By Antonis Stroggylakis / info@eurohoops.net
One of the favorite hottest topics among fans and media in European basketball is who the best team of all time in the EuroLeague is.
The competition has always been fierce and the number of potential options among players is not a small one. But, most of the time, everyone affiliated with the EuroLeague in one way or another can pick a couple of favorites.
Dejan Bodiroga, a EuroLeague legend and current president of the organization, is no exception.
After picking Dimitris Diamantidis as his selection for GOAT of the EuroLeague, Bodiroga went on to name five more all-time greats that compile his personal Top 5+1 squad.
“I will start with [Dimitris] Diamantidis, of course. Sarunas (Jasikevicius) was one of the biggest and I pick him, Spanoulis (Vassilis) for me also in one moment of his career. And now we need to find another two. I will say Vujcic (Nikola) had an important role in Maccabi, but for me Parker (Anthony) was also good. But now I have small lineup, Diamantidis can play position four. Definitely, Gregor Fučka was also one of the biggest.”
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Bodiroga made some solid picks, especially given the difficulty of the question. All players on the list have a EuroLeague championship and an All-EuroLeague First Team nod in their resumes. Four of them (Diamantidis, Jasikevicius, Spanoulis, Parker) are multiple title winners and claimed Final Four MVP at least once in their careers.
There are also some interesting connections among all these players.
Fucka and Jasikevicius played with Bodiroga in 2002-2003 with Barcelona when the Blaugrana won the first ever EuroLeague championship in club history. The Serbian icon was the MVP of the Final Four, repeating what he achieved on team and personal level in the previous year with Panathinaikos.
Jasikevicius then moved to Maccabi Tel Aviv to lift another pair of EuroLeague trophies together with Parker and Vujcic. In 2009, the Lithuanian player became EuroLeague champion once again, this time with Diamantidis and Spanoulis as teammates.