# 2002–03 Euroleague

The 2002–03 Euroleague was the third season of the professional basketball competition for elite clubs throughout Europe, organised by Euroleague Basketball Company, and it was the 46th season of the premier competition for European men's clubs overall. The 2002–03 season featured 24 competing teams from 13 countries. The final of the competition was held in Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, Spain, with hosts FC Barcelona defeating Benetton Treviso 76-65.

## Team allocation
### Distribution

The table below shows the default access list.
| | Teams entering in this round |
| Regular season (24 teams) | 3 best-placed teams from: Italy Spain Greece 2 best-placed teams from: France Turkey Yugoslavia The champion teams from: Croatia Germany Israel Lithuania Poland Russia Slovenia 2 Wild Cards |
| Top 16 (16 teams) | 3 group winners from the regular season 3 group runners-up from the regular season 3 group third-placed teams from the regular season 3 group fourth-placed teams from the regular season 3 group fifth-placed teams from the regular season 1 group sixth placed team from the regular season |
| Final Four (4 teams) | 4 group winners from the top 16 |

### Teams

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round (TH: EuroLeague title holders)
* 1st, 2nd, etc.: League position after Playoffs
* WC: Wild card
Regular season :
| Benetton Treviso (1st) | FC Barcelona (3rd) | Pau-Orthez (2nd) | ALBA Berlin (1st) |
| Skipper Bologna (2nd) | Real Madrid (5th)$^{WC}$ | Efes Pilsen (1st) | Maccabi Elite (1st) |
| Kinder Bologna (3rd) | AEK (1st) | Ülker (2nd) | Žalgiris (2nd)$^{WC}$ |
| Montepaschi Siena (5th)$^{WC}$ | Olympiacos (2nd) | Partizan Mobtel (1st) | Idea Śląsk (1st) |
| Tau Cerámica (1st) | Panathinaikos (3rd)$^{TH}$ | Budućnost (2nd) | CSKA Moscow (2nd)$^{WC}$ |
| Unicaja Málaga (2nd) | ASVEL (1st) | Cibona VIP (1st) | Union Olimpija (1st) |

## Regular season

The first phase was a regular season, in which the competing teams were drawn into three groups, each containing eight teams. Each team played every other team in its group at home and away, resulting in 14 games for each team in the first stage. The top 5 teams in each group and the best sixth-placed team advanced to the next round. The complete list of tiebreakers was provided in the lead-in to the Regular Season results.
If one or more clubs were level on won-lost record, tiebreakers were applied in the following order:
* Head-to-head record in matches between the tied clubs
* Overall point difference in games between the tied clubs
* Overall point difference in all group matches (first tiebreaker if tied clubs were not in the same group)
* Points scored in all group matches
* Sum of quotients of points scored and points allowed in each group match

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Qualification |
| 1 | Benetton Treviso | 14 | 11 | 3 | 1253 | 1108 | +145 | Advance to Top 16 |
| 2 | FC Barcelona | 14 | 11 | 3 | 1137 | 1048 | +89 | Advance to Top 16 |
| 3 | Efes Pilsen | 14 | 8 | 6 | 1072 | 998 | +74 | Advance to Top 16 |
| 4 | Skipper Bologna | 14 | 8 | 6 | 1085 | 1087 | −2 | Advance to Top 16 |
| 5 | Cibona VIP | 14 | 7 | 7 | 1066 | 1118 | −52 | Advance to Top 16 |
| 6 | Pau-Orthez | 14 | 6 | 8 | 1076 | 1124 | −48 | |
| 7 | Alba Berlin | 14 | 4 | 10 | 1064 | 1172 | −108 | |
| 8 | AEK | 14 | 1 | 13 | 1000 | 1098 | −98 | |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Qualification |
| 1 | Panathinaikos | 14 | 11 | 3 | 1103 | 1039 | +64 | Advance to Top 16 |
| 2 | Tau Cerámica | 14 | 9 | 5 | 1126 | 1090 | +36 | Advance to Top 16 |
| 3 | Union Olimpija | 14 | 9 | 5 | 1105 | 1052 | +53 | Advance to Top 16 |
| 4 | Unicaja Málaga | 14 | 7 | 7 | 1060 | 1058 | +2 | Advance to Top 16 |
| 5 | Maccabi Elite | 14 | 7 | 7 | 1129 | 1081 | +48 | Advance to Top 16 |
| 6 | Montepaschi Siena | 14 | 6 | 8 | 1132 | 1092 | +40 | Advance to Top 16 |
| 7 | Žalgiris | 14 | 5 | 9 | 1141 | 1195 | −54 | |
| 8 | Budućnost | 14 | 2 | 12 | 1108 | 1297 | −189 | |

### Group C

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Qualification |
| 1 | CSKA Moscow | 14 | 12 | 2 | 1148 | 1004 | +144 | Advance to Top 16 |
| 2 | Ülker | 14 | 10 | 4 | 1115 | 1064 | +51 | Advance to Top 16 |
| 3 | Olympiacos | 14 | 7 | 7 | 1066 | 1041 | +25 | Advance to Top 16 |
| 4 | Virtus Bologna | 14 | 6 | 8 | 1102 | 1119 | −17 | Advance to Top 16 |
| 5 | ASVEL | 14 | 6 | 8 | 1114 | 1138 | −24 | Advance to Top 16 |
| 6 | Real Madrid | 14 | 6 | 8 | 1094 | 1113 | −19 | |
| 7 | Idea Śląsk Wrocław | 14 | 5 | 9 | 1039 | 1125 | −86 | |
| 8 | Partizan Mobtel | 14 | 4 | 10 | 1109 | 1183 | −74 | |

## Top 16

The surviving teams were divided into four groups of four teams each, and again a round robin system was adopted, resulting in 6 games each, with the top team advancing to the Final Four. Tiebreakers were identical to those used in the Regular Season.

### Group D

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Qualification |
| 1 | CSKA Moscow | 6 | 5 | 1 | 499 | 399 | +100 | Advance to Final Four |
| 2 | Efes Pilsen | 6 | 4 | 2 | 425 | 431 | −6 | |
| 3 | Cibona VIP | 6 | 2 | 4 | 447 | 499 | −52 | |
| 4 | Unicaja Málaga | 6 | 1 | 5 | 474 | 516 | −42 | |

### Group E

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Qualification |
| 1 | Montepaschi Siena | 6 | 4 | 2 | 510 | 484 | +26 | Advance to Final Four |
| 2 | Skipper Bologna | 6 | 3 | 3 | 350 | 448 | −98 | |
| 3 | Panathinaikos | 6 | 3 | 3 | 482 | 506 | −24 | |
| 4 | Ülker | 6 | 2 | 4 | 480 | 484 | −4 | |

### Group F

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Qualification |
| 1 | Benetton Treviso | 6 | 6 | 0 | 522 | 452 | +70 | Advance to Final Four |
| 2 | Maccabi Elite | 6 | 4 | 2 | 537 | 477 | +60 | |
| 3 | Tau Cerámica | 6 | 2 | 4 | 502 | 516 | −14 | |
| 4 | Virtus Bologna | 6 | 0 | 6 | 448 | 564 | −116 | |

### Group G

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Qualification |
| 1 | FC Barcelona | 6 | 5 | 1 | 448 | 424 | +24 | Advance to Final Four |
| 2 | Olympiacos | 6 | 3 | 3 | 427 | 419 | +8 | |
| 3 | Union Olimpija | 6 | 3 | 3 | 445 | 438 | +7 | |
| 4 | ASVEL | 6 | 1 | 5 | 436 | 475 | −39 | |

## Final four

The Final Four was played from 9 May until 11 May 2003 and was held in the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona.
| Semifinals 9 May | Semifinals 9 May | Final 11 May | Final 11 May |
| CSKA Moscow | 71 |
| FC Barcelona | 76 | | |
| FC Barcelona | 76 | FC Barcelona | 76 |
| | | Benetton Treviso | 65 |
| Montepaschi Siena | 62 | Benetton Treviso | 65 |
| Benetton Treviso | 65 | | |
| Benetton Treviso | 65 | Third place | Third place |
| | | CSKA Moscow | 78 |
| | | Montepaschi Siena | 79 |

## Awards
### Top Scorer

| Player | Team |
| Miloš Vujanić | Partizan |

### Regular Season MVP

| Player | Team |
| Joseph Blair | Ülker |

### Top 16 MVP

| Player | Team |
| Mirsad Türkcan | Montepaschi Siena |

### Final Four MVP

| Player | Team |
| Dejan Bodiroga | FC Barcelona |

### Finals Top Scorer

| Player | Team |
| Dejan Bodiroga | FC Barcelona |

### All-Euroleague First Team

| Player | Team |
| Tyus Edney | Benetton Treviso |
| Alphonso Ford | Montepaschi Siena |
| Dejan Bodiroga | FC Barcelona |
| Jorge Garbajosa | Benetton Treviso |
| Victor Alexander | CSKA Moscow |

### All-Euroleague Second Team

| Player | Team |
| Miloš Vujanić | Partizan |
| Marcus Brown | Efes Pilsen |
| Andrés Nocioni | Tau Cerámica |
| Mirsad Türkcan | Montepaschi Siena |
| Nikola Vujčić | Maccabi Elite |

## Euroleague All-Stars

On 2 October 2002 Euroleague All-Star Team led by Tyus Edney defeated Real Madrid in exhibition game 91-85.
* Real Madrid - Euroleague All-Stars 85-91
Real Madrid (22+15+21+27): Michael Hawkins 2, Alberto Herreros 16, Angulo 7, Derrick Alston 6, Hernández-Sonseca 11; Digbeu 14, Dragan Tarlac 16, Victoriano 13, Macej Lampe, Nadeau.
Euroliga Stars(21+23+14+33): Tyus Edney 16, McDonald 9, Alvertis 2, Turkcan 2, Nicola 8; Kakiouzis 18, Luis Scola 8, Gregor Fucka 11, Navarro 3, Shelef 2, Vujcic 12, Weis; Coach: Zeljko Obradovic.