Items19The creator’s order
  1. 1Radivoj KoraćRadivoj KoraćBorn 5 Nov 1938Korać 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…0i
  2. 2Sergei BelovSergei BelovBorn 23 Jan 1944The 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.…0i
  3. 3Uljana SemjonovaUljana SemjonovaBorn 9 Mar 1952At 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…0i
  4. 4Krešimir ĆosićKrešimir ĆosićBorn 26 Nov 1948Ćosić 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…0i
  5. 5Dražen DalipagićDražen DalipagićBorn 27 Nov 1951Praja 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…0i
  6. 6Nikos GalisNikos GalisBorn 23 Jul 1957Galis, 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…0i
  7. 7Hortência MarcariHortência MarcariHortência 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…0i
  8. 8Andrew GazeAndrew GazeBorn 24 Jul 1965Australia'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…0i
  9. 9Dejan BodirogaDejan BodirogaBorn 2 Mar 1973Bodiroga 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…0i
  10. 10Theodoros PapaloukasTheodoros PapaloukasBorn 8 May 1977A 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…0i