Jeff Taylor has been covering European basketball since 1997, when he first worked on the television program SLAM. He has been a basketball writer and broadcaster since that time, traveling the continent and covering the game in depth for FIBA Europe since its launch in 2003.

Has there ever been a better advertisement for basketball than Partizan Belgrade this season?

No.

Has there been a better coach than Partizan boss Dusko Vujosevic this season?

No.

Might there be a better basketball atmosphere in Europe than the Pionir Hall in the Serbian capital?

No again.

Partizan Belgrade, who upset defending European champions Panathinaikos in Athens last week and then edged previously unbeaten (in the Euroleague) Barcelona on Wednesday night are, quite simply, an amazing story.

Serbia has long been a hotbed of European basketball, and Partizan has enjoyed a lot of great moments, including this year, despite the never-ending battles with the bank.

The money simply isn't there to award the big contracts that are paid in the NBA, Greece or Spain.

It's why the legends of the past left, and it's why the promising youngsters of now have already departed or will leave, too.

Giant center Nikola Pekovic left for Panathinaikos two years ago, and last summer Milenko Tepic joined him.

Novica Velickovic was another star in the making that said good-bye in 2009 and got a bigger pay packet at Real Madrid.

What Partizan lack in finance, they make up in heart, savvy recruitment and coaching.

They unearthed an underappreciated Aleks Maric before the season, a player who saw very little action last year at CB Granada in Spain's ACB, and turned him into a beast in the Euroleague Regular season.

The Australian-born Maric, who has Serbian parents, was twice voted Player of the Week before getting injured.

Fans fretted, and so did Vujosevic when Maric remained hurt and out of the line-up against Panathinaikos last week, but they shouldn't have.

The team got a combined 17 points and 14 rebounds from Jan Vesely and Slavko Vranes.

On Wednesday against Barca, the same duo combined for 19 points and 22 rebounds.

Vesely, a wiry 19-year-old forward from the Czech Republic, was downright unstoppable against Barcelona.

He streaked ahead on the fast break and scored, and he posted up and scored.

The 2.1m Vesely even buried a three-pointer.

Most tellingly, however, he grabbed 15 rebounds.

Or rather, HE GRABBED 15 REBOUNDS!

His emergence has been so swift that when Maric comes back, you can't help but think this Partizan team will be good enough to reach the Final Four in Paris and once that happens, look out.

While it's wonderful to see youngsters like Vesely become famous, it's even better to see the Pionir crowd rock.

It's not a huge gym, but it's probably the biggest home-court advantage of all the teams in Europe. It's reassuring to know there is that kind of passion for basketball in Europe.

Jaka Lakovic, the Slovenia point guard who led Barcelona with 14 points, talked about playing inside the Pionir.

"Atmosphere like this is unique," he said. "Nowhere in Europe is there atmosphere like in Pionir Arena."

The best sight of all on Wednesday was seeing a couple of legends on hand, Sasha Djordjevic and Predrag Danilovic.

The two were teammates at Partizan in the late eighties and early nineties and also played for the former Yugoslavia.

Djordjevic was in the stands whooping it up like a fan, getting carried away by the performance of the team.

Then there was Danilovic, who is now the Partizan president.

He sought out Vujosevic after the game and gave him a big hug.

This was a special night in European basketball and I dare say that Partizan are going to provide many more for the rest of this season and the ones that follow.