Dejan Bodiroga is a Serbian basketball executive and former professional player, who is currently the President of EuroLeague Basketball. In 1998 and 2002, he received the Golden Badge award for the best athlete of Yugoslavia, and the Yugoslav Olympic Committee also declared him the Sportsman of the Year. He was named to the FIBA All-Time EuroStars Team in 2007. In 2018, he was named one of the 101 Greats of European Basketball. HoopsHype named Bodiroga one of the 75 Greatest International Players Ever in 2021. He was inducted into the Greek Basket League Hall of Fame in 2022.
Dino Meneghin is an Italian former professional basketball player. He is widely considered to be the best Italian player ever, as well as one of Europe's all-time greats. A 2.06 m tall center, Meneghin was born in Alano di Piave, Veneto. On 20 November 1966, when he was 16 years old, he played in his first game in the Italian League, with Ignis Varese. He played the last game of his career at the age of 45.
Mirza Delibašić was a Bosnian professional basketball player and coach.
Radivoj Korać was a Serbian and Yugoslav professional basketball player. He represented the Yugoslavia national basketball team internationally. Korać is well-known for holding the EuroLeague's all-time single-game scoring record, at 99 points scored, in a game versus Alviks, during the 1964–65 season, and for once making 100 out of 100 free throws on a live television show in Belgium.
Moshe "Miki" Berkovich is an Israeli former professional basketball player. A 193 cm shooting guard, he is considered to be one of the greatest Israeli basketball players of all time.
Sergei Alexandrovich Belov was a Russian professional basketball player, most noted for playing for CSKA Moscow and the senior Soviet Union national basketball team. He is considered to be one of the best European basketball players of all time, and was given the honour of lighting the Olympic Cauldron with the Olympic flame during the 1980 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, in Moscow.
Nikolaos Georgalis, commonly known as either Nikos Galis, or Nick Galis, is a Greek former professional basketball player. Galis, who during his playing days was nicknamed, "Nick The Greek", "The Gangster", and "The Iron Man", is widely regarded as Europe's greatest scorer to ever play the game, and as one of the all-time greatest players in FIBA international basketball history. In 1991, Galis was named one of FIBA's 50 Greatest Players. In 2007, he became an inaugural member of the FIBA Hall of Fame. In 2008, he was chosen as one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors. In 2017, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2018, he was named one of the 101 Greats of European Basketball. In 2022, he was inducted in to the Greek Basket League Hall of Fame.
Panagiotis "Notis" Giannakis, alternatively spelled Panayiotis Yiannakis or Yannakis, is a former Greek professional basketball player and coach. He is considered to be one of the greatest sportspeople of Greece. He started his senior career at the age of just 13 at Ionikos Nikaias and after noticeable success, he achieved extraordinary success as a player with Aris Thessaloniki from 1984 to 1993, in partnership with Greek basketball's biggest star Nikos Galis along with the rest of the squad, while achieving victory as the national team captain in EuroBasket 1987 in Athens, Greece's first major tournament win in non-Olympic sport which, along with Aris' extraordinary success, cultivated the sport in the country. At the end of his career, he won the EuroLeague with Panathinaikos in 1996 As head coach, he most prominently led Greece to its second European trophy in EuroBasket 2005 at Serbia and Montenegro, where a team of new and talented stars shone brightest under the nurturship of Giannakis. He would repeat the success the next year, acquiring the silver medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan, where the team most notably scored a decisive win against the USA stars of the NBA in the semi-final, which would be USMNBT's last loss in a tournament until 2019. However, Greece's arch rivals Spain would defeat Giannakis' team in the final, as they would do again in the semi-finals of the 2007 EuroBasket. Outside of the Greek national team, he would coach Greek clubs like Aris, where he had the most success as player, Olympiacos, where he achieved renewed success, and the China men's national basketball team. As a player, he was primarily a point guard, but he could also play at the shooting guard position. During his playing career, Giannakis was also widely-known under his nickname of "O Drákos", or "The Dragon" in English.
Dražen "Praja" Dalipagić is a Serbian former professional basketball player and head coach. He was selected the best athlete of Yugoslavia in the year 1978, and is one of the most decorated athletes in Yugoslavian history. He was named one of FIBA's 50 Greatest Players in 1991. Dalipagić was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 2004, and into the FIBA Hall of Fame, also as a player, in 2007. In 2008, he was named one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors.
Antonello Riva is an Italian former professional basketball player. At 1.96 m (6'5"), he played at the shooting guard and small forward positions. During his playing career, he was nicknamed "Nembo Kid". Riva was named one of FIBA's 50 Greatest Players in 1991. In 2004, he was given an award to mark his being the top scorer of all-time in the top two Italian club league competitions, with a total of 14,397 points scored. He was named to the FIBA All-Time EuroStars Team in 2007. In 2008, he was named one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors.
Željko Obradović is a Serbian professional basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach for Partizan of the Basketball League of Serbia (KLS), the ABA League and the EuroLeague.
The Serbia men's national basketball team represents Serbia in international basketball competition, and is controlled by the Basketball Federation of Serbia. Serbia is currently ranked fourth in the FIBA World Ranking.
Juan Antonio San Epifanio Ruiz, most commonly known as "Epi", is a Spanish retired professional basketball player. He spent all of his club career playing with FC Barcelona. He was named the Mister Europa European Player of the Year in 1984, by the Italian basketball magazine Superbasket, and the Best European Player of the 1980s decade, by the French sports newspaper L'Équipe. He was named one of FIBA's 50 Greatest Players in 1991.
Manuel "Lolo" Sainz Márquez is a Spanish retired professional basketball player and coach. Sainz spent most of his career with Real Madrid, either as a player, or a head coach. He did however, also coach the senior Spain national team, between 1993 and 2001. On 3 February 2008, he was chosen as one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors, over the previous half-century, by the EuroLeague Basketball Experts Committee.
Clifford Luyk Diem is an American-born Spanish retired professional basketball player and coach, who played professionally in Spain and Europe from 1962 to 1978. He played college basketball for the University of Florida. He was drafted by the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA), but never played a regular season game in the NBA. He signed with the Spanish professional team Real Madrid, helped Real Madrid become the dominant European basketball team of the 1960s, and is remembered for his trademark, old-school hook shot.
The 2000–01 Euroleague was the inaugural basketball season of the EuroLeague, under ULEB and its newly formed Euroleague Basketball Company authority. Overall it was the 44th season of the premier competition for European men's professional basketball clubs overall. Initially not recognised or sanctioned by FIBA and considered a breakaway competition. It started on October 16, 2000, with a regular season game between hosts Real Madrid Teka and Olympiacos, which was held at the Raimundo Saporta Pavilion, in Madrid, Spain, and it ended with the last championship finals game on May 10, 2001, which was held at the PalaMalaguti arena, in Bologna, Italy.
Basketballin Greece erupted with the win of the Greece men's national basketball team at the 1987 EuroBasket in Athens, which caused a general basketball euphoria in the country. Since then, the Greece men's national teams have achieved consistent international success, leading Greece to join Russia, Serbia, Croatia, Italy, Spain, France, and Lithuania in the circle of European basketball powers. In addition to the Greece national team's triumph in 1987, they won the gold medal at the 2005 EuroBasket, silver medals at the 1989 EuroBasket, and the 2006 FIBA World Cup, and the bronze medal at the 2009 EuroBasket.
EuroLeague Awards were established in the 1987–88 season, when the EuroLeague's modern era and the EuroLeague Final Four first began. More awards were created starting with the 2000–01 basketball season, when Euroleague Basketball Company essentially took over the management of the premier level European competition from FIBA Europe.
Jiří Zídek Sr. was a Czech professional basketball player and coach. At 2.06 metres tall, Zídek was a talented center, and is considered by many to be the best Czech basketball player ever. He was named the Best Czech Player of the 20th Century. He was also among the 105 nominees to the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors list. His son, Jiří "George" Zídek Jr., also won the EuroLeague title with Žalgiris, in 1999. To this day, they are the only father and son to have reached a EuroLeague title game as players. In 2019, he became the first Czech to be inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame.
Anatoly Dmitriyevich Myshkin is a retired Soviet and Russian professional basketball player and coach. At 6 feet 9 1⁄2 inches tall, and a weight of 210 lbs. (95 kg), he played as a combo forward. Myshkin was able to break up all of the defensive schemes in European basketball, due to his unique skill set. He was mobile and aggressive, and he possessed the speed and versatility to beat any defender.
Serbia (4)
Spain (2)
Russia 
United States 
Israel 
Italy 
Bulgaria 
France 
Greece 
Slovakia 
