Four storylines to follow at the 2025 Glasora Final Four

Four teams from Poland, Romania, Slovakia and United Kingdom will play for the 2025 European North Basketball league`s title on April 8-9 in Bratislava. Here are the main storylines.

A new champion

Anwil Wloclawek won the inaugural crown in 2022, followed by BM Stal Ostrów in 2023 and Bakken Bears in 2024. The Bears played also this season but were eliminated by Newcastle Eagles.

CSO Voluntari are playing in their second consecutive ENBL Final Four. The 2025 Romanian cup winners advanced to the 2024 ENBL final where they fell at the hands of the Bakken Bears.

Three new teams in the Final Four

Eighteen teams from 12 countries – Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and United Kingdom – entered the 2025 season.

Eight teams from six countries – Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and United Kingdom – made it to the 2025 playoffs.

Three new teams – Dziki Warszawa from Poland, Inter Bratislava from Slovakia and Newcastle Eagles from United Kingdom – qualified to the Final Four for the first time.

Home sweet home

Anwil Wloclawek won the 2022 title at the Hala Mistrzow.

BM Stal Ostrów won the 2023 title at the Arena Ostrów.

Bakken Bears won the 2024 title at the Sparekassen Danmark Basketball center.

Inter Bratislava are 10-0 so far but they need to beat tough CSO Voluntari to advance to the final.

Mirror, mirror on the wall – who is the best playcaller of them all?

Aramis Naglič won two Euroleague titles (Zaragoza 1990, Paris 1991), two Yugoslavia cups and two Yugoslavia championships (1990, 1991) as a player of Jugoplastika Split, while playing for Božidar Malkovič. He added two Croatia league titles with Cibona Zagreb (1998, 2005) and a Slovak league three-peat with Pezinok. As a head coach, he won two Slovak league titles with Inter (2013, 2019 – the last one for Bratislava club so far) and two titles with Vienna (Austrian championship and Austrian Cup in 2022). Naglič is a head coach of Slovakia national team and has a 10-0 record in the ENBL.

Ainars Bagatskis played professionally until 2006. He was a player-coach at Barons Rīga (2005-2006). Bagatskis has coached in Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Turkey, Israel, Germany and Romania. He was the head coach of Latvia (2010-2017) and Ukraine (2019-2023; from, 2025) national teams. Bagatskis won Israeli Cup with Maccabi Tel Aviv (2017), two Ukraine Superleague titles with Budivelnyk Kyiv (2013, 2014), one LKL title with Žalgiris Kaunas (2006) and Romanian Cup with CSO Voluntari (2025). He has coached at 74 Euroleague games. Bagatskis has a 16-5 record in the ENBL, including 8-2 in 2025.

Marc Steutel took the coaching reins of the Eagles on May 13, 2022. A year later Newcastle club decided to join the ENBL. The Eagles advanced to postseason in two consecutive campaigns, while defeating the 2024 champions Bakken Bears in the 2025 playoffs and reaching their first Final Four. Two months earlier Newcastle won thee 2025 Super League basketball Trophy – with Mr. 28, Darius Defoe, in their ranks. Steutel was an acting head coach of Great Britain national team until he was appointed a permanent head coach on June 5, 2023. Great Britain recently qualified for EuroBasket 2025. Steutel has a 13-6 record in the ENBL, including 8-2 in 2025.

Krzysztof Szablowski comes from Wloclawek – a basketball crazy Polish city which hosted the 2022 ENBL Final Four. He was an assistant coach at Anwil and briefly a head coach in 2012. Szablowski won 2007 Polish Cup and Supercup with Anwil, also reached 2006 and 2010 PLK finals. He co-founded Legia Warszawa basketball academy and led it until February 2021. Szablowski became the coach of Dziki Warszawa on May 18, 2021, and advanced to the PLK in his second season, being named 2023 Coach of the Year at the second Polish division. He helped Polish national team to qualify for the 2019 World Cup, while being an assistant to Mike Taylor. Szablowski has a 7-3 record in the ENBL.

Fun facts

Ainars Bagatskis has a nickname "The Golden hand" due to his sharpshooting skills – he won the 2004 LKL three point shooting contest.

Ainars Bagatskis won Latvian title six times as a player (1994, 1996-1998, 2002, 2003). He is also a champion of Norway (1993) and Lithuania (as a player 2004, 2005; as a coach 2006).

Bagatskis sons are in basketball too. His youngest son, Freds, played for UT Arlington (2023-2024) and Le Moyne (2024-2025) in NCAA D1.

Aramis Naglič and Croatia national team earned a silver medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics while facing the Dream Team with Michael Jordan.

Naglič has made himself a household name in Austria and Slovakia, as he completed a Slovak league three-peat with Pezinok – a town 20 kilometers northeast of Bratislava – and then played for Traiskirchen – a town 20 kilometers south of Vienna – from 2002 until 2004.

In 2024, Naglič took the coaching reins of Inter Bratislava for the third time. The first two were in 2012-2013 and 2019-2020. He worked at the Austrian capital and coached Vienna 2021-2024.

Countries, represented at the ENBL Final Four (all editions)

Poland: Anwil 2022; BM Stal Ostrów, Start Lublin, King Szczecin – all 2023; Dziki 2025.

Lithuania: Šiauliai 2022 and 2024; BC Wolves 2023.

Estonia: Tartu University 2022.

Czechia: Brno Basket 2022.

Belgium: Liège Basket 2024.

Denmark: Bakken Bears 2024.

Romania: CSO Voluntari 2024 and 2025.

Slovakia: Inter Bratislava 2025.

United Kingdom: Newcastle Eagles 2025.

2025 Glasora Final Four schedule, Central European Time

Tuesday, April 8, semifinals