Hello again, Eurocup fans! This is Javi Salgado, team captain of Bizkaia Bilbao Basket. You cannot begin to imagine the great atmosphere in Bilbao these days! The press is all over us, and of course our fans. People just can't wait for the Eurocup Finals, and to go to Vitoria and support the team. They are all looking forward to seeing us win the title but we have to keep our feet in the ground. We are a young club that doesn't get the chance to play for a European title very often. Not only can we win a title, the first-ever for the club, but we can double the reward by playing the Euroleague next season. A local newspaper, El Correo, took a team picture of us "riding" Harley-Davidsons, all of us in sunglasses, looking like bad boys! It was great fun, even though I am not into motorbikes much. Some of my teammates like Harleys, however, and it was fun to sit on one even if when we didn't ride them. But who knows? Vitoria is so close to Bilbao, maybe...on second thought, maybe not.

Of course, all we care about right now is the game against Alba Berlin. My teammate Javi Rodriguez missed a Spanish League game, but will be back to help us. He will make an effort to play, for sure, because he is the kind of player that gives everything for the team. Javi is very unselfish on and off the court, so he will be back to help us. Alba is a very solid team, without major weaknesses, very tough to play against. They are a physical team on defense, using their hands a lot, very aggressive - it will be difficult to have a good offensive flow against them. They have great pick-and-roll defense. They also have great offensive players like Derrick Byars, Julius Jenkins and Blagota Sekulic. They can damage any opponent... more

Hello, Eurocup fans! This is Bizkaia Bilbao Basket team captain Javi Salgado. I guess I am not well known to European basketball fans out there, so I better introduce myself. This is my ninth season with the team and I am the only player from Bilbao on our roster. I joined the team nine years ago when we were in the Spanish third division, back then called LEB-2. We went up to the second division and it took us two more years to make it to the first, the Spanish ACB League. We have been in the top division for six years now, always improving and setting new goals. We went from establishing ourselves in that league to fighting for a playoff spot on regular basis. We are looking to do something great with this team - and the sooner the better!

The Eurocup season has been good to us, but we really had a tough team making it intto the competition. We had to fight hard against BC Donetsk in the Qualifying Round. We lost in Ukraine by 8 points, but were down by like 20 at some point. We had to rally in the second leg in Bilbao and it wasn't easy at all. We ended up winning by 11 to qualify for the Eurocup, but it was really, really tough. Once we got in, the team was really solid, winning our regular season group and getting four consecutive wins in the Last 16. We lost at home against Benetton, but locked up first place by losing by less than 20 points against Panellinios. Back then, we had severe problems in the Spanish League and were focused on getting out of that complicated situation.

The fact that the Eurocup Finals are in Vitoria makes it even more special for us. There is an incredible atmosphere in Bilbao about it! Bilbao fans have already bought over 2,500 tickets - and counting -... more