The Istanbul club beat Monaco 70-81 in the 2025 Championship Game at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi to give its fans something to cheer about in a year its football team finished runner-up to archrival Galatasaray in the Süpr Lig.
Nigel Hayes-Davis, later voted Final Four MVP, led the way for Fenerbahçe with 23 points and nine rebounds, with Marko Guduric adding 19 points and Devon Hall and Wade Baldwin scoring 13 apiece.
Alpha Diallo paced Monaco with 19 points, Mike James scored 17, Matthew Strazel had 13 and Daniel Theis contributed 12.
Monaco led the majority of a hard-fought first half, but Fener finished strong to take a 33-35 interval lead. It stayed close in the third quarter, but the Turkish team dominated the final period to take title glory.
The win added Fenerbahçe Beko boss Saras Jasikevicius’ name to the elite list of people to lift the Euroleague trophy both as a player and coach.
“It feels amazing. I’ve been chasing this trophy for a while now,” Jasikevicius’ told Euroleague TV after the game.
“I had a lot of heartbreaks. Stuck with it and these guys got the job done,” added the Lithuanian, who is also the first coach to reach five consecutive Final Fours, albeit with different teams.
“I got a big monkey off my shoulders,” he told the post-game press conference.
“After being so close for so many years, consistently being here and not being able to get over the hump. I can’t win championships as a player anymore. As Billy [Spanoulis] said, I wish I’d have the ball in my hands this weekend, but we are on the sidelines. [The feeling of winning it as a player and coach] is the same. It’s the greatest feeling in the world to be a champion.”
Fenerbahçe Beko players were also trilled.
“This is the one, this is the one I’ve been waiting my whole career, working for,” Guduric said after the final whistle.
“It’s hard to really say something right now. Just proud, proud, happy, and that’s it. That’s all I can say now.”
Asked about how long he had dreamed of lifting the Euroleague trophy, Guduric didn’t hesitate.
“Since I was a kid, I can’t remember. Yeah, 20 years probably,” The 30-year-old said.
The Serbian player also sang the praises for his teammates.
“It’s all about team. All these guys, I mean, we are really the team and I emphasize that word all the time. This is a team win and I’m very happy, very proud and all glory to God,” Guduric said.
Wade Baldwin, who reached the trophy in his sixth Euroleague season with a fifth different club, was also delighted.
"We're all legends in the Euroleague books," Baldwin said in the locker room amid the post-game celebrations.
"We're 2025 champions, this Fenerbahce team. It's our second star. All of us gave tremendous effort. It's just a great feeling to be in the history books for this league."
Source: HDN
Comments
Attention!
Sending all kinds of financial, legal, criminal, administrative responsibility content arising from illegal, threatening, disturbing, insulting and abusive, humiliating, humiliating, vulgar, obscene, immoral, damaging personal rights or similar content. It belongs to the Member / Members.