Devotion - Euroleague Podcast

The first week of playoff basketball is on the books! We recap all the series and give our takes its first two rounds so far. Other hidden gems:

• Ani shows Joan new meanings of the expression "OG"
• Ukhov stole sandwiches as a kid
• Pangos is making Calathes sad
• Mirotic and Barthel have stuff in common, who would have said
• Shots fired to Wade Baldwin and Lorenzo Brown
• Real Madrid and Turkish fans are furious together about Barça shooting FTs.

All that and much more (not that much)

Devotion, you gotta feel it!

WE ARE BACK AND THE PLAYOFFS ARE HERE! We wanna talk about them!

We break down all the series and make our predictions!

Andreas, you got your poem!

Devotion, you gotta feel it!

We are tired, and we want round 34 to start and have some play-off matchups to preview. I think you can tell.

In this episode: 

1- Sahsa Vezenkov is not welcome on the post

2- The end of Valencia

3 - Mike James will not play anymore for CSKA, we can give him more love than Itoudis

4 - Referees sucking this round

5 - Why doesn't any team want to make it to the play-offs?

6 - Pablo Laso president of the grumpy coaches club

7 - We talk old random players. We discuss about who will be playing beyond 42.

8 - You make it to the end of the episode? We write you a poem!

Ani predicted that Bayern was gonna beat EFES and now we won't hear the end of it :)

We choose the most impressive win from Round 30. We discuss the PO picture and we look ahead for a couple of crucial round 31 matchups.

All that, and much more!

Devotion, you gotta feel it!

DAZN's voice in Spain Gerard Solé joins the show to discuss our TOP8 predictions for this year's playoffs.

Ani and Gerard open some boxes regarding the predictions that won't be solved until the end of this season, and that generates the usual beef.

We discuss if Punter-Delaney is the best bromance in the league.

Ani brings the reason why Mike James performance is dropping, it's not what you expected.

All that and much more!

Devotion, you gotta feel it!

ALBA Berlin Sports director Himar Ojeda joins the show to talk about the German team's project and philosophy. He answers some of the most important questions related to this very special club:

How important is the wildcard they just got? Is the goal to achieve an A license?

How do they manage to play with 5 Berliners on the court at the same time and competing at the highest level?

How do players like Sikma, Siva, and Granger influence their young core?

He shares his thoughts on Aito's influence on the club, his future situation, legacy, and possible replacement.

We also prepared a compressed version of our quick test! He gave the name of the signing he's more proud of, his favorite player growing up, and the EL player he'd choose to start a project from scratch.

All that and much more!

Devotion, you gotta feel it!

The guys finally got together in Ani's flat! First-ever face 2 face episode together in Barcelona! Shoutouts to Ani's roommates and Estrella Damm for providing a great podcast atmosphere.

We talk a bit about Round 28, mainly how scary EFES looks after demolishing CSKA.

Joan is celebrating ALBA staying in the Euroleague for 2 more years. Maybe Eriksson knew, cause he celebrated by scoring 10 3s in Russia and getting the MVP of the round.

Gasol passes the physical, we talk about it cause we weren't sure he was gonna make it, congrats!

We bet on which teams will get the 4 remaining spots on the 2021-2022 Euroleague. Ani might be able to watch 2 EL games live per week without moving to Athens.

Curry talked about Navarro, so we talked about him. Game respects game.

All that and much more! Devotion, you gotta feel it!

In today's episode, the crew discussed the games that happened on round 26 of the Euroleague.

Special mention to Nikola Kalinic for getting MVP of the months and feeling delivering those groceries in the form of assists for his Valencian teammates. Dubljevic still saves Ani's ass on the Fantasy.

Micic looked at Fenerbahce's 10 game-winning streak and did dirty things to it.

We almost forgot Barça's game, because it was painful, but ASVEL got much-deserved love.

Wilbekin is having such a shitty year that we feel sorry for him. Luka Doncic possessed Reynolds' body for a second.

Alba got a new win! YAY! Thanks to Johannes Thiemann (Thiemannator from now on) who looked like Macijauskas still for a second. Joan overreacts, as with everything regarding Alba.

Zoran Dragic had a -9 PIR, and of course, Joan had him on his fantasy team.

Also, Ani couldn't start a new segment he had prepared, he will on Wednesday and it's gonna be fun!

All that and much more!

Devotion, you gotta feel it!

With the deadline for teams to inscribe new players around the corner, the market has gone mad! And we love it!

Pau Gasol will join Barcelona anytime now. Will he play Euroleague? Will he still be dominant? Is the acquisition just a marketing operation for FC Barcelona and the perfect Olympic-prep for him? Or will he have a role on Sara's team?

Hezonja joins PAO. We made a pretty cool analysis even though the vision of my naked neighbor interrupted almost ruined it. PAO already disrespected him on their official website by calling his defense "mediocre".

And the usual fun stuff, you know, round 25 recap, round 26 preview and more!

The same day the NBA announces the starters for their All-Star game, we release an episode talking about our All-Star selections for the Euroleague! To decide which one is more important is your call.

We just had 1 rule, even though Ani decided to ignore it. I also forgot one of my players, it was all pretty much a mess, but still, a lot of fun.

Go and vote for team Ani or team Joan on Twitter or Instagram! The winner gets a morale-boost!

We started the show talking about Jeremy Evans joining Milano, and how he's not gonna fit there as well you might think. We started with this on the pod, but we use it to close it out here cause we can.

Devotion, you gotta feel it!!

Great FC Barcelona historic number 14 and captain of the 2003 team joins the show! The first time we have a Euroleague player as a guest. So many cool stories about his more than 10 years playing in the Euroleague, and international tournaments.

We discussed the 2003 Euroleague champion squad from which he was the captain. The whole story, the pressure, the achievements, and unheard stuff from that incredible team.

His role as a veteran in Rome, playing the Euroleague, and being a mentor for young players such as Brandon Jennings. He also explained how veterans like Marcelo Nicola or Kike Andreu made it easier for him to transition from US college to a pro-level when Rodrigo was a rookie.

He told us the story of how he almost ended up playing for Real Madrid and Zeljko Obradovic when he was just 16. Luckily for us, it didn't go that way...

We have some fun trash-talking stories as well. From not understanding what other American college players were telling him, to hearing the Kevin Garnett and Andrés Nocioni talking non-stop on the court.

The TOP5 players he played for, in which team he would fit better playing today, the best arena he ever played for, best coaches... and much more!

Rodrigo should definitely have his number 14 hanging on the Palau Blaugrana's roof, I really hope that one day, he will!

Devotion, you gotta feel it!

2020/2021 It's been a super entertaining and crazy season for both Moscow teams. We dive into the Russian capital with two awesome guests. Russian twitstar and VTB insider Artem Komarov and, Christos Tsaltas Euro and NBA journalist for SportsDNA. They bring the best insights and spiciest takes on CSKA's and Khimki's season.

We discussed the whole Mike James situation, why do they let him go now? What's all that about? Were there possible replacements on the table? Which ones? Do they let him go if Milutinov doesn't get injured? Why do they never really say anything in that organization? How is Michael Eric gonna fit? Are they still a contender? Are they staying in Moscow? You see, that's a lot of questions that we answer here... but there's more!

What the heck happened with Khimki's season? Why is it a mess? Do Khimki fans love or hate Shved? Is he still gonna play for Russia? Will they be in the Euroleague this season?

Aside from that, Ani and I get surprised by the fact that Anton Ponkrashov is just 9 years older than us, we thought he could be our father.

If you read the whole description until here and you are not gonna listen to the episode you don't deserve anything good in life.

Devotion! You gotta feel it!

In this week's episode, the guys recap round 24 of the Euroleague. Were the TOP4 teams in the standings all lose! This is getting SPICY!

Efes gets a convincing win at Palau, and we praise them for that, except Singleton, who is not Ani's favorite player. We also debate, who's the better player for the Turkish team, Larkin or Micic?

A resurrection week for Valencia, Baskonia, and PAO.

We start an investigation to discover if Kattash is a vampire. Joan brings back the first game he ever saw from Polonara and recognizes how bad he predicted his future.

ASVEL keeps getting hot, Fenerbache is fiery, but somehow Ani bets on ALBA to beat them on the road next week.

We started a couple of new games, a Euroleague Fantasy Challenge League, and a weekly prediction. Ani is winning on one of them by 40 already.

There are no games this week.

New concepts introduced this week: Shooters threesome, and Pick and Popper.

Today the voice of the Euroleague in Spain, DAZN journalist, Gerard Solé, joins the podcast as we recap rounds 22 and 23 with a new format. Heaven, "L", and Hell.

Depending on their performance during this double-round week, we place each team in 3 possible layers, Heaven, "L" (for limbo), and Hell!

Aniol and Gerard have some beef for half the League, and also between them. If you are Strazel, Dragan Bender, Zizic and specially Nemanja Nedovic, please, skip this one.

It's a long one, so take it easy!

Spanish pro baller Guim Expósito is our first guest in "box out!" Our new interview segment where we get as close and as physical as possible with our guests.

We talk about his incredible basketball story. His path goes from playing in the worst league in Barcelona at 18 to an ACB promotion at 25.

Guim brings some insight into the current situation of basketball in Sweden, and its constant growth carried by the national team success. And possible Euroleague prospects that are currently playing there.

We also discuss what the usual path for a pro baller is before making it to the Euroleague. And the team (or teams) he would love to play for. 

We make him go through our QUICK TEST about the EL with tones of fun answers and moments.

The guys are back recapping Round 21 of the Euroleague and bring a new format to do so. We introduce the MDP (yes, MDP, not MVP) Most devoted player of the game. We also give some Non-devoted player awards tho.

We've got a new leader! FC Barcelona dethroned CSKA thanks to the combo of winning in Belgrad + the Russians losing at home against a red hot Fenerbache.

We discover that you don't wanna mess with Messina when he's hungry. You also don't wanna mess with Tyler Dorsey when he's on fire.

We get super excited about Walkup walking-up to a Lay-up to win a crucial win for Zalgiris.

There's some praising to the Zenit wings, Asvel physical defense, and Alba's injury returnees.

All that and much more! Devotion, you gotta feel it!

In the first half of the episode, we discuss how Thomas Heurtel/FC Barcelona's soap opera is finally over! The PG will leave the Catalans but he'll not be going far away. We discuss how the drama ended and what's next for the French star.

Also, O'Quinn signs for Fener, Rudy's back is not broke, and we nail a prediction that we almost missed (thanks, Kostas!),

In the second half, we introduce our new opinion segment HOOP OR BLOOP! Where we rate the results of the mid-season GM survey. We call it HOOP if we agree, or BLOOP if it is BS.