Sasha? Really?
It’s perhaps the most famous Euroleague-related trivia question, and this season sees two more players in a quest to join the likes of a noted half-dozen, including some of the game’s all-time greats – would you believe that duo seeking to join this elite are named Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar?
The €20,000 question is of course, “Which players have won both Euroleague and NBA titles?” Hint: There are six in total, and two are Americans. Guess before clicking “Read More…” to test your skills – BiE’s trusting you to stay away from Google searches and Wikipedia…
Both Farmar and Vujacic have taken NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers; with the former playing for the well-stocked Maccabi Tel Aviv and the latter on the nearly-as-elite Anadolu Efes, the double-title club could well become a quintet by the end of 2011-12 – figuring in the ever-increasingly likely possibility that this NBA season will be canceled altogether.
The elite list includes the following.
• Bill Bradley, Olimpia Milano/New York Knicks. Okay, so back in 1965-66, the big Continental title was called the “FIBA European Champions Cup,” but in the 21st century, Euroleague statmongers have the competition listed as contiguous with the “modern era” of EL play.
Whatever you call Bradley & Co.’s 1966 title, it can certainly be recognized as quite the feat. Not only was Bradley a 22-year-old graduate student who eschewed a season with the New York Knicks to become a then-rare American in European ball, his university was Oxford, from where he travelled to (occasionally) practice and typically start in games for Milano. The results? A Serie A title plus the team’s first-ever Continental title, the latter its last for 20 years until the arrival of … ah, you’ll see.
• Bob McAdoo, Los Angeles Lakers/Tracer Milano. Today listed as one of the Euroleague’s top 50 contributors of all-time, McAdoo chased up a somewhat inconsistent NBA career by jumping the puddle to play in Italy. Starting with Milano, McAdoo immediately enjoyed the championship success that had eluded him for so long in the U.S. In his first two seasons abroad – 1986-87 and1987-88 – Milano took back-to-back Champions Cup titles over Maccabi Tel Aviv. And 1988 was capped with a Milano triple crown, an accomplishment the team hasn’t achieved since.
• Toni Kukoc, KK Split/Chicago Bulls. Kukoc’s cross-continent ring-bearing is, BiE daresay, writes the Croatian’s name indelibly all over the pages of basketball history. Kukoc not only makes this list of the super-elite, but establishes himself as a key figure on the most dominant teams in both leagues quite possibly of all-time.
The legend of *those* Bulls of the 1990s is too well-known to be delineated heavily here, but in those years it may said that Kukoc established himself among the immortal sixth men in NBA history. For Jugoplastica/Pop 84 Split, all Toni did was lead his team to three consecutive Euroleague titles for a run matched only in the dawn of the Champions Cup when ASK Riga went back-to-back-to-back from 1958 to ’60: A feat that seems unlikely ever to be matched again.
In addition, Kukoc symbolized the then-new trend in the NBA’s attitude vis-à-vis European players, representing a shift from the Dominique Wilkins Factor, i.e. aged American player hawking past-his-prime wares and dominating Continental ball, to a strategy involving drafting players to let them develop further abroad.
Adding his contributions to the Team Yugoslavia squads of the late 1980s/early 1990s, one question comes to mind: How the hell is Kukoc not in the FIBA Hall of Fame?
• Zan Tabak, KK Split/Houston Rockets. Like Kukoc, Zan Tabak got his winning seasons with KK Split parlayed into selection at the NBA Draft. And like Kukoc, Tabak was soon thereafter playing for titles. Unlike his Croatian teammate, however, Tabak never quite carved a niche for himself with his first NBA team and was used sparingly with the 1994-95 Houston Rockets, playing in fewer than half the regular-season games and just 31 total minutes in the playoff run to the championship.
Tabak again reached the NBA finals with the Indiana Pacers in 2000, again watching the great majority of games from the bench. Between 1998 and 2005, Tabak returned to European ball to play in Turkey and Spain, but the highest team achievement he would reach in those years was Joventut Badalona’s surprising second-place finish in the Copa del Rey in 2004.
• Rasho Nesterovic, Kinder Bologna/San Antonio Spurs. Nesterovic was yet another player to enjoy the glory years of teams on both sides of the Atlantic, working his way through top European clubs – and reaching some unprecedented heights with a couple of them – before joining the Spurs in 2003.
Nesterovic’s superstar status in Europe (and certainly making him an attention-grabber among NBA scouts) came at the age of 19. Playing in the Slovenian national league in 1995-96, the soon-to-be FIBA Europe U20 tourney MVP averaged a double-double of 17 points and 14 rebounds for the SKL champions Union Olimpija. The following season, Nesterovic helped Olimpija into the Euroleague Final Four round, a final standing the club has yet to repeat.
After his inaugural season in Euroleague play, then free-spending Kinder Bologna managed to land the big man, filling out a roster that already included Antoine Rigaudeau, Predrag Danilović, Alessandro Frosini, Zoran Savić and Hugo Sconochini. (Plus John Amaechi and Zarko Paspalj would each contribute a season before Nesterovic’s three years with the team were up.) Thus was Nesterovic’s 1997-98 season was capped with Bologna’s first-ever Euroleague title.
Incredibly enough, Nesterovic’s ascension – and trophy collecting – was still not finished. After five solid seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Nesterovic became one of the first in the long line of veteran European ballers playing in San Antonio. Nesterovic was given the task of filling David Robinson’s sneakers; in relishing the challenge all the Slovenian would do is start every game at center in the 2003-04 season and contribute a solid 8.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game.
Missing a few games due to injury the following season, Nesterovic saw limited time in the Spurs’ 2005 playoff run that culminated in a championship; after one more season with San Antonio, Nesterovic would never get any closer to the NBA finals thereafter.
• Manu Ginobili, Kinder Bologna/San Antonio Spurs. The latest addition to the list, Ginobili became a prototypical post-Kukoc player, resisting joining the Spurs in 1999 to develop further in Italy after playing professionally in Argentina since the age of 18.
Ginobili may be credited with leading Bologna’s last true golden age, handing the city its only triple crown title in 2001 while earning Serie A and Euroleague Final Four MVP awards. While Bologna would take the Italian Cup in 2002 without Ginobili and Marko Jaric, the end of the 2002-03 season saw the once-mighty club suffer relegation due to financial circumstances, a blow from which the franchise has never truly recovered.
Gee, no wonder Claudio Sabatini is pursuing Kobe Bryant Ginobili so fiercely, eh…?
Tags: Alessandro Frosini, Anadolu Efes, Antoine Rigaudeau, ASK Riga, Bill Bradley, Bob McAdoo, Chicago Bulls, Claudio Sabatini, Copa del Rey, DKV Joventut Badalona, Dominque Wilkins, Euroleague, FIBA European Champions Cup, FIBA Hall of Fame, Houston Rockets, Hugo Sconochini, Indiana Pacers, John Amaechi, Jordan Farmar, Jugoplastica Split, Kinder Bologna, KK Split, Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Manu Ginobili, Marko Jaric, New York Knicks, Olimpia Milano, Pop 84 Split, Predrag Danilovic, Rasho Nesterovic, San Antonio Spurs, Sasha Vujacic, SKL, Team Yugoslavia, Toni Kukoc, Tracer Milano, Union Olimpija, Žan Tabak, Žarko Paspalj, Zoran Savic
[...] Sasha Vujacic, Jordan Farmar seek to join elites in 2012BallinEuropeThe ?20000 question is of course, ?Which players have won both Euroleague and NBA titles?? Hint: There are four in total, and two are Americans. Guess before clicking ?Read More?? to test your skills ? BiE's trusting you to stay away from Google … [...]
You mentioned Kukoc’s contribution to the Yugoslavian team but don’t forget that Bradley and Ginobli each have Olympic gold medals.
@ Gabe: Point taken. And i think Ginobili’s got to be a FIBA HOFer once he retires…
Haven’t Rasho Nesterovic and Zan Tabak also won both NBA and Euroleague titles? Full disclosure: I knew about Rasho, had to Google Zan
Dominique is one my favorite players ever, but “dominate the continent”? He did not dominate in Europe. He won a Greek Cup fairly, he lost the Greek Championship (throwing a hissy fit and walking out on the team in the process)……….
and he “won” the most controversial Euroleague final in history. A final which to this day is still greatly disputed. He also was not the Greek League MVP that season.
Then he played a year in Italy and was even less “dominant”.
So, I’m not sure how you can call that “dominant”. If that is “dominant”, then guys like Diamantidis, Navarro, Spanoulis, Jasikevicius, Bodiroga have also been “dominant” players on the European continent. Because using Wilkins as that standard of “dominant”, would sure put them in that category also, easily.
It’s an exaggeration to claim Wilkins dominated in Europe, because he did not.
He was the Greek League MVP that season.
1996- Euroleague and Greek Cup Champion/Euroleague Final Four and Greek Cup MVP
Pretty dominate that year.
As Rob mentioned, a second check wouldn’t be wrong in this case. Nesterovič and Tabak got euroleague and NBA titles as well, while considering european journalists are as easily forgeting europeans, I wouldn’t be surprised few more US players got that achievement as well…
@ JPF, Rob: Yes, you guys are correct. Rasho Nesterovic took titles with the San Antonio Spurs and Kinder Bologna, while Zan Tabak won the leagues with the Houston Rockets and KK Split. A rewrite will be done. Thanks for the heads-up!
Wilkins was not MVP of Greek A1 in 1996. Gabe is wrong – as usual. Or should I say full of crap………….
Yes I made a error. He the Greek Cup MVP not the Greek league. When I make errors I correct myself. He was the Greek Cup and Euroleague Final Four MVP that year.
[...] New Jersey Net Jordan Farmar continued his personal drive to history in impressive fashion against Real Madrid on Thursday night. Farmar contributed a huge 35 points on [...]
[...] New Jersey Net Jordan Farmar continued his personal drive to history in impressive fashion against Real Madrid on Thursday night. Farmar contributed a huge 35 points on [...]
[...] to the Nets, Farmar leaves Sasha Vujacic as the sole player contending to join an elite bunch of players with Euroleague and NBA titles. The former Los Angeles Laker certainly helped Maccabi Tel Aviv on its path to the EL championship [...]
Josh Powell is one game away from being lucky number seven!
He did it! Josh Powell is the 7th player to have won both Euroleague and NBA titles.