Former winners, MVPs and Antonio Banderas: the Internet reacts to Unicaja's win

BELGRADE (Serbia) - The curtain fell on Season 8 of the Basketball Champions League on Sunday, as Unicaja claimed their first title in Belgrade. Fans and players from all over the world reacted to one of the most dominant runs ever in this competition.

The big Final against Lenovo Tenerife concluded at around 22:00 local time, by the 2024 champions left the arena it was already Monday, and they flew to Malaga straight away. One would think that at 5:00 in the morning they would have a nice calm reception back home. One would be wrong, though.

 

 

 
To be fair, it was only a continuation of a gigantic party which began during the live broadcast of the Final which the club had organized in their legendary Martin Carpena arena in Malaga, for all of those who could not get to Belgrade in time.

 
The party started at around 17:00 before the game on Sunday, carried on through 5:00 on Monday morning as the team arrived in Malaga, and was planned to continue on Monday at 17:00 with the team parading through the city center.

 
The team received warm messages from the biggest organizations in club basketball, such as the Liga Endesa or their rivals from the European basketball courts.

 

 
The landscape of European basketball has changed forever after this BCL Final, as of now Spanish clubs posses the most international club trophies, a grand total of 52, overtaking Italian clubs' total of 51.

Unicaja are the third Spanish team to win the BCL, following in the footsteps of Tenerife and Hereda San Pablo Burgos - both of them two-time champions - meaning that Spanish clubs have lifted our spiky trophy five times in eight years.

The other nations to win the BCL include Greece (AEK), Italy (Virtus Bologna) and Germany (Telekom Baskets Bonn).

 
As far as individuals go, we can divide the reactions in three groups: former players, current players and box office superstars.

First of all, three-time BCL champion Dejan Kravic, a former Unicaja member who was there in 2022.

There's also the angle of the hometown kid fortifying his status as a true Malaga legend.

Alberto Diaz was there to pick up the last three major trophies for Unicaja, the EuroCup in 2017 - as the MVP, too - plus the Copa del Rey last year, and the BCL this year.

 
Then, it was time for the two MVPs to join the conversation. The MVP of the Season was there to congratulate the MVP of the Final Four.

 
Kendrick Perry got his flowers from all over the world, with the media, fans and the players enjoying his poetic justice moment of missing the game winning shot at last season's Final Four to becoming the hero who led the green and purple jerseys to the top of the continent.

 

 
It was an extremely emotional night for Perry. Earlier this year, he received the shocking news that Dejan Milojevic had passed away.

The late Milojevic coached Perry at Mega, in Belgrade, and the two had such a great rapport that the Final Four MVP still has 'Deki' as his Instagram profile photo.

Perry said he felt Milojevic's presence in the arena.

 
The reactions weren't restricted to sports media and basketball professionals. Malaga's very own superstar, Antonio Banderas, also enjoyed the game and saved a tweet for his favorite basketball club.