The Euroleague Final Four basketball tournament in Prague April 28–30 was all about faith.

Two-time defending champion Maccabi Tel Aviv brought its own rabbi and more than 10,000 supporters to boost the team's chances of taking home a third consecutive Final Four championship.

In the end, however, it was CSKA Moscow of Russia that emerged victorious from the three-day tournament, which is likely to go down as the biggest sporting event of the year in the Czech Republic.

CSKA ended Maccabi's two-year reign with an emotional 73–69 win in front of a enthusiastic 17,000-person crowd at Sazka Arena April 30, becoming the first Russian team in 35 years to win the Final Four.

Although CSKA couldn't count on the same level of fan support as the Israelis, players said they had had faith in their ability.

"I could not sleep. I could not eat," CSKA's J.R. Holden said. "But in the huddle, we just kept telling each other that 'We believe.' "

Theodoros Papaloukas, who scored 18 points and dished seven assists for CSKA to earn MVP honors, further elaborated on the team's performance.

"These games are won with mind and soul," he said.

'We fought back'

CSKA was down 7–0 after just five minutes. The team broke open the game with a 13–0 run in the second quarter, but Maccabi rallied to lead 58–56 with eight minutes left.

That's when guards Trajan Langdon and Matjaz Smodis scored three three pointers in a 10–1 run that put CSKA in the lead for good. Maccabi never surrendered and got as close as 71–69, but Langdon sunk two free throws in the final minutes to seal the victory.

"All year long, we fought back," Langdon said. "We started bad, we lost our best player (David Andersen), but we fought back. All we ever talked about was believing in ourselves. No one else did, so we had to. To go down 7–0 against that team and come back to take control, you have to believe. They came back and we took control again. We believed. That's all I can say."

Fan factor

The Prague Euroleague Final Four has brought an end to one basketball era.

The winning streak of Maccabi was halted, and the team's head coach, Pinshas Gershon, announced his intention to step down.

"I hope that Maccabi will respect my wishes not to coach for the next two or three years," he said. "I've made this decision before, and I want to go rest. Six years at Maccabi is like 18 years somewhere else."

The Prague tournament has also shown that the event can survive in a country that is not a basketball powerhouse. This was the first Final Four to be held in a so-called basketball "minnow" country.

When selecting Prague as the venue for the event, Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu conceded it was "a bit of a risk" because the Czech Republic doesn't have a rich basketball tradition.

In the end, all four games at the 17,000-seat Sazka Arena were sold out. Only about 10 percent of the spectators were Czech, probably because of the high ticket price — ranging from 2,300 Kč ($100) to 42,000 Kč — said Vladimír Šafařík, chairman of the 2006 Final Four organizing committee

"In contrast to most sporting events in this country, the Final Four has been financed by ticket sales, and it is rather expensive entertainment for the Czechs," he said.

The Israeli fans were a vital part of the spirited atmosphere in Sazka.

"We were concerned after Panathinaikos Athens failed to qualify and the enthusiastic Greek fans were canceling their trips to Prague, but the 31 planes with fans flying from Israel made up for them," Šafařík said. "The event was an astonishing success from all aspects, including the financial one."

For Maccabi, however, it was not as successful as the team had hoped, despite the huge fan support.