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By Stathis Trapezanlidis/ info@eurohoops.net
Who are the top 12 players that have ever appeared in a EuroBasket? Which players would comprise the ideal team? Eurohoops attempts to select the best ones! Players- legends that made history, achieved great records and won titles. The fact that even big names of European basketball have been left out makes sense since even if we chose 50 people there still wouldn’t be enough room for everyone. The main criteria for the selections are the following:
– Irrespective of the overall career and value of the players we ONLY take into account their contributions in the EuroBasket.
– For the list we chose 6 backcourt players (‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’) and 6 big men (‘4’, ‘5’). The order of presentation is random.
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[lptitle title=”12. Sergei Belov (Soviet Union)“]
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Sergei Belov is without a doubt one of the best players – in 1991 FIBA proclaimed him the best in its history – that has ever played on European courts. The “czar” of Russian basketball competed with the Soviet Union from 1966 until 1980. He participated in 7 EuroBasket competitions, winning 4 gold medals (1967, 1969, 1971, 1979), two silver medals (1975, 1977) and a bronze (1973). The onetime CSKA Moscow player could play as a shooting guard as well as a small forward with equal ease. Actually, he could play in every position except center. He was the leader of the greatest European national team, the Soviet Union, leading them to winning 7 medals. In 1969 he made his best appearances in a EuroBakset and he was voted the MVP of the tournament.
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[lptitle title=”11. Drazen Dalipagic (Republic of Yugoslavia)“]
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Drazen Dalipagic was one of the greatest scorers in the history of the EuroBasket. Together with Cosic, Kicanovic and Delibasic he led Yugoslavia to the top, putting a stop to the domination of the then almighty Soviet Union. He won 3 consecutive gold medals (1973, 1975, 1977), a silver (1981) and a bronze (1979). In 1977 in the EuroBasket in Belgium he even emerged as the MVP of the tournament. That same year he was voted the best European player. He played in the national team for 13 years (1973-1986).
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[lptitle title=”10. Nikos Galis (Greece)“]
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He’s the greatest scorer in the history of the EuroBasket. He’s first in the overall number of points as well as in point averages. He was the top scorer in all four tournaments in which he played, with inconceivable numbers. We are speaking of Nikos Galis, who led the little-known national team of Greece to the top of Europe against the Soviet Union in 1987, when he also emerged as the MVP of the tournament. In 1989 he won the silver medal, beating the Soviets for the second time, this time in the semifinal.
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[lptitle title=”9. Toni Kukoc (Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia)“]
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The onetime great Chicago Bulls forward played in the EuroBasket wearing the Yugoslavian jersey as well as the Croatian one, and actually won a medal with both. Toni Kukoc was a member of perhaps the best Yugoslavian team of all time, in the tournaments of 1989 and 1991, when he won two gold medals in a row. In 1991 and with Drazen Petrovic actually absent, he made some excellent appearances and he emerged as the MVP of the tournament. Before that, in 1987, he had won his first medal in a EuroBasket finishing in third place in Athens. After the dissolution of Yugoslavia he won one more medal with Croatia. The similarities to that first medal were many! Same position, same country! Croatia finished third in the EuroBasket in Athens (1995).
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[lptitle title=”8. Drazen Petrovic (Republic of Yugoslavia)“]
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The Mozart of basketball is one of the greatest European players of all time. Aged only 28 years old he lost his life in a car accident but even that was enough time for him to leave his mark on world basketball. He won two medals in EuroBasket competitions, one gold in 1989 when he was also the MVP of the tournament, and one bronze in 1987. A lot of great shooters played in the EuroBasket but Drazen Petrovic was the greatest of them all. Unfortunately for him – and for us – he never got to play in the colors of his beloved Croatia as he lost his life shortly before the EuroBasket of 1993.
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[lptitle title=”7. Tony Parker (France)“]
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He’s one of the three players on our list that are still active. Tony Parker hasn’t retired yet but he has already entered his name in the history books of the tournament in golden letters. He’s the second best scorer of all time in terms of total points scored, and second also in number of appearances in the EuroBasket. The San Antonio Spurs point guard led France to winning three medals, gold in 2013 when he emerged as the MVP, silver in 2011 where he was the tournament’s top scorer and bronze in 2005. This year he hopes to win another gold medal in front of his home crowd, but in any case he has already earned a spot on the best team of all time in the EuroBasket.
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[lptitle title=”6. Pau Gasol (Spain)“]
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Another player on our list who is still active. The Chicago Bulls superstar, Pau Gasol, already has five medals in his collection from his appearances in the EuroBasket, two consecutive gold medals (2009, 2011), two silver medals (2003, 2007) and a bronze (2001). He led the national team of Spain, after several years and many lost finals, to the coveted first place in Europe two times in a row, actually. He was the top scorer in the tournament two times (2003, 2009) and the tournament’s MVP once in 2009 in Poland. He’s in eighth place on the table of the top scorers in total points in the history of the tournament.
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[lptitle title=”5. Dino Radja (Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia)“]
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Dino Radja is one of the greatest European centers of all time, a great leader and a big personality. The Croat won 5 consecutive medals, 3 with Yugoslavia (2 gold in 1989 and 1991 and a bronze in 1987 in Athens) and 2 with the national team of Croatia (two bronze medals in 1993 and 1995). He’s the greatest scorer of all time in the national team of Croatia with 1764 points! He was a key member of the great Yugoslavian team and the leader – in the absence of the tragically lost Drazen Petrovic – of Croatia after the dissolution.
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[lptitle title=”4. Vlade Divac (Republic of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia)“]
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Vlade Divac dominated for as many years as he played. Yugoslavia always had a big tradition in great centers and the onetime Lakers center was one of them. He too was a key member of the Yugoslavian team that won two gold medals (1987, 1989) but also the bronze in Athens in 1987. After the dissolution he won another gold with Serbia in 1995 in Athens and a bronze in1999 in France. The Serbian center was one of the few Europeans who managed to have a great career and be a protagonist in the NBA at a time when it was difficult for an athlete from the other side of the Atlantic to get established.
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[lptitle title=”3. Kresimir Cosic (Republic of Yugoslavia)“]
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Kresimir Cosic is remembered as the European who snubbed the NBA. He was one of the first centers who, despite his size, could shoot from mid-range and pass the ball like a guard with great success. He proved that centers could have a different role in the game from the one they were used to up to that point. With Yugoslavia he won 7 medals, 3 consecutive gold medals (1973, 1975, 1977), three silver medals (1969, 1971, 1981) and a bronze (1979). He’s the only player who has been voted the MVP of the tournament twice, in 1971 and in 1975, the first time actually, in spite of the fact that Yugoslavia lost in the final to the Soviet Union.
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[lptitle title=”2. Dirk Nowitzki (Germany)“]
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The German Mavericks superstar, Dirk Nowitzki, could not be missing from our list. After all, we are talking about perhaps the greatest European player in history. He led the national team of Germany from the obscurity of several years to the elite of Europe. At the age of 37 he’s getting ready for yet another EuroBakset having already won a silver medal in 2005 in Belgrade. Nowitzki has emerged once as the MVP of the tournament (2005) and three times as the top scorer (2001, 2005, 2007), while he’s the third greatest scorer of all time in the EuroBasket in total number of points. In Berlin, in front of the German crowd, he will have the chance to give yet another – perhaps the last – performance in a EuroBasket.
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[lptitle title=”1. Arvydas Sabonis (Soviet Union, Lithuania)“]
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Arvydas Sabonis was the continuation of Kresimir Cosic, as far as anyone can say that. A great center, 2 meters and 21 centimeters tall, with a good long- and mid-distance shot, with a great perception of space, something that made him an excellent passer of the ball and always one step ahead in his thinking from teammates and opponents. That was the main reason the Americans called him a “freak of nature”! The Lithuanian center played in the EuroBasket with the Soviet Union as well as Lithuania later on. He won 4 medals, a gold (1985) and two bronze medals (1983, 1989) before the dissolution and a silver medal subsequently (1995) with Lithuania. In that lost final in Athens to the Serbs the image of the tearful giant a few seconds before the end of the game will be forever etched in our memory since it’s one of the most powerful moments in the history of this tournament.
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