By Giorgos Orfanakis/ info@eurohoops.net
How many players from Euroleague teams have played even one game in the NBA? Which team has the players with the greatest experience in the NBA? Eurohoops.net searched and found which Euroleague stars have the strongest links to the NBA.
From the 16 teams that take part in the Top 16 only one doesn’t include in their roster a player with experience in the NBA. Zalgiris has invested more in native players and in young and players of promise.
The ranking was based on the total number of NBA games in which the players of every Euroleague team have taken part. Below, you can see in detail the teams that have players with an overall experience that is greater than 100 games.
Let’s start with the teams that have players with an overall experience of games in the NBA that is less than 100.
Laboral Kutxa
Together with Bamberg, Laboral Kutxa belongs to the club of Top 16 teams with only one NBAer in their roster. That is Tornike Shengelia, who played in the colors of the Nets and the Bulls over two seasons and played in 45 games. He’s a highly capable player, just 24 years of age and in the future he might try to cross the Atlantic once again.
| Player | Games | Seasons |
| Tornike Shengelia | 45 | 2 |
| Total | 45 | 2 |
Unicaja Malaga
They went, they saw and they departed. This is how one can characterize the spells of Nedovic, Cooley and Nelson in the NBA, since they only played there for one season before looking for a team in Europe. For the two Americans, their return to the top championship is considered unlikely, and while the Serbian guard is highly explosive, this is an element that doesn’t seem sufficient. Now, the three of them play for Malaga with whom they are doing so well.
| Player | Games | Seasons |
| Nemanja Nedovic | 24 | 1 |
| Jack Cooley | 16 | 1 |
| DeMarcus Nelson | 13 | 1 |
| Total | 53 | 3 |
Brose Baskets Bamberg
Darius Miller will be sharing stories from the NBA with his teammates in Bamberg’s locker room, since he’s the only player of the German team who has played there. The American forward who “terminated” Olympiacos in the Peace and Friendship Stadium, has wore in the past the jersey of the Pelicans for a total of 3 seasons, tallying on average 3.1 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.9 assists in 102 appearances.
| Player | Games | Seasons |
| Darius Miller | 102 | 3 |
| Total | 102 | 3 |
With Kostas Papanikolaou at the forefront, Olympiacos too belongs to the group of clubs that have in their roster players who have passed through the NBA. The Greek forward returned to Greece but not before competing in 77 games with the Rockets and the Nuggets. And so, together with Vassilis Spanoulis (32), they are the only non-Americans in Olympiacos with experience in the magical world. Strawberry, Hunter and Johnson-Odom complete the quintet of ex-NBAers.
| Player | Games | Seasons |
| Kostas Papanikolaou | 77 | 2 |
| DJ Strawberry | 34 | 1 |
| Vassilis Spanoulis | 32 | 1 |
| Othello Hunter | 27 | 2 |
| Darius Johnson-Odom | 7 | 2 |
| Total | 152 | 8 |
Darussafaka
Before he made the decision to play on European courts and more specifically, in UNICS Kazan, Luke Haragondy made a little… detour from the NBA to play with the Celtics and the Cavaliers for two seasons. His presence was quite mediocre with 3.6 points and 2.8 rebounds in 70 appearances. Also, Semih Erden spent two seasons in the NBA with Celtics and Cavaliers and Furkan Aldemir played with Sixers.
| Player | Games | Seasons |
| Luke Haragondy | 70 | 2 |
| Semih Erden | 69 | 2 |
| Furkan Aldemir | 41 | 1 |
| Total | 180 | 5 |
Crvena Zvezda only has two Americans but both of them have tasted the NBA experience. One of them, in fact, Tarence Kinsey, was LeBron James’s teammate in Cleveland (2008-09) where he made most of his total 118 appearances. The other American, Quincy Miller, is just 23 years old but has already managed to play in 69 games, most of them with the Nuggets.
| Player | Games | Seasons |
| Tarence Kinsey | 118 | 3 |
| Quincy Miller | 69 | 3 |
| Total | 187 | 6 |