2006 NBA Europe Live Tour

The 2006 NBA Europe Live Tour was an international basketball exhibition and competition produced jointly by the National Basketball Association and the Euroleague, as part of the NBA Global Games. The tour featured four NBA teams training and playing matches against European teams in Germany, Russia, France, Italy, and Spain. Four standalone games were played, along with two tournaments in Moscow and Cologne. The tour took place between 5 October and 11 October 2006.

2006 NBA Europe Live Tour
SportBasketball
Duration5–11 October 2006
Number of teams10
NBA Global Games seasons

Summary

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Four NBA teams went to different countries to conduct their first week of training camp overseas: the Philadelphia 76ers in Barcelona, Spain; the Los Angeles Clippers in Moscow, Russia; the San Antonio Spurs in France; and the Phoenix Suns in Treviso, Italy. The 76ers and the Suns also participated in the Cologne tournament won by the former against CSKA Moscow and led by coach Maurice Cheeks. Allen Iverson was the tournament's topscorer. The Clippers finished second in the Moscow tournament won by CSKA Moscow.
San Antonio Spurs played only one game, while Clippers played two and 76ers with Suns three (including the Cologne tournament).

Teams

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The four NBA teams that participated and the locations of their training camps:

The European participants:

Games

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In France, Italy and Spain

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In Moscow (tournament)

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In Cologne (tournament)

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The tournament was played in a Final Four system as follows:

 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
10 October
 
 
  CSKA Moscow90
 
11 October
 
  Maccabi Tel Aviv81
 
  CSKA Moscow71
 
10 October
 
  Philadelphia 76ers85
 
  Philadelphia 76ers103
 
 
  Phoenix Suns100
 
Third place
 
 
11 October
 
 
  Maccabi Tel Aviv102
 
 
  Phoenix Suns119

Significance

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Many legendary NBA coaches led their teams in the first edition of the Europe Live Tour, such as Mike Dunleavy Sr. and Greg Popovich, while Mike D'Antoni was the only to coach both in USA and Europe. Ettore Messina was in charge of CSKA Moscow, Dusko Ivanovic of Barcelona and Jasmin Repesa of Roma. The 76ers' loss to FC Barcelona and the Clippers' loss to CSKA Moscow marked the fifth and sixth losses by NBA franchises to Euroleague teams since 1978. Prior to this tournament only Maccabi Tel Aviv (4 times: 1978, 1984 twice, 2005) and the Soviet Union National Team (once in 1988) had beaten an NBA team.

See also

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Sources

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