By M. Bahadır Akgün & Semih Tuna / info@eurohoops.net
The Turkish Airlines EuroLeague has been the leading basketball competition on the Old Continent for quite a while and has seen many superstars come and go. The EuroLeague has been the stage on which great players such as Anthony Parker, Nikola Vujcic, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Dejan Bodiroga, Vassilis Spanoulis and Dimitris Diamantidis have performed their art. Those players all managed to bring home championships, even though the competition for the title was always tough.
Unfortunately, there are scores of great players who never got to hold the biggest basketball trophy in Europe, though that hasn’t affected their superstar status. However, the fact that they were never EuroLeague champions cannot change since they have now retired from playing professional basketball. They were not champs on paper, but they are champs in our minds and hearts. Those greats deserve to be remembered by real EuroLeague fans.
At Eurohoops, we decided to take a look at the dusty pages of history and uncover those great names with enormous respect. Distinguished readers, here we are: 10 great players who never experienced the unique taste of being a EuroLeague champion.
Luis Scola
Teams: Tau Ceramica (2000-2007, 144 games)
EuroLeague Career Stats: 14.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.2 steals, 0.5 blocks
The Argentinian legend only played for one team in his seven-year career in the EuroLeague. Luis Scola is one of the greatest players the competition has ever seen despite the fact he came up short in his bid to win it all. Scola was so good that he was named to the All-EuroLeague team three times in those seven seasons. He won almost everything in Vitoria – including the Spanish League. Scola came close to the title with Tau Ceramica; he led the team to three straight Final Fours between 2005 and 2007, including an appearance in the championship game in the first of those seasons.
Arvydas Macijauskas
Teams: Tau Ceramica (2003-2005, 42 games), Olympiacos (2006-2008, 14 games)
EuroLeague Career Stats: 17.4 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.6 steals, 0.1 blocks
Tau was both an opportunity and a disappointment for certain great players in the mid-2000s. The club has always been a fascinating organization and developed some of the biggest talents from all around the world, yet was unable to win a EuroLeague championship. After helping Tau to the EuroLeague Championship Game in 2005, Arvydas Macijauskas left Tau for one season in the NBA, which was followed by a move to Greece. The Lithuanian’s stint at Olympiacos Piraeus was cut short by injuries, but he still scored a lot in a short period of time.
Nemanja Bjelica
Teams: Laboral Kutxa Vitoria (2010-2013, 49 games), Fenerbahce Ulker (2013-2015, 53 games)
EuroLeague Career Stats: 9 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.0 steals, 0.4 blocks
Bjelica came really close to winning the EuroLeague in 2015 with Fenerbahce, but an injury right before the Final Four in Madrid negatively affected his performance and his team came up short. The 2014-15 EuroLeague MVP, Bjelica became a real force under the almighty Coach Zeljko Obradovic and made his way to the NBA after just one Final Four experience. Would he have been able to lift the 2017 trophy along with his Fenerbahce teammates if he had stayed? Who knows?
Marcus Brown
Teams: Bennetton Basket (2000-2001, 10 games), Efes Pilsen (2001-2003, 38 games), CSKA Moscow (2003-2005, 45 games), Unicaja Malaga (2005-2007, 28 games), Zalgiris Kaunas (2007-2008 and 2009-2011, 42 games), Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv (2008-2009, 16 games)
EuroLeague Career Stats: 15.3 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.0 steals, 0.1 blocks
Marcus Brown tried hard to win a championship. Twelve seasons of action in the EuroLeague, six different teams, 179 games in total and zero championships. He shuttled back and forth between France and the USA early in his career and ended up in the EuroLeague. Brown won lots of individual and team awards, but those do not include the EuroLeague title. His only Final Four appearance in 2005 resulted in a semifinal loss.
Pablo Prigioni
Teams: Tau Ceramica – Caja Laboral – Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz (2003-2009, 2011-2012, 2016-2017, 148 games), Real Madrid (2009-2011, 38 games)
EuroLeague Career Stats: 6.1 points, 2.5 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.7 steals
Prigioni is the second Argentinian on this list of elite EuroLeague players. Despite three straight Final Four appearances with Tau and one with Real Madrid in 2011, Prigioni’s cupboard does not have a EuroLeague title in it. That did not prevent Pablo Prigioni from going to the NBA at the age of 35. The guard made his return to Europe with his old team, but he ended up playing only three games for Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz in the 2016-17 season before retiring.
Mirsad Turkcan
Teams: CSKA Moscow (2001-2002 and 2003-2004, 37 games), Montepaschi Siena (2002-2003, 21 games), Fenerbahce Ulker (2005-2012, 81 games)
EuroLeague Career Stats: 11.8 points, 10.0 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.1 steals, 0.6 blocks
Mirsad Turkcan could shoot the ball, pass it, grab rebounds (he is still fourth on the all-time rebounding charts), make opponents uncomfortable with his great talent for stealing the ball and protecting the rim. The only thing he couldn’t do was win a championship. He played for teams that were contenders, EuroLeague powerhouses, but not even that was enough to get him the trophy in the top competition in Europe. Still, he should certainly be proud that Fenerbahce retired his jersey as an enormous sign of respect for a legend of the club.
Igor Rakocevic
Teams: KK Buducnost (2000-2002, 25 games), Real Madrid (2005-2006, 20 games), Tau Ceramica (2006-2009, 65 games), Efes Pilsen (2009-2011, 30 games), Montepaschi Siena (2011-2012, 19 games)
EuroLeague Career Stats: 14.6 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.8 steals
Starting his EuroLeague career in KK Buducnost, after two seasons Igor Rakocevic went to Minnesota for one season in the NBA and returned to Europe to play for Crvena Zvezda and Valencia in the EuroCup before making his EuroLeague return in 2005 with Spanish powerhouse Madrid. That season, two Spanish teams played in the Final Four but neither of them was Madrid. Three seasons and two subsequent Final Four appearances with Tau didn’t earn him a trophy either. He completed nine EuroLeague seasons as a true force in offense as one of those unlucky stars.
Nenad Krstic
Teams: Partizan (2001-2004, 32 games), CSKA Moscow (2011-2014, 80 games), Anadolu Efes (2014-2015, 20 games)
EuroLeague Career Stats: 11.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.4 steals, 0.6 blocks
Nenad Krstic was a star before a disappointing injury put an end to his glorious career. After debuting with Partizan came eight years of transatlantic experience and then a blockbuster return to Europe with one of the favorites to win the EuroLeague, CSKA Moscow. All three seasons he spent there ended up with a Final Four appearance, but at the end of each season, the final goal eluded him. He didn’t get the chance to win the title, though he was great at what he did and deserved that trophy more than many other players.