Final Four in Madrid showcased One Team's best season yet

The biggest and best season yet for Euroleague Basketball's corporate social responsibility programme, One Team, reached its climax when legends, celebrities, volunteers and participants from local schools and Special Olympics filled Final Four weekend with activities bringing attention to at-risk groups in Madrid and to the means for integrating them better into the community at large.

Volunteers learning the foundations of Euroleague Basketball's CSR programme were, in fact, the first people to hit the court last week in Madrid to participate in a One Team Introduction Training Session on Wednesday. With 60 volunteers on hand, it was an opportunity for instructors to teach them the goals and methodologies used in the programme. That session was just the prelude for the series of events that were all about raising awareness to help those who are at risk of social exclusion. 

 

Once again, One Team had the privilege of raising the curtain on the weekend's Final Four festivities with the first official event  on Thursday morning in the heart of Madrid. In a perfect example how basketball can be used as a tool for positive social change, Special Olympics athletes and Euroleague stars became One Team together for on-court exercises that demonstrated to fans and the public at Puerta del Sol one of the programme's primary goals: inclusion for groups with intellectual disabilities.

 

"Maybe it is only for couple hours, but it can have an impact on the rest of their lives," said Kyle Hines of CSKA Moscow, who serves as a Global One Team Ambassador. Hines led 12 Special Olympics athletes and four other One Team ambassadors - Salah Mejri of Real Madrid, Oguz Savas of Fenerbahe Ulker Istanbul, Brent Petway of Olympiacos Piraeus and a CSKA Moscow teammate Victor Khryapa – in showcasing the games and drills in one of the Spanish capital's signature crossroads. 

 

One Team, which thrives with the support by founding patron Turkish Airlines, features 31 clubs in 14 countries across Europe. Together with its partners, One Team develops and promotes educational programmes that use the power of basketball to integrate communities. Current One Team projects involve working with youths suffering from substance abuse, physical or intellectual disabilities, gender inequality and community cohesion. Since One Team’s founding, its programmes have directly reached 5,000 participants and can account for 5,000 more indirect participants.

 

Those numbers increased some more on the morning of the semifinal games, when One Team arrived to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Fanzone at Plaza de Oriente, where an estimated 400,000 spectators visited over the course of the weekend. One Team had the honor of inaugurating the Fanzone with a celebrity basketball game in which 20 kids and four of their teachers from two local schools got together on the same basketball court with some of Europe's and Madrid's greatest basketball legends.

 

Young participants from two different primary schools of the region – Infantas Elena y Cristina and Capitán Cortés, which are using One Team methodology in their physical educational classes under a special One Madrid project – were thrilled to meet the Euroleague legends and play with them. But the smiles on the faces of the legends showed that such appreciation goes both ways.

 

Former Euroleague champions Theo Papaloukas, Nikola Vujcic, Joe Arlauckas and José Miguel Antúnez, joined by two active NBA players, José Manuel Calderón and Kenneth Faried, worked with kids 8 to 11 years old on exercises that focused on teamwork before mixing together for an exhibition game in front of hundreds of fans. While throwing no-look and between-the-legs passes, chest bumping the kids and lifting the youngsters above the rim for dunks, all the athletes succeeded to make the children the center of attention. 

 

"The feeling is great because all things that we can do for kids and for basketball are great," Antunez explained. "If we can do something for the little kids, give them opportunity to play basketball and give them hope in real life, that is great."

 

After the events at Puerta del Sol and at the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Fanzone, One Team took center stage on the floor at the Barclaycard Center for the very biggest games of the season. In front of a worldwide audience, participants from One Madrid and Special Olympics stood together with Euroleague stars during the basketball season's pinnacle moments on both Friday and Sunday night. Before the tip-off of each Final Four game, youngsters from Special Olympics Madrid and kids from One Madrid's participating primary schools shared the spotlight with the starters from CSKA Moscow, Olympiacos Piraeus, Real Madrid and Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul.

The Special Olympics Madrid participants had the honor of standing together with the starters from CSKA Moscow and Olympiacos Piraeus in Friday's first semifinal. In the second one, between Real Madrid and starters Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul, children from Capitán Cortés primary school were at midcourt. Finally, boys and girls from Infantas Elena y Cristina primary school had the honor of leading the finalists – Real Madrid and Olympiacos Piraeus - onto the floor before the tip-off of the championship game.

It all added up to a resounding finish to a season in which Euroleague clubs and players have dedicated more time and effort than ever before to help underprivileged groups in their own communities throughout Europe with an inspiring programme that grows ever bigger with their commitment, One Team.