According to Euroleague's website Euroleague Basketball is proud to announce that the ninth edition of the Nike International Junior Tournament will start with three classification rounds across Europe this winter, in Rome, L'Hospitalet and Belgrade. Europe’s best 18-and-younger players will compete to qualify for the championship round in Barcelona next May, where the European junior champions will be crowned on the very stage and same weekend that the 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four decides the new Euroleague champion.
"As we begin to plan the ninth edition of the NIJT, our vision of holding a European Junior Club Championship is year by year becoming a reality," Jordi Bertomeu, Euroleague Basketball CEO, said. "We have a very strong partner in Nike, which coupled with the collaboration of A.S. Stella Azurra, CB L’Hospitalet and FMP, allows these events to take place."
All three cities hosting classification tournaments will see eight teams competing over three days for the possibility of returning home as winners and thus booking their place in the 2011 Nike International Junior Tournament in Barcelona. In 2010 Zalgiris Kaunas of Lithuania, Cajasol of Spain and FMP of Serbia won the respective classification tournaments, with INSEP of France eventually crowned NIJT winners in Paris.
The first classification tournament will be the Torneo Città Di Roma, organised by A.S. Stella Azurra in Rome, Italy from December 27 to 29, 2010. Rome will be followed swiftly by the Torneig de Básquet Júnior "Ciutat de L’Hospitalet", organized by CB L’Hospitalet in suburban Barcelona from January 4 to 6, 2011. The third classification tournament will be the Euroleague Basketball Nike International Junior Classification Tournament Belgrade-JCT, organised by FMP in Belgrade, Serbia from February 18 to 20, 2011. The winners of those three classification tournaments will reach the Nike International Junior Tournament, which will run parallel to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four from May 5 to 8 in Barcelona.
The NIJT boasts a rapidly-growing alumni list of stars. Players who began their careers at one of the tournaments can now be found on Euroleague and Eurocup teams, including Milos Teodosic (Olympiacos Piraeus), the current Euroleague MVP, Jonas Maciulis (Armani Jeans Milano), Dejan Musli (Caja Laboral), Luigi Datome (Lottomatica Roma), Mirza Begic and Mantas Kalnietis (Zalgiris Kaunas). Yet more young players will begin their path to stardom this season. Fans can follow all of the action at www.euroleague.net/events/nijt where articles, statistics, game reports, photos and links will be available during each and every tournament. The action tips off in Rome on Monday, December 27, as eight teams begin their own Road to Barcelona. On May 8, 2011 a new champion will be crowned at the Palau Sant Jordi merely hours before the two best teams in Europe take the same court for the final game in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four.
