Involved in yet another chat with yet another basketball enthusiast yet one more time about the all-time greatest basketball team, i quickly realized that any discussion of the topic never extends beyond the borders of the United States of America. And while the list of Greatest NBA Players of All-Time basically writes itself – Jordan, Bird, Magic, Wilt, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, etc. etc. – much more open to argument might be an attempt to formulate the all-time European squad.
Below runs a blueprint for BallinEurope’s Dream Team Europe roster, the all-time greatest European basketball team never assembled. Perhaps we’ll break this down country by country when feeling a little braver, but for the time being, here’s a list of invitees to the all-time training camp for Europa’s upcoming fantasyland battle against Team USA’s All-Timers.
(Yes, quite a few big men may be playing slightly out of position at forward here, but surely the sacrifice can be made for international all-time play. Besides, if Dino Meneghin were around in the 2000s to take on the Shaquilles of today’s basketball world, i’d sooner put him at power forward and let Arvydas Sabonis lean on the Big Stopgap for most of the game…)
The guards
• Sarunas Jasikevicius. Surely Jasikevicius makes this team; the only question is whether he is simply the greatest Euroleague guard ever. Though his NBA career was a bit of a washout (gee, his time was totally wasted with the Golden State Warriors in 2007; imagine that), few have dominated Euroleague play like the latest great Lithuanian. Titles with three different teams should be enough proof, but his individual achievements in The Continent’s league alone include two All-Euroleague first team nods, one final four MVP, and inclusion in 2007’s “35 Greatest Euroleague Players” list. Oh, and he was named “Mr. Europa” in 2003 after his FC Barcelona team took the Spanish league title plus the Euroleague title while Team Lithuania won Eurobasket.
Jamming with The Dead
• Sarunas Marciulionis. The first Lithuanian national ever to play NBA ball was drafted an incredible 127th overall in the sixth round (!) of the 1987 NBA Draft. All the Golden State Warriors got out of him was four seasons of play in which he was twice runnerup for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award – and this after eight years with Statyba Vilnius (today BC Lietuvos Rytas). Marciulionis also guided the Soviet Union to the gold medal in the 1988 Games in that team’s last Olympic performance and is credited with “almost single-handedly resurrect[ing] the Lithuanian national team.” Indeed, this work alone should get Marciulionis into some kind of multinational marketing hall of fame for creation of one of the oddest pop culture meldings ever: international basketball plus the Grateful Dead. Devotion, man.
• Tony Parker. So technically, Euroleague records have Monsieur Parker down as an American citizen, but come on: Tony *is* the face of Team France these days, French is his native language, and the truth is Dream Team Europe is short on guards. While the astute in America knew that Parker was something special after the FIBA U18s in 2000, not even Greg Popovich could have guessed he’d be this good: His CV already includes a 2001-02 NBA all-rookie first team award, three All-Star appearances, an NBA Finals MVP award, the Euroscar European player of the year award and, perhaps most importantly, a key role on three NBA champions. And he’s only 27.
• Drazen Petrovic. Ah, Drazen: He who demolished the European barrier in the NBA, he who was so far ahead of his time, he who suffered a tragic death at far too young an age … he was the best.
The forwards
• Boris Diaw. Already known for his heroics in international play for Team France, 2005 saw Diaw come into his own in the NBA, earning the nickname 3-D for that well-loved propensity of the best European players to excel in all aspects of the game. It remains to be seen what getting relegated to the Charlotte Bobcats will do to Boris’ career, but here’s to thinking he’ll make the most of it.
• Pau Gasol. Dogged by teammate Kobe among innumerable other for lacking killer instinct and/or stamina, Gasol proved the doubters (Lakers fan yours truly included) wrong in last season’s NBA championship series. Today, Gasol The Elder makes for a fitting symbol of Spain’s golden generation of basketball players.
• Toni Kukoc. Often set in the shadows of Those Great Chicago Bulls memories behind Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen (not to mention oddball Rodman) and unfairly remembered by many for his withering under Pippen’s crushing defense in a 1992 Olympic game, Kukoc was an absolutely vital part of the dominant 1990s Bulls. Those who saw him will never forget his brilliant passing, his awesome 1997-98 season as sixth man (15.7 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists per game), and his redeeming 16-point, 9-assist performance against the Dream Team in the ’92 gold-medal game.
• Dino Meneghin. Meneghin’s ridiculous longevity – A playing career lasting 29 years? Who besides Gordie Howe and George Blanda could approach this in any sport? – gets him onto any all-star team such as this. In the course of his legendary career, Meneghin played in 13 Euroleague finals, winning seven; his teams won the Italian League title 12 times; and with Team Italy, he took the 1983 Eurobasket title and the silver medal at the 1980 Olympic Games. In 1991, Meneghin was officially called “the greatest European basketball player of all-time” by the big league.
• Dirk Nowitski. Detlef who? Nowitski has become the face of German basketball and it should be some time before any Deutschlander takes over the mantle of “Greatest German Player of All-Time” away from Deadly Dirk. Despite the seeming inevitability of Nowitski’s retirement from NBA ball without a title, his career stats (22.7 ppg, 8.6 rpg, just 27 games missed in the last 10 seasons) should get him into the NBA Hall of Fame easily.
• Dino Radja. A key member of Team Yugoslavia’s own dream teams in the late 1980s and early 90s, the well-travelled Radja thrilled fans all over Europe and in the US. Despite ignominious exits from the NBA and Panathinaikos, Radja’s numbers everywhere – voted second-best player in Europe in 1991; 21.5 ppg for Virtus Roma in 1992-93; averages of 16.7 points and 8.4 rebounds per game with the Boston Celtics in three seasons, just for a few examples – earn him a spot among the greats
• Detlef Schrempf. One of the key components of those star-laden 1990s Seattle Supersonics, Schrempf actually won his first title in America as a senior in high school. After four years with the University of Washington, in which he may have turned in the best-ever college career by a European and earning an all-tournament team nod for Germany in Eurobasket 1985, Schrempf would go on to an NBA career featuring three All-Star bids, one relatively close championship bid (Hey, it was the Bulls, after all), and becoming the first European player to score 15,000 in the NBA.
The centers
• Vlade Divac. I can still recall the line from a hostile Los Angeles sportswriter when the Lakers had Divac to fill the gap left in the wake of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s retirement: “The Lakers have traded a Cadillac for a Yugo.” Divac then spent most of his career proving his detractors wrong — or at least inaccurate. Divac ended up a dependable starter for three playoff franchises: the Lakers, Charlotte Hornets and Sacramento Kings before he called it a day with the team he’d played in his only NBA Finals with in that rookie season.
• Arvydas Sabonis. One of the good things about multinationalism in sports: The likes of Sabonis will never fly under America’s radar again. What most US fans knew about Sabonis, until he entered the NBA at the age of 30 (!), was assembled from remembrance of the Olympic clashes between Team USA and the Soviet Union. What NBA fans saw of Sabonis’ career with the Portland Trail Blazers was a huge, if a bit slow, dude who could shoot from anywhere on the floor. And even into his mid-30s, Sabonis was one of the (extremely) few who could shut down Shaq with defense. If more of us had seen him play in the 1980s for Zalgiris, Sabonis would surely be included in many more “great centers of all-time” discussions.
• Rik Smits. When Larry Bird took over as coach in Indiana, the Pacers were transformed into a team which lived and died by perimeter shooting. With four guys out deep, who was there to nail rebound after rebound against the likes of young Shaquille O’Neal and crazed Dennis Rodman? That’s right: The no. 2 overall pick in the 1988 NBA Draft, Rik “The Dutchman” Smits. Despite chronic foot problems, Smits still managed a fine 12-year career of 12,871 points, 5,277 rebounds, and 1,111 blocks mostly as a Robin to Reggie Miller’s Batman.
So there are 14 prospective players for immortality. However, All-Time Dream Team rules stipulate that only 12 may be active for all-time tournament play. Right, then, BallinEurope readers: Who gets left off? Has anyone been forgotten from this practice squad? Who among the uninvited has been snubbed?
And most importantly, how would this team fare against an American dream Dream Team?
Update — Five more players added to Dream Team Europe roster before training camp. Also: Who should coach Dream Team Europe?
– written by Os Davis
where is galis? fiercest european scorer ever.
Your list (though I may have chosen different players) is fine, except in one spot:
Boris Diaw? :O
There are lot of forwards way better than him: Dino Radja (how could you think even for a second that Diaw could be better than Radja?) ,Stojakovic, Kirilenki, Volkov, Paspalj, Fernando Martín, Andrés JIménez…
Boris Diaw? :O
My mistake: Radja was in your list. I was so blinded by the fact os seeing Diaw there that I didn’t notice Dino.
I think another fault in yours is that thera are too many forwards (Diaw) and too few guards. My list would be:
Parker, Jasikevicius, Marciulonis, Petrovic, Gallis
Kukoc, Schrempf, Nowitzki, Gasol, Radja
Sabonis, Divac
No list is complete without Nikos Galis!
Good list, but i hope you are joking with Boris Diaw. They are many better players then him…
Boris who?? naaa…………….
Galis instead of Parker, Bodiroga instead of Diaw [or Schrempf]
Gasol to centers to replace Smits
Kresimir Cosic, Nikos Galis, Dejan Bodiroga?
List is pretty good except it needs to contain Bodiroga.
Bodiroga needs to be on this list. Diaw has no business being on it…
Diaw??? No way he belongs there, not even in a top-30 I would say…
Bodiroga and Gallis should absolutely be there, even if that means taking out Parker (who will likely belong some day but not yet) and even Marculionis a great player, but not as impactful on their teams (club and national) as those two basketball gods.
Ilgauskas?
1998 All-Rookie First Team
1998 MVP of the Rookie Challenge
2003, 2005 NBA All-Star
Eastern Conference Player of the Week (week ending March 14, 2004)
HEY, what abouth Dian Bodiroga?
ok – galis is mos def missing. but he was born in the US and went both to high school and college there, so one could indeed argue that ha could be left out. although i think he should be counted and easily tops the list of the guards.
but guys, who’s this nowitski. i’ve heard of a dirk, but not a nowitski!
Nikos Gallis should actually be there…
And maybe EPI? Anyone remembers?
Trajan Langdon?
stojakovic? bodiroga? Diaw is on the list, c’mon really?
where’s Valdis Valters? he was best player in Europe in early 80s
I can see a valid argument in picking Bodiroga and Stojakovic over Diaw, but picking Galis over Parker is plain silly. C’mon guys. We are talking about a guy here who is a key piece in a team with three NBA championship rings. Galis was heck of a player, but would have been a role player at best in the best basketball league of the world. And I’m not even a frenchman or american, so no bias here. Coming back to Diaw, I would also perhaps consider mentioning Turkoglu before him (and – I’m not turkish).
AK47 has to be on the list. Luol Deng? Ricky Rubio?
Cosic, Dalipagić, Delibašić, Slavnic, Bodiroga, Galis, Yannakis, Diamantidis, Papaloukas, Fernandi Martin, Epi, Corbalan, Riva, Marzorati, Valters, Tkachenko, Myschkin, Volkov, Dacoury?
Bodiroga?!!
id say any player who is currently a starter in the NBA is better than all of these guys who won euroleague mvps or whatever but then couldn’t crack the rotation in the 2 or 3 years they spent with the big boys. I’d put Bargnani ahead of some of those guys on the list
@HJK: so it’s a matter of which criteria you establish to call out the best of the best of european players. Above all I would prefer the grade of impact on european Basketball (dominating european contests, EC and WC) and not their NBA standing. And in this case you have to admit that i.e. Gallis is far ahead of Tony Parker. just like Bodiroga is displacing Diaw or Bargnani and so on…
Saying Galis is ahead of Tony Parker is a joke, sure he dominated his competition, but European basketball in the 80s was hardly brimming with talent.
IF Tony parker had been drafted by SA, not got signed, join a D-league team, then average 35ppg and won some D league titles, THEN you could say Galis is ahead. But the fact is TP is a 3 time NBA champion, Finals MVP, an All-star and this years All NBA 3rd team PG.
Bargnani may not belong on the list, but the fact is, european hoops in the 70’s 80’s and even 90’s was so far away from the standard of the NBA that European scoring records, championships and MVP’s are meaningless, you cant say a player is great because they dominated TERRIBLE competition, in my opinion its more of an achievement to be able to play significant minutes in todays NBA that it is to average 37 points in the 1987 European championships.
imagine if saras had not gone to the nba. could he have won five straight titles?
Gallis seems to be missing though parker deserves recognition
diaw and schrempf really do not deserve to be on this list.
a couple of other names possible would be bodirog and papaloukas.
unfortunately i am an american wtih a limited knowledge of the legends of old yugoslavia and Soviet teams. but i assume there are more than a few of those guys who absolutely MUST be on this list.
Diaw does not deserve to be on this team… Stojakovic and Turkoglu are way better players both at their peak and in terms of career value. Kirilenko also deserves mention .
With the guards Jose Calderon deserves to be on your list, especially since the quality guards are few and far between.
Overall nice work and great idea.
Team is a joke without the Euro Magic Johnson, Dejan Bodiroga
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Marciulionis never actually received the 6th man award; both times he finished as runner-up, first behind Detlef Schrempf and then Cliff Robinson.
Has the author of this ever seen Galis play and still left him out??
The guy was an absolutely devastating scorer, pure joy to watch.
@ Brap Flingdort: You are correct; totally an error on my part. The text has been changed. Thanks for the heads up!
These kind of articles are meant to always produce heated debates.
No doubt all the players you mention in your list are great.
However allow me to say that with the exception of Dino Meneghin and Saras for every other single player the predominant criterion backing their selection is their participation and success on the NBA. Allow me a leap of faith and lets set this hypothetical example as an argument. Let’s say that Josh Childress is European. He was one of the best 6th men on the NBA came to Europe with a King’s contract and won nothing. Does his achievement make him a European legend? Not at all. The best win titles, mvp awards and inspire generations.
That is a major problem of your list as you are speaking about European Basketball holding almost no regard to European basketball folklore and domestic competitions and judging only according to NBA participation.
Rik smits out- he did not inspire anybody, he was a tall dude that was a good center of his era. Diaw? Did not win anything, he is another good player in the NBA. Schrempf was always absent from Europe. Maybe he was the first European to have a consistent career in the NBA but did not achieve anything in Europe. Marciulionis is a different story but maybe even he should not make the cut.
Many speak about Galis, and the truth is that Galis led Greece, a nation that before 1987 did not even know what basketball was to a European title, notably scoring 40 in front of Marciulionis. In his era, he was an unstoppable scorer and inspired post 1987 Greece basketball, he almost shaped Greek basketball in what is today. Anyone with at least some knowledge on euro ball would acknowledge that Greek ball is a major force today in Euro basketball and well, Galis was the one that put it on the map. Enough said.
Others mention Dejan Bodiroga. It is a sin having a list with Schrempf, Diaw, Smits and the likes and forgetting Bodiroga. 2 FIBA World Championships, 3 Euro Championships, 3 Euroleague titles, compeltely dominating Euro ball for a decade. How do those achievements compare to Smits 5,000 rebounds or Diaw’s three years in the NBA? They simply do not.
also galis holds almost any scoring record man can think of in european and world championships. What else exactly is a 2-guard supposed to be able to do in order to get on this list? Be a fiba hall-of-famer?
Well, guess what…Galis IS that. You did not put one of the premier Hall-of-famers of FIBA, not even just fiba-europe, on this list, while picking parker, who could not win anything with fiba rules if his life depended on it because he simply flourishes in the nba system while euro-defense smothers his drives.
Another thing about galis that nba purists tend to disegard: before he was injured close to the nba draft, he was regularly destroying the opposition (i.e. LARRY BIRD) in the ncaa. Only at that time drafting a player with such knee problems seemed an enormous risk, so he went to europe and ever-grateful ARIS and gave the western world a title over the soviet union.
Hardly a snub if you ask me, and Bodiroga is a lock on this list, as well.
Apart from that, returning to parker, I would also pick calderon over parker for all of his national achievements and because he has proven to be a fantastic nba guard. Different than parker and maybe not as successful in the nba (yet), but much more proven on an intternational plateau.
Oscar schmidt should be here. Youtube the game against petrovich where the two of them combined for over 100 points.
Boris diaw? What? How do he get in there?
Sabonis is perhaps the greatest player period. No one had the combo of size, passing, shooting, rebounding, ball handling and defense he did.
Petro, RIP.
Oscar Schmidt is not European, but of course he would deserve to be in the list if he were.
WTF man!
What’s wrong with you!?!
No Dejan BODIROGA on your list!?!
The guy is the Greatest Of All Time! A winner, a leader…
He didn’t play in the NBA (despite being drafted by Sacramento) but he proved many times in international competition that he was as good as the best NBA players if not better…
WAKE UP MAN!
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Forget: Diaw.
Must-have : Bodiroga, Kirilenko
Why not: Papaloukas, Karnishovas
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