Zalgiris-CSKA to tip off Turkish Airlines Euroleague season!

A shining new monument to Lithuania's first love, basketball, will be the starting place for a Turkish Airlines Euroleague season full of promise as Zalgiris Kaunas has been chosen to host long-time rival CSKA Moscow in the 2011-12 opening game. Zalgiris and CSKA will face each other at the recently inaugurated, 15,400-seat Zalgiris Arena on Monday, October 17 to open a week when all 24 teams of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague will see their first action of the 2011-12 season. The regular season will extend for 10 consecutive weeks, giving way in 2012 to the Top 16, the Playoffs and the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four, where a continental champion will be crowned next May in Istanbul.

"The dedication of Lithuania to our sport makes the choice of Kaunas for this season's opening game very exciting for everyone involved," said Jordi Bertomeu, Euroleague Basketball's President and CEO. "Thanks to the hard work of Zalgiris and the city of Kaunas, the fans there have a fantastic new arena in which to show the world their unique levels of devotion. For all of us who love basketball like they do, going to Kaunas to start the Turkish Airlines Euroleague on October 17 is the ultimate in anticipation."

Kaunas is one of the world capitals of basketball, home to the only Lithuanian club, Zalgiris, to have won a European title, in 1999, as well as the birthplace of Arvydas Sabonis, considered among the greatest players in the history of international basketball, and other great stars of the sport. This will mark the second time that Kaunas has been the site of a Euroleague opening game, after Zalgiris hosted then-champion Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2004. Zalgiris Arena, located on an island in the Nemunas River, opened on August 21, 2011. It will host the final round of EuroBasket 2011, which decides the continent's country champion, in mid-September.

"We are honored to be chosen once again by Euroleague Basketball to host the first game of the new season," said Sabonis, the current president of Zalgiris. "With our new arena and our devoted fans, we will be proud to open a new Turkish Airlines Euroleague season that is sure to take European basketball to greater heights than ever."

Zalgiris and CSKA enjoy one of the oldest rivalries in professional basketball, dating back 65 years to 1947 when the teams played each other in the Soviet Union championship. They have only played 10 times in continental competition, however, all since 1999, with CSKA having won the last nine of those games. This season, CSKA is being coached by Jonas Kazlauskas, the former Lithuanian national team boss who coached Zalgiris to its only continental crown, in 1999.

Press Release: Euroleague Basketball