Euroleague: before Monaco, these other French clubs to have known the last four

Fantastic, exhilarating, heroic. There is no shortage of qualifiers after AS Monaco qualified on Wednesday May 10 for the Final Four of the Euroleague basketball, following their victory (97-86) in the decisive match 5 against Maccabi Tel-Aviv. History then this Roca Team? Yes, as the hexagonal orange ball has been absent from high continental games for many years. The formation of the Principality is not however the first to qualify in the last four of the most prestigious European competition. Flashback.

Berck 1974 and 1975, Asvel 1976: the precursors

Before the Euroleague, the European elite had several denominations, and at least as many formulas. The first, the European Cup of champion clubs, had offered the first great history of French basketball. Because it is indeed Berck, a seaside resort in Pas-de-Calais, which can claim to be forever the first French club to have reached the semi-finals of the C1. And this two years in a row, in 1974 and 1975, after having signed a double in the French championship in 73 and 74. The Berckois will fall in a round-trip semi-final format against Real Madrid (67-99, 81- 95) then the giant of the 70s, the Italian club Varese (85-86, 79-98), who will then be winners of the competition.

Champion of France in 1975, Asvel took over from the Berck club, which declined as quickly as it had reached the heights. The Villeurbannaise team will also fall in the semi-finals, also against Real Madrid (77-113, 101-99).

Limoges 1990: the first Final Four

Still on the edge of amateurism – several Berck players had also gone on strike during the 1974 semi-final for unpaid bonuses – the European Cup took its stripes at the end of the 1980s. Final Four, bringing together on the same weekend the semi-finals and the finals on a dry match, is introduced from the 1987-1988 financial year. Limoges will be the first to experience it in 1990. In Zaragoza (Spain), the CSP has the misfortune to come across an ogre, the Jugoplastika Split, in the semi-finals. The Limougeauds lost 101-83 against a formation launched at the heart of a European hat-trick, led by a certain Toni Kukoc. They will finish on the podium, winners of Aris Salonika for 3rd place.

Limoges 1993: eternal glory

Three years later, Limoges is back in the Final Four of what is now called the Champions League. The CSP is ambitious with Bozidar Maljkovic, executioner of limousine training with Split in 90, on his bench. The Limougeauds must face Real Madrid and its Lithuanian star Arvydas Sabonis in the semi-finals. They quickly won (62-52) and then became the first French team to finalize the most prestigious European basketball cup. The final against Benetton Treviso becomes legendary, with the interception of Frédéric Forté in the hands of star Kukoc, on the way to joining the United States and the Chicago Bulls with whom he will be three times NBA champion, to seal the victory (59-56).

Limoges is the first (and only) French club on the roof of European basketball, the first French men’s team sports team to conquer the most beautiful European trophy, a few weeks before the Champions League from Olympique de Marseille in soccer.

Limoges 1995: Real’s revenge

Installed as a giant of French basketball, the CSP continues to grow but has come up against a double in its quest for the quarter-finals in 1994. The budget is still increasing, to be in line with sporting desires. This time, the trap of the quarters is avoided (2-1 against Pesaro). But Limoges still finds itself in the Final Four, again facing the revengeful Real Madrid of coach Zeljko Obradovic. The intense defense of the Spanish club made the difference and Real won thanks in particular to Arvydas Sabonis (62-49). Demobilized, Limoges also dropped the match for 3rd place. The end of an era, since the coach Bozidar Maljkovic or the star Michael Young will leave the club, which begins to sink into debt.

Asvel 1997: the beautiful and painful story

Asvel, which has already experienced high-level European battles in the 70s and 80s, is gradually making its comeback among the top names. In 1997, she took part in the Euroleague for the first time since 1982, having not been champion of France for 16 seasons. Led by the brilliant American Delaney Rudd, Villeurbanne defies all predictions and climbs to the quarter-finals. Qualification for the Final Four goes through a “beautiful” under maximum tension in the lair of Efes Pilsen Istanbul. The jubilation of victory turns into drama when, forced to run for protection and return to the locker room, the hand of French international Jim Bilba crosses a glass door, wrist open and tendons severed.

Without its interior, Asvel does not make the weight during the Final Four, beaten on a gap of seven points in the semi-final by FC Barcelona as in the match for 3rd place by Union Olimpija Ljubjana.