Besiktas is not slowing down! French basketball player Ismael Kamagate, towering at 211 cm, has signed a one-year contract with the Turkish club, and joining him is 30-year-old combo guard Brynton Lemar, who spent last season with Cedevita Olimpija. Kamagate arrived as a free agent after his contract with Milan expired, while Lemar is known for studying at Davis University and a brief stint with Chima Moneke. These two signings clearly show that Besiktas means business in the EuroCup and EuroLeague.
But while Besiktas is strengthening, the EuroLeague is gearing up for major changes. Dimitris Itoudis, coach of Hapoel Tel Aviv and president of the EuroLeague coaches association, openly spoke about his dream – a league with 30 teams, bringing the EuroLeague closer to the NBA format. He wants to introduce two separate groups and increase the number of teams advancing to the next phase from the current 8 to a whopping 20. Itoudis also emphasized that Russian clubs, including CSKA Moscow, are returning to the EuroLeague, adding more complexity to the competition.
These changes are stirring up a storm among basketball fans. Will the EuroLeague become too big and lose quality? Or is this the only way to make the competition more competitive and exciting? Besiktas, with its new forces, certainly wants to seize this opportunity and claim its place among Europe’s basketball elite.
Meanwhile, Besiktas has already shown its teeth – they convincingly defeated Podgorica’s Buducnost in the first round of the EuroCup but lost to Ulm in the 13th round. Croatian basketball player Ante Zizic is also on the verge of transferring to Besiktas, further boosting the team. Overall, the Turkish club doesn’t want to be just a passerby in European basketball but a serious contender.
As the EuroLeague changes and Besiktas strengthens, the question remains – will these changes bring revolution or chaos? What do you think? Is a 30-team league too much, or is it the future of European basketball? Drop a comment, let’s see who’s in and who’s out – basketball is for true fans, not for those afraid of change!
