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EuroLeague MVPs and Stars: Facts

EuroLeague MVPs, Final Four MVPs and the biggest stars: who they were, where they came from and how they surprised Europe.

6 American center Clifford Luyk won six European Champions Cups with Real Madrid between 1964 and 1978. He became a Spanish citizen in 1965 and later coached Real.

1979 Tal Brody, picked 12th in the 1965 NBA draft, chose Israel over the NBA. In 1979 he became the first athlete to receive the Israel Prize, the country's highest civilian honour.

1966 Future US senator Bill Bradley won the 1966 European Champions Cup with Simmenthal Milano. He was studying at Oxford at the time and flew in for the games.

Wally American Walter Szczerbiak won three European Champions Cups with Real Madrid (1974, 1978, 1980). His son Wally later became an NBA All-Star.

1975 Bob McAdoo was NBA MVP in 1975, and late in his career he won two European Champions Cups with Tracer Milano, in 1987 and 1988.

1985 Joe Barry Carroll, the first pick of the 1980 NBA draft, spent 1984-85 in Milan after a contract dispute with Golden State and won the Italian title with Simac.

3 Led by Nikos Galis, Aris Thessaloniki reached three Final Fours in a row from 1988 to 1990, but never made it to the final.

23 Danny Ferry, the second pick of the 1989 draft, refused to play for the Clippers and spent a season in Rome instead, averaging 23 points for Il Messaggero.

40 Boston drafted Dino Rađa 40th in 1989 and signed him that summer. Jugoplastika took the Celtics to a US federal court and won, so Rađa only made his NBA debut in 1993.

1992 In 1992 CSKA Moscow legend Sergei Belov became the first international player inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

3 Only Toni Kukoč and Vassilis Spanoulis have been named Final Four MVP three times. Kukoč won his third in 1993 even though his team lost the final.

1996 Nine-time NBA All-Star Dominique Wilkins won the 1996 EuroLeague with Panathinaikos and was named Final Four MVP.

2001 Manu Ginóbili won the 2001 EuroLeague with Kinder Bologna and was named MVP of the finals. A year later he left for San Antonio.

2 Dejan Bodiroga was Final Four MVP two years running with two different clubs: Panathinaikos in 2002 and Barcelona in 2003.

32 The EuroLeague's top scorer trophy is named after Alphonso Ford. He played a whole season while battling leukemia and died in 2004, aged just 32.

2 Anthony Parker was EuroLeague MVP with Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2005 and 2006, and by 2026 nobody else had won it two seasons in a row. His younger sister is WNBA star Candace Parker.

2007 Theodoros Papaloukas was Final Four MVP in 2006 and regular-season MVP in 2007, both with CSKA Moscow.

2008 The MVP of the 2008 Final Four in Madrid was CSKA Moscow sharpshooter Trajan Langdon, nicknamed "the Alaskan Assassin". CSKA beat Maccabi 91-77 in the final.

2008 In 2008 Danilo Gallinari of Olimpia Milano was named EuroLeague Rising Star. That summer the New York Knicks picked him sixth in the NBA draft.

1 Juan Carlos Navarro spent one NBA season in Memphis and made the All-Rookie First Team. Back at Barcelona he was named EuroLeague MVP in 2009.

2010 In 2010 Ricky Rubio won the EuroLeague with Barcelona and was also named the league's Rising Star.

2010 Miloš Teodosić was EuroLeague MVP with Olympiacos in 2010, and later won the title with CSKA Moscow.

6 Dimitris Diamantidis was voted EuroLeague Best Defender six times. In 2011 he was both regular-season and Final Four MVP, and Panathinaikos later retired his number 13.

2012 During the 2011 NBA lockout Andrei Kirilenko returned to CSKA Moscow and was named EuroLeague MVP for the 2011-12 season.

2014 During the 2011 NBA lockout Tony Parker played for ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne, and in 2014 he became the club's president.

4 Kyle Hines, a center just 1.98 m tall, won the EuroLeague four times: with Olympiacos in 2012 and 2013 and with CSKA Moscow in 2016 and 2019. He was voted Best Defender three times.

4 Kostas Sloukas won the EuroLeague four times with three clubs: Olympiacos (2012, 2013), Fenerbahçe (2017) and Panathinaikos (2024).

2014 When Maccabi Tel Aviv beat Real Madrid in overtime in the 2014 final in Milan, American guard Tyrese Rice was named Final Four MVP.

2014 Sergio Rodríguez was named EuroLeague MVP in 2014, even though he mostly came off the bench for Real Madrid.

2015 Nemanja Bjelica was EuroLeague MVP with Fenerbahçe in 2015, and in 2022 he won the NBA title with the Golden State Warriors.

2016 In 2016 Barcelona's Álex Abrines was named EuroLeague Rising Star. That summer he left for the NBA and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

19 In 2018, aged 19, Luka Dončić won the EuroLeague with Real Madrid and was named both regular-season MVP and Final Four MVP.

2019 Czech big man Jan Veselý was EuroLeague MVP with Fenerbahçe in 2019. Back in 2011 he had been the sixth pick in the NBA draft.

18 In 2019 Georgian center Goga Bitadze of Budućnost was named EuroLeague Rising Star. That summer Indiana picked him 18th in the NBA draft.

1995 Shane Larkin, a EuroLeague champion with Anadolu Efes in 2021 and 2022, is the son of Barry Larkin, baseball's 1995 National League MVP and a Hall of Famer.

23 In 2021 Real Madrid big man Usman Garuba was named EuroLeague Rising Star. That summer the Houston Rockets picked him 23rd in the NBA draft.

2022 Montenegro-born Nikola Mirotić played for Spain and was named EuroLeague MVP with Barcelona in 2022.

2022 American Shane Larkin took Turkish citizenship and played for Turkey at EuroBasket 2022.

2023 In 2023 Partizan Belgrade guard Yam Madar was named EuroLeague Rising Star.

7 ft 3 in Cape Verde centre Walter Tavares is 2.20 m tall. He was Final Four MVP in 2023, and by 2026 he topped the EuroLeague's all-time lists for both blocks and rebounds.

2025 In 2025 Kendrick Nunn of Panathinaikos was both EuroLeague MVP and the league's top scorer.

2 By 2026 three players had been named EuroLeague Rising Star twice: Nikola Mirotić (2011, 2012), Bogdan Bogdanović (2014, 2015) and Luka Dončić (2017, 2018).

La Bomba Juan Carlos Navarro's high one-handed floater was so famous it got its own name: la bomba.

23 Jānis Krūmiņš, 2.20 m tall, collected tree resin and had never played basketball until Alexander Gomelsky spotted him at 23. He went on to win three European Cups with ASK Riga.

7 Dino Meneghin won seven European Champions Cups: five with Varese and two with Olimpia Milano.

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