© Stickel
The Last Dance: With their 38th game on Friday night at FC Barcelona, Bayern Basketball not only conclude their EuroLeague season; with tipoff at 8:30 p.m., the clash at the Palau Blaugrana is also the very last game of the regular season that began in early October. In addition, Svetislav Pesic will coach for the last time in Europe’s top competition, bringing to a close—at least at international club level—his illustrious 44-year coaching career. He also won the EuroLeague once—at the 2003 Final Four at the Palau with Barça.
Barça need a win against their old friend
There’s extra spice to the matchup, as the Catalans (20:17) urgently need a win in their long-distance duel with Dubai (19:18) to secure Play-In qualification. MagentaSport will, as always, broadcast from the EuroLeague. In the domestic league, play continues next Monday in Trier for the BBL leaders, with the next home game the following Monday at BMW Park against Rostock.
“I’ve already said this will be my last season as a coach, and of course I have a special relationship with Barcelona,” says Pesic. “But it’s a special game for me only because we want to confirm our good performances from the recent EuroLeague games so that we can then focus on our goals in the Bundesliga. As always, that will only be possible through defense, even if that’s a tough task against Barcelona’s offensive quality.”
For weeks it’s been said there isn’t much at stake for Bayern after missing the postseason. That’s not true, of course, and Munich have underlined their ambition with four straight wins. Thanks to last week’s road win in Milan (94:84), FCBB will finish at least 13th in the 20-team field; with an 18th win of the season and a Maccabi loss (vs. Bologna), they could still climb to 12th. The tally of 17 wins has only been bettered by Bayern (and by any German team) in the previous season (19:15) and in 2021 (21:13).
This is Svetislav Pesic's final EuroLeague game | © EuroLeague
“We want to give coach the best possible send-off”
More impressive, however, are Pesic’s numbers. The 76-year-old coach will inevitably be in the spotlight on Friday night—at the very place where he won the treble 23 years ago and, after his first stint (2002–2004), returned to work again nearly 14 years later (2/2018–2020, two Copa del Rey titles). A press conference in Barcelona was scheduled for Thursday evening to mark Pesic’s EuroLeague farewell.
Pesic has coached a total of 192 games in Europe’s top competition across ten seasons (Barcelona, Bayern, Valencia), winning 114 of them—a win percentage of 59.4.
“The 2003 treble of league title, cup and EuroLeague had—and still has—great significance for the club and has never been matched since. To this day, it plays a major role in the reputation of basketball at FC Barcelona, and it will forever be linked to him,” says Pesic’s former guard Juan Carlos Navarro, now Barça’s GM. Navarro’s club will surely give Pesic a warm reception, “but we can’t hand out any gifts,” stresses the 45-year-old 2006 world champion.
After a long positive run and a downturn precisely in the season’s crunch time (3:7 over the last ten games; FCBB 5:5), the hosts risk missing even the absolute minimum goal of the Play-Ins if they lose and Dubai beat second-placed Valencia. Navarro: “It’s his last game as a coach in the EuroLeague and the end of a great career. For us, however, the game is very important from a sporting perspective. We will wish Pesic much success and all the best for his future—after the game.”
The Monday after next against Rostock at BMW Park
Barça’s nominal all-star team—featuring former Finals MVP Will Clyburn (13.1 ppg), Tornike Shengelia (12.7), top scorer Kevin Punter (15.1; 41.6% from three), center Jan Vesely (8.6), NBA-tested playmaker Tomas Satoransky (7.2; 4.3 apg), and national team players like Dario Brizuela (9.0)—is once again a major challenge for the German champions. FCBB co-captain Andi Obst says: “As in recent weeks, we want to sign off from the EuroLeague on a positive note. Barcelona have an outstanding team, but we want to give the coach the best possible send-off and then soon attack the BBL playoffs together.”