By Lefteris Moutis / moutis@eurohoops.net
Which players are most recognizable symbols of their Euroleague teams? In an era of continuous transfers, Eurohoops.net has compiled a list of players who boast the most appearances in Euroleague games with only one team.
Transfers from one team to another are now very common and it’s very rare to find players and teams who stay together very long. That’s true no just throughout their entire careers, but even throughout their terms in the Euroleague.
And yet, there are still several players who have spent a dozen years with only one team and who have worn the colors of just one Euroleague team at least 100 times.
In this list, many more players whose names are associated with a single team could have been included, but lost this “privilege” because they played in the competition for at least one season with another team. For example, Kostas Tsartsaris played 11 seasons and 214 Euroleague games with Panathinaikos Athens, but also two seasons and 25 games for Peristeri. Or his former teammate, Mike Batiste; he was identified with Panathinaikos for 10 years and 204 games, but made his Euroleague debut with Charleroi for one year and 10 games and later played for Fenerbahce Istanbul in 23 games in the 2012-13 season.
Paulius Jankunas broke the run he had with Zalgiris Kaunas from 2003-04 until today for a total of 12 seasons and 204 games, because of his participation with Khimki Moscow Region in 16 games in the Euroleague in the 2009-10 season. Likewise, J.R. Holden, who had 189 games in a total of nine seasons with CSKA Moscow, made his debut in the Euroleague with AEK for one year and 20 games.
Luis Scola
Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz
144 appearances
Scola last played in the Euroleague in 2007 and yet he’s still among the top ten players with the most appearances with only one team. That’s because in the first seven seasons of the competition, the Argentinian big man was one a symbolic player for the Euroleague and for Tau Ceramica (now Laboral Kutxa). Scola began his career with the club at the age of 17 in 1997, but starting in 2000 he became one of the leading players of the team, finishing his career in the Euroleague with an average of 14.3 points and 5.6 rebounds! He participated in three Final Fours plus the 2000-01 finals. Twice he was a member of the All-Euroleague First Team and once of the second team.
Andrey Vorontsevich
CSKA Moscow
153 appearances
He’s by far the youngest player on this list. Vorontsevich signed with CSKA in the summer of 2006 and he’s been a permanent member of the team ever since. In 2008, he won the Euroleague title, and since then has gradually acquired a bigger and bigger role in the Russian team. In the last few years, he’s the team’s main power forward. He has participated in a total of eight Final Fours, and at just 28 years old, he can definitely add to his status as a player-symbol for CSKA for several years to come.