By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
Juan Carlos Navarro and Dimitris Diamantidis are the leaders in minutes played in the history of Euroleague and the next active player in the all time list is Vassilis Spanoulis who entered last week among the top ten.
Two of the Euroleague legends, who are both born in 1980 are (almost) tied together at the top of the list with most minutes played in the competition. Juan Carlos Navarro and Dimitris Diamantidis played 6.730 and 6.722 minutes respectively and they are by far the most experienced players this season. After them in the list there are players who retired or continue their career in a non-Euroleague team.
The new member in the shortlist of the “bionics” is Vassilis Spanoulis who surpassed last week his best friends, Mike Batiste and Sarunas Jasikevicius. The captain of Olympiacos is the next active Euroleague player after the top duo in his 9th season in the competition. He’s two years younger than they are and he has the chance to get closer to them.
During the last decade it was hard for any player to play even 20 games during a season because of the competition system. So, in the not so far future Navarro’s and Diamantidis’ minutes will be few in comparison with the players of the new age who will spent their careers playing in the extended Top 16. This is the 14th season in Euroleague for the captain of Barcelona and the 11th for the captain of Panathinaikos. And they are still going on….
Players Minutes
1. Juan Carlos Navarro 6.730
2. Dimitris Diamantidis 6.722
3. J.R. Holden 6.553
4. Gianluca Basile 5.769
5. Marcus Brown 5.553
6. Jaka Lakovic 5.490
7. Thodoris Papaloukas 5.088
8. Trajan Langdon 5.050
9. David Andersen 5.016
10. Vassilis Spanoulis 4.972
…
16. Nikos Zisis 4.430
18. Paulius Jankunas 4.352
19. Antonis Fotsis 4.338