The 2010–11 Turkish Airlines Euroleague was the 11th season of the modern era of professional Euroleague Basketball, and the first under the title sponsorship of Turkish Airlines. Including the competition's previous incarnation as the FIBA Europe Champions Cup, this was the 54th season of the premier first-tier competition for European men's clubs.
The format featured 24 teams, beginning with Game 1 of the first qualifying round on September 21, 2010, and culminating at the Final Four in the Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona.[1] It was won by the Athenian club Panathinaikos (6th title), who defeated Maccabi Electra in the championship game of May 8, 2011.[2] Montepaschi Siena, finished 3rd by holding off Real Madrid in the third-place game.[3]
At the individual level, the season was marked by Dimitris Diamantidis of Panathinaikos. Not only did the Greek point guard lift the trophy for the third time in five years and receive the Euroleague Final Four MVP award, but he also became the first player ever to win three end-of-season awards: Euroleague MVP, Euroleague Best Defender, and All-Euroleague First Team.[4]
†As winner of the ULEB Eurocup 2009–10
The draws for the 2010–11 Turkish Airlines Euroleague was held on Thursday, July 8 at Barcelona, Spain. The draws began at 11:15 local time (CET) and determined the qualifying-round matchups and regular-season groups for the Euroleague, as well as the qualifying rounds for the Eurocup and the regular-season for the EuroChallenge.
Teams were organised into six pots of four teams.
Two teams from the same country cannot coincide in the same Regular Season group, except for Spain that has five teams participating in the competition.
The Qualifying Rounds consisted of three rounds, QR1, QR2 and QR3. The rounds were played in home and away series.
The higher ranked team hosted the second leg.
The Regular Season began on 18 October 2010 with Olympiacos hosting Real Madrid and ended on 23 December 2010.
If teams were level on record at the end of the Regular Season, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
The 16 qualified teams were drawn into four groups with four teams. The matches were played between January 19 and March 3, the top two teams of every group advanced to the playoffs. The draw took place on 4 January 2011 at Barcelona at 13:00 CET, and was streamed live on the Euroleague's official website.[6]
Team 1 hosted Games 1 and 2, plus Game 5 if necessary. Team 2 hosted Game 3, and Game 4 if necessary.
[7]
