By John Rammas/ irammas@eurohoops.net
The reason? What else other than basketball itself? The occasion? Nick Calathes’s assists average for Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens so far this season. Eurohoops rummaged through the EuroLeague’s records and presents here the players with the highest average in each of the five main statistical categories of the competition in one season.
POINTS
Every self-respecting points list for this competition has to mention the player the Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy was named after. The late American shooting guard played in the EuroLeague for three seasons (Peristeri 2000-01, Olympiacos Piraeus 2001-02, Montepaschi Siena 2002-03) and he was the top scorer in the first two, averaging well above 20 points on both occasions. The first of those – in the inaugural season of the new EuroLeague – was more than enough, though, since it still has him placed at the top of the list with the highest point average in any season.
With an average of 26 points, he helped Peristeri finish in second place of their group (7-3) and continue to the Top 16 – in a best-of-three format then – where they were knocked out by Tau Ceramica (0-2).
His most productive performance that season was in the first game of the series against Tau, with 41 points, which remains the high-water mark for scoring in a EuroLeague game, although he now shares that record with three other players.
Alphonso Ford – Peristeri – 2000-01 26.0
Milos Vujanic – Partizan – 2002-03 25.8
Lynn Greer – Slask – 2003-04 25.1
REBOUNDS
Only ten times has a player managed to finish the season with a double-digit average in rebounds, and on three of those occasions it was Mirsad Turkcan. It makes sense, considering that he’s the player who was #1 on the list with the most rebounds (1,287) for years, and to this day still ranks in the top four. He is also first in career double-doubles – 50 in 129 appearances – and just one of three players to register a so-called double-double-double – more than 20 points and 20 rebounds – and the only one of those who did so a non-overtime game. Aside from everything else, he’s also a EuroLeague Legend since last season.
Back in 2001-02, in his first season in the competition, wearing the colors of CSKA Moscow, the player-symbol of Turkish basketball managed to get 13 double-doubles in 17 appearances and to average 12.8 rebounds for the season.
In one of those appearances he grabbed 23 rebounds, which places him second on the list of most rebounds in a single game.
Mirsad Turkcan – CSKA Moscow – 2001-02 12.8
Joseph Blair – Scavolini – 2001-02 11.9
Mirsad Turkcan – Montepaschi Siena – 2002-03 11.8
ASSISTS
Nick Calathes has a starring role with Panathinaikos in the first 21 rounds of this, his sixth season in the EuroLeague. The proof for this is the team’s 13 wins, good for a fourth-place tie with Real Madrid and Zalgiris Kaunas, Calathes’s own seven double-doubles, and more. And if the question of how far his team will go is still unknown, he himself is going full steam ahead toward breaking the record for the highest assists average in a single season.
The Greek point guard has dished between 2 and a career-high 14 assists in each of his 18 appearances this season. His average of 8.3 assists is not only 1.9 ahead of the second player on the list this season, but is also 0.4 higher than the EuroLeague’s single-season record average of 7.9, which was set by Thomas Heurtel during the 2015-16 season, when he was still in Anadolu Efes Istanbul.
At the same time, Calathes’s career total of 620 assists has put him in 13th place on the all-time list.
Nick Calathes – Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens – 2017-18 8.3
Thomas Heurtel – Anadolu Efes Istanbul – 2015-16 7.9
Milos Teodosic – CSKA Moscow – 2014-15 7.0
STEALS
With three players averaging more than 3 steals, the first season of the modern era of the EuroLeague could be characterized as the… Year of the Thief. Especially since there have been only six players who have achieved this in history.
The best of all are two players who were present in the competition for only one season. We’re talking about the American Jemeil Rich with Lugano and the Croatian Ivica Maric with Zadar.
Their teams may not have gone any further than the group stage – and were trailing there, too – but both managed to make their mark, especially in defense, where they made life difficult for their opponents. The average of 3.7 steals in 10 games speaks for itself.
Jemeil Rich – Lugano – 2000-01 3.7
Ivica Maric – Zadar – 2000-01 3.7
Riccardo Pittis – Benetton – 2000-01 3.4
BLOCKS
If defense can be just as spectacular as offense, Grygorii Khizhniak knew how to do it like few others do. In two seasons in the EuroLeague he blocked almost everything that was going into Zalgiris’s basket, and as the only player with an average of more than 3 blocks – 3.21 in his best season and 3-17 overall – he has left behind in second place none other than himself on the relevant list.
He’s also second on the list of the most blocks in a game (8) from his first season in the competition, while he also appears twice in third place (7).
Grygorii Khizhniak – Zalgiris Kaunas – 2000-01 3.21
Grygorii Khizhniak – Zalgiris Kaunas – 2000-01 3.17
Stojko Vrankovic – PAF Bologna – 2001-02 2.6
