THESSALONIKI (Greece) - The morning after the night before. A perfect time to reflect on Bilbao Basket's maiden European title.
It was certainly far from smooth sailing, but they got the job done and made history - also becoming the first Spanish team to win the FIBA Europe Cup.
Coming up clutch
When it mattered most, Bilbao delivered. Time after time, they were the team getting it done. Throughout the Play-Offs, they came through some epic finishes, and have the trophy to show for it.
Abdur-Rahkman for the win
Heading to overtime on the road in Bursa in the Quarter-Finals, Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman had other ideas with a huge three-pointer before the buzzer clinching the tie in dramatic fashion. Never has a nine-point loss on the road felt so good.
Forty-one in the fourth
Bilbao were seemingly heading for another Semi-Finals exit when they were locked at 56-56 with 8:56 to play in the second leg against JDA Bourgogne Dijon - meaning the 19-point deficit from the first leg was still in tact. Even at 69-66 with 5:09 remaining, there was a lot of work to be done.
Fast-forward less than five minutes, and Bilbao had scored 20 unanswered points - 12 of those coming from Slovenian veteran Zoran Dragic.
Enter the Frey
3:18 to play in the Finals, it was PAOK who had taken the aggregate lead in the contest as they were up 10 on the night (+3) and with all the momentum. An and-1 from Harald Frey was followed by four free throws from Melwin Pantzar to help bring the overall scores level.
Then Frey stepped up again with another three with sixty seconds left on the clock, and Bilbao were able to see out a famous triumph.
The comeback kings
This is a team that just never knows when it's beaten. When you look at the greatest comebacks in FIBA Europe Cup history, Bilbao sit proudly at the top of the list - not once, but twice.
19 points down? No problem. When Bilbao lost the first leg of their Semi-Final tie against JDA Bourgogne Dijon by 19 points, they knew it wasn't over. This was because they had already overturned the same deficit 12 months earlier against Legia Warszawa. What transpired was a truly remarkable recovery, sparked by that fourth quarter effort.
They kept fighting, they kept believing, and they keep coming back. Same again, next season?
Fortress Bilbao Arena
10 games. 10 wins. That's how you take care of home court.
It was the manner of some of their victories, too: Bilbao were unstoppable on their own floor. The margin of wins were as follows: 36 points, 40, 28, 21, 7, 9, 17, 12, 29, 7. Unsurprisingly, the toughest tests came against Cholet Basket and PAOK, but they made Bilbao Arena a fortress in the 2024-25 season - including that special success over Dijon.
"The crowd support was amazing. We know when we have a lot of people in our gym, we can do big things," said Thijs De Ridder after the Finals first leg victory.
The long road to glory
Of course, this was not their first venture in FIBA Europe Cup. Last season, Bilbao came up short of the Finals in defeat to eventual champions NINERS Chemnitz in the Semi-Finals. This time around, they were not to be denied.
Familiarity with unchanged expectations. There was continuity in the roster with a number of leading players returning for another year in Bilbao. The likes of Melwin Pantzar, Kristian Kullamae, Tryggvi Hlinason and Thijs De Ridder had all experienced the lows of missing out on the Finals, and helped ensure they would write a different chapter.
"It's been a journey," said Pantzar. "Coming from the Qualifiers, we had to get through the groups. When the Play-Offs started, playing Tofas was really tough and that made us stronger, we played Dijon and were minus 19, so that made us stronger. And now, we knew we could come back from adversity and did that [in Greece] also."
Bilbao would also emulate the feat of Italian side Dinamo Sassari in winning the competition having started in the Qualifiers. The Spanish side brushed aside the challenge of Neptunas Klaipeda, and never looked back - despite a few bumps along the road.
Most Valuable Pantzar
The Finals MVP award went to Pantzar. The numbers spoke for themselves - season-highs of 19 points and 4 steals in the first leg - but the determination and commitment to put his team on his shoulders spoke louder. Two vital displays from the Swedish guard, who could be set for a big summer.
"This trophy is also for the team, for Bilbao," said Pantzar of his MVP award. "I'm just happy. Everyone has been helping me a lot, the team, the coaching staff."
The hypothetical season MVP award, however, could go to a number of Bilbao players. The strength in depth was their biggest asset.
Let's talk about Harald Frey's performance in the Finals: big shot after big shot, a combined 7-of-12 from three-point range across the two legs. Then there's the aforementioned game-winner in the Quarter-Finals from Abdur-Rahkman, there's Zoran Dragic and Bassala Bagayoko stepping up big time in the Semi-Finals second leg, the continued emergence of Belgian forward Thijs De Ridder, captain Xavi Rabaseda's leadership, and the list goes on.
Estonian Kristian Kullamae was the team's second leading scorer with 11.3 points per game, but was absent during the Finals. The fact that De Ridder led the team with an average of 11.6 points per game speaks volume to the contributions of everyone all the way down the roster.
And, you can't mention all of the players without the ones making it happen on the sidelines. Head coach Jaume Ponsarnau and his staff did a brilliant job, and kept their team believing and performing until the very end.
Now each and every single member of the team has their name etched into the history books of Bilbao Basket as 2024-25 FIBA Europe Cup champions.
FIBA