Three straight losses to start the EuroLeague season is certainly not a familiar scenario for Real Madrid. All three have come on the road, against Dubai Basketball, Anadolu Efes and Hapoel Tel Aviv.
In fact, you have probably read that this is the worst start to a season in the history of the Spanish giants in the EuroLeague. And… it is true, although not quite.
So, what is the truth?
Since the EuroLeague took charge of Europe’s top club competition in the 2000-01 season, Real Madrid had never lost its first three games of the competition, regardless of the different formats the EuroLeague has used over the years.
However, go back just a little further in time and you will find what is actually the worst European start in Real Madrid’s history —a record that could be matched this Thursday if Pedro Martínez’s team loses to Partizan Belgrade in its first home game of the continental season—. The Serbian side, for its part, has made a radically different start, winning all three of its games so far.
We are talking specifically about the 1996-97 season, when Europe’s premier basketball competition was still run by FIBA but, rather ironically, was also called the EuroLeague. The competition featured 24 teams, initially divided into four groups of six, before the teams crossed over into a second group phase, carrying their first-round results with them.
Real Madrid found themselves in what could undoubtedly be described as the Group of Death, given the strength and pedigree of the teams involved at the time: CSKA Moscow, Olympiacos, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Efes Pilsen and Limoges joined the Spanish side.
The team was coached by veteran Miguel Ángel Martín, who had enjoyed considerable success with Real Madrid’s city rivals Estudiantes —leading them to the 1992 Final Four—. His one-and-a-half-season spell at Real Madrid, however, was one to forget, and his team’s start in the EuroLeague was a clear indication of what was to come.
Among the players on that Real Madrid roster were some significant names: Dejan Bodiroga, the current president of the EuroLeague; Anadolu Efes head coach Pablo Laso; and American star Joe Arlauckas, who would become openly embroiled in a feud with Martín the following season.
Real Madrid’s European campaign began with a convincing defeat in Moscow, 90-77. Two more losses followed: 87-82 in Tel Aviv and 66-76 at home against Efes.
And so, carrying an 0-3 record, the Spanish side welcomed Olympiacos to Madrid knowing that they had to win to avoid what remains, to this day, the worst start in the club’s European history.
They failed.
A narrow 77-78 victory for the Piraeus side left Real Madrid with an unprecedented 0-4 record —something that had never happened before and has never happened again—.
That could change this Thursday, however, if Partizan can pull off an upset at the Movistar Arena.
So, if you thought —or had read— that Pedro Martínez’s team and its three straight defeats represent the worst start in Real Madrid’s history in Europe’s premier competition, you now know that there is some truth to it, but it is not the whole story.
Incidentally, in 1997, Real Madrid finally picked up its first win in the fifth round, immediately after the defeat to Olympiacos. The Spanish side won 71-85 in Limoges, putting an end to the losing streak before it could stretch to a fifth game.
Now, the goal for them is to make sure the current streak stops at three —which, for a team of Real Madrid’s pedigree and talent, is already more than enough—.
