Only 2 teams migrated from BasketballCL to Eurocup
European basketball is changing every season, especially in the last 5 years since FIBA created the Basketball Champions League as a response to Euroleague and Eurocup. This rivalry created a lot of dynamic in our basketball with many clubs coming and leaving some continental competitions if they feel they fit better in the other ones. This is good for basketball because all these changes are making stronger the competitiveness between the teams, the leagues and so on. It is exactly what a basketball market has to be, each club could choose the right level they want to perform in.
Each season the battle is sharper with Eurocup and BasketballCL trying to attract more important names in their competition to make it more interesting to watch by the fans. The fight is maintaining alive the spirit of struggling for results. That’s why every season is more interesting than the last one from this point of view of renewing the competitions.
For the upcoming season, there are many newcomers in both competitions and today I will focus only on the teams that have switched BasketballCL for Eurocup. It’s about Antwerp Giants and Lietkabelis, both of them averaged clubs in Europe. They were invited to participate in Eurocup because the organizers needed clubs from many countries. Belgium and Lithuania are considered good markets for basketball. Antwerp Giants has one of the biggest arenas in Europe with more than 18 000 seats and they hosted back in 2019 the Final 4 of the Champions League when they won the 3rd place. Now they switched competition in order to prove a totally new continental experience and that’s great.
The Lithuanian side, Lietkabelis has switched as well for Eurocup after having a good season in BCL, because I think they wanted to be in a different competition than Rytas Vilnius and Neptunas. Since Rytas come to BCL, then Lietkabelis moved to Eurocup.
How the level of both competitions is very tied, maybe Antwerp Giants and Lietkabelis have more chances to reach the TOP 16 of the Eurocup than to enter BCL’s playoffs. Only time will show if the decision was profitable for these 2 clubs.
Image: Basketball Champions League
Gratian Cormos
