacos with four injured players topple Barcelona in overtime

At half-time Olympiacos had a 10-point lead and an infirmary on the bench: Jean Montero with knee pain, Donta Hall with a strained foot, Nikola Milutinov with a blow to the lower back and Mbaye Ndiaye with a haematoma around the eye. Barcelona took advantage - Justin Robinson tied it with a three 1.8 seconds before the end. But in overtime the Greeks held on and won 105:100 at the Palau Blaugrana in round 6 of the EuroLeague. The best was Bulgarian Sasha Vezenkov with 25 points, 6 rebounds and a performance index rating of 38, while Ndiaye, the one with the black eye, added 17 points. For the hosts, Robinson had 17 points and 6 assists. A team that was counting wounds at half-time and still took the win at the end - that's the profile of a champion.

Yabusele: "They spat in my face" in Belgrade

Panathinaikos beat Partizan 72:55 in round 5 and stayed perfect with five wins from five games, but the loudest line from the Belgrade Arena wasn't about basketball. Frenchman Guerschon Yabusele said he enjoys a hostile atmosphere in front of 15,000 people, but as he left the arena objects were thrown at him and some people spat in his face. "Everyone knows, and nobody does anything," he said. His teammate Nigel Hayes-Davis compared the arena to Madison Square Garden - but he too added that the atmosphere is fantastic only as long as nobody throws things or spits at people. Belgrade hasn't forgotten Yabusele from the 2023 playoff brawl, when, as a Real player, he threw Dante Exum to the floor and got a five-game ban. But is an old score an excuse for spitting in someone's face?

MZT Skopje win the derby with TFT and stay perfect

In the opener of round 3 of the Superleague, at the Jane Sandanski hall, champions MZT Skopje beat TFT 70:66 and now have three wins from three games. The first quarter ended 25:10, it was 41:28 at half-time, and the derby looked settled. It wasn't. TFT clawed back step by step, and with a minute and 28 seconds left the score was 67:64. The champions still knew what to do when it mattered most. Top scorer for the hosts was Nikolić with 15 points, and for the visitors Sila with 19. For TFT this is a second defeat, after the one in Bitola against Pelister. Rabotnički, the only other unbeaten team, visit Pelister - and have a chance to match MZT's record.

Spitting at the referee cost Rabotnički

Spitting isn't a Belgrade speciality. KK Rabotnički have to pay a fine because a fan in the stands spat at the referee during their Superleague home game against Tikveš - the match was stopped as early as the second minute. Rabotnički won 86:70, but the win was overshadowed by a scene that has nothing to do with basketball. The club also received a warning for organisational failings: there was no Macedonian flag on display in the hall, and the equipment for showing personal fouls at the scorer's table was missing. Kumanovo and Štip were also fined, over the behaviour of their home crowds. If in a single week people spit both in Belgrade and in Skopje, do the fines scare anyone at all?

The EuroLeague draws up a 3.4-billion-euro plan

While spit is being wiped off arena floors, the EuroLeague is counting billions. All 13 shareholder clubs approved the new ten-year business plan, which envisages 3.4 billion euros distributed to the clubs - 2.2 billion from revenue and 1.2 billion from franchise fees. The goal is 648 million euros in annual commercial revenue by year ten, and the league claims it has 15 binding offers for new franchises, with expansion planned in two windows, in 2027 and 2031. The projection says club values will triple, to 5.4 billion, and the league's value will reach almost 8 billion euros. The numbers are on paper, and paper will take anything. The question for the Balkans is simple: how much of those billions will reach Belgrade, Athens or Skopje - and how much only those who already have them?