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Radivoj Korać
Born
Korać was Yugoslavia's first great scorer, once putting 99 points on a team in a European Champions Cup game in 1965, and he led OKK Beograd and the national team through the 1960s. He died in a car crash in 1969, aged 30. FIBA named a European club competition, the Korać Cup, after him, which tells you how highly the continent rated him.
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Sergei Belov
Born
The Soviet guard won the 1972 Olympic gold in the famous final against the United States, scoring 20 points, and led CSKA Moscow to European titles. He was the first international player inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame as a player and FIBA's choice as the best European player of his era. His shooting and composure were what made the USSR a match for the Americans.
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Uljana Semjonova
Born
At around 7ft, the Latvian centre Semjonova, who died in 2026, was nearly unbeatable: two Olympic golds with the Soviet Union and a run of European Cup titles with TTT Riga across the 1970s and 1980s. She never played in the United States. Her dominance is a reminder that women's basketball had a global superstar long before the WNBA existed.
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Krešimir Ćosić
Born
Ćosić was a 6ft 11in Croatian who played like a guard, passing and dribbling from the high post decades before that was fashionable, and he declined NBA offers to stay in Europe. He won Olympic gold with Yugoslavia in 1980 and a world title in 1970. Players who watched him, including later Yugoslav stars, describe him as the one who changed what a big man could do.
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Dražen Dalipagić
Born
Praja Dalipagić, who died in 2025, was a high-flying Yugoslav forward who won the 1978 world title and 1980 Olympic gold and scored at will for Partizan, Real Madrid and Italian clubs. He once scored 70 points in a Serie A game. Watch for the leaping, quick-release jumper that made him one of Europe's most feared scorers of the late 1970s and 1980s.
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Nikos Galis
Born
Galis, a New Jersey-born guard drafted by Boston but injured before he could play, moved to Greece and became a national hero. He led Greece to the 1987 EuroBasket title in Athens as MVP and top scorer, the moment that made basketball Greece's second sport, and he drove Aris Thessaloniki through a run of domestic titles. His scoring averages in European competition remain extraordinary.
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Hortência Marcari
Hortência led Brazil to the 1994 Women's World Championship, beating the United States in the semi-final and China in the final, with Magic Paula alongside her. A prolific shooting guard who scored heavily for clubs in Brazil, she is one of the reasons the women's game is loved there. The 1994 run is the place to start for anyone curious about Brazilian basketball.
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Andrew Gaze
Born
Australia's Andrew Gaze is the National Basketball League's greatest player, its leading career scorer with the Melbourne Tigers, and he played at five Olympics. He did win an NBA ring as a bench player with San Antonio in 1999, but his reputation rests on two decades of scoring at home and for the Boomers. He was also Australia's flag-bearer at the Sydney 2000 opening ceremony.
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Dejan Bodiroga
Born
Bodiroga never played an NBA minute and is still one of the best European forwards ever: EuroLeague champion with Panathinaikos in 2000 and Barcelona in 2003, when he was Final Four MVP, and twice a world champion with Yugoslavia. He was slow by NBA standards and did not care; his footwork, post passing and timing let him control games at his own pace. Watch the 2002 World Championship to see why.
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Theodoros Papaloukas
Born
A 6ft 7in point guard whose career took off late, Papaloukas won the EuroLeague with CSKA Moscow in 2006 and 2008 and was Greece's playmaker when they won EuroBasket 2005 and beat the United States in the 2006 World Championship semi-final. His size let him see over defences and post up smaller guards. That semi-final, with his pick-and-roll passing, is the game to find.
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Šarūnas Jasikevičius
Born
Jasikevičius spent two modest NBA seasons in Indiana and Golden State, but in Europe he was a champion everywhere: EuroLeague titles with Barcelona, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Panathinaikos, plus an Olympic bronze and the 2003 EuroBasket title with Lithuania. He then became one of Europe's top coaches. His Maccabi seasons are the best demonstration of a guard running an offence by force of will.
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Juan Carlos Navarro (basketball)
Born
La Bomba Navarro played one NBA season with Memphis and went straight back to Barcelona, where he won two EuroLeagues and was the 2009 EuroLeague MVP. With Spain he won the 2006 World Championship and EuroBasket titles, and his floater, the bomba, became a signature shot copied across Spain. He is the clearest case of a player who chose Europe and lost nothing by it.
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Dimitris Diamantidis
Born
Diamantidis won three EuroLeagues with Panathinaikos and was named the competition's best defender six times, an unusual double for a playmaking guard. He ran Željko Obradović's offence with calm, long passes and guarded the opponent's best perimeter player. Panathinaikos retired his shirt, and he is the model of the two-way European guard.
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Vassilis Spanoulis
Born
Kill Bill won three EuroLeagues, one with Panathinaikos and two with Olympiacos, and was Final Four MVP three times, the record. His 2012 comeback with Olympiacos against CSKA in the final is the game to watch. He tried the NBA briefly with Houston in 2006-07 and returned home to become the EuroLeague's long-time career scoring leader, and later Greece's head coach.
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Nando de Colo
Born
The French guard tried the NBA with San Antonio and Toronto, then became a EuroLeague great with CSKA Moscow, winning two titles and the 2016 MVP and Final Four MVP. He is one of the competition's all-time leading scorers and an elite free-throw shooter. For Raptors fans, he is a reminder that a role player in the NBA can be a superstar elsewhere.
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Sergio Llull
Born
Llull turned down Houston's offers to stay at Real Madrid, where he has spent his whole career and won multiple EuroLeagues, the 2017 MVP among them. He is famous for long-range buzzer-beaters and a fearless, quick game. With Spain he has won World Cup and EuroBasket titles. Real Madrid's modern era is hard to imagine without him.
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Edy Tavares
Born
At 7ft 3in, the Cape Verdean centre had a brief NBA spell with Atlanta and Cleveland before becoming the defining big man of modern European basketball at Real Madrid: EuroLeague champion, 2023 Final Four MVP and one of the competition's most prolific shot-blockers. He is the reason teams avoid the paint against Madrid. Footage from the 2023 final shows his effect at both ends.
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Mike James (basketball, born 1990)
Born
Mike James had short NBA stints with Phoenix, New Orleans and Brooklyn, but in Europe he became the EuroLeague's all-time leading scorer, passing Vassilis Spanoulis in March 2024 with Monaco and later the first to reach 5,000 points. He was the 2023-24 EuroLeague MVP. His shot-creating guard play shows how a scorer can find a bigger stage across the Atlantic.
More about Mike James (basketball, born 1990)19
Alba Torrens
Born
Torrens is one of the best European women's players of her generation without ever playing in the WNBA: EuroBasket golds with Spain, an Olympic silver in 2016 and EuroLeague titles with clubs in Russia and Turkey. A tall, skilled wing who scores from all three levels, she is the obvious starting point for anyone exploring women's EuroLeague basketball.
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