Basketball, off to the Euroleague season: the favorites, the formula and where to see it on TV

A championship in the leagues, a real NBA of the Old Continent, a dream and a return. The Euroleague turns on the lights tonight on its endless regular season, a seven-month marathon, from October to April for the 18 strongest teams (on paper) of the major leagues in Europe: 34 days, the best eight continue towards there. quarters (best of five games) and the Final Four. After 6 years, Italy returns to have at least two teams at the start, theEA7 Emporio Armani Milan and the Virtus Segafredo Bologna, the first with well-founded ambitions to get to the bottom, the other with a taste for a return to the top continental club competition exactly 20 years after the last time. The Vu is back in the Euroleague thanks to the success last year in the EuroCup, Milan is one of the 11 regular guests to the tournament. And we start with a double Italy-France, partial revenge of the quarter of the European Championship last September: Olimpia starts tonight away againstASVEL Villeurbanne (8 pm), Bologna hosts tomorrow at the PalaDozza Monk. The first Italian derby is scheduled for November 11 at the Forum, the return match in Emilia on April 13. And three are the Italian coaches, Ettore Messina, Sergio Scariolo and Andrea Trinchieri. Only Spain has more coaches at the start (4).

The teams

For two seasons the Euroleague has won the Turks of theEphes by Ergin Ataman and the Turkish-American phenomenon Shane Larkin. Efes, which has also included the blue Achille Polonara in its gears, is the number one favorite also for 2022-2023. Behind him the real Madrid, a finalist last year, who also included in the roster Chacho Rodriguez, returned home after the seasons between Nba, Cska and Milan, and the Barcelona of Sarunas Jasikievicius. The disappearance of the Russian teams brought Valencia back to Europe and, after 8 years, Partizan Belgrade, coached by the legend Obradovic. The hard derby with the Red Star will be back (gone on 8 December). And speaking of hot derbies, how can we not think of Panathinaikos-Olympiacos? Two, and rather ambitious, the German teams: Alba Berlin, with the former Fortitudo Gabriele Procida, and Bayern Munich coached by Andrea Trinchieri. On the edge of the playoff area there will certainly be a revolutionized Fenerbahce, while the European champion with Spain Lorenzo Brown will lead Maccabi Tel Aviv. Baskonia lost Fontecchio but he put the former Brindisi Darius Thompson in his engine. And as always there will be the Zalgiris, with its wonderful building.

On TV and in streaming

Television coverage of the tournament is provided by Sky Sportswhich acquired Euroleague and EuroCup rights from last season, and from Eleven Sports for streaming.