The Euroleague is celebrating this season the 50th anniversary of European Club basketball. It was the FIBA that created the competition after the success of similar events in soccer, it began in 1958, when 22 teams started to write history. After 39 games of competition, the European Cup of basketball knew its first champion, ASK Riga, after a 2-0 winning series against Akademik Sofia of Bulgaria.
In between, the Euroleague, which is organized by ULEB is the main competition of European club basketball. For this anniversary, you can find on the official Euroleague site a fantastic archive part covering the last 50 years with interviews, videos (you can find this great video from 1988 with an actual NBA coach being a trophy winner) and other historical documents. And the 50 best European players that ever played in the top club competition will get honored and the fans can elect the All-Time Starting Five.
So for me, this selection will be very hard as most of the players are former glories and I never saw them playing. So I will have to go with guys from the 90s and this century to make my selection. And here it is for you. I will go with a backcourt composed of Sasha Djordjevic and Nikos Galis, on the wing, I will have Toni Kukoc and my inside section will be composed of Arvydas Sabonis and Stojan Vrankovic. And even if the official vote, you can not take a 6th man, I will select Fragiskos “Franky” Alvertis for this position.
So go on the official website and give your vote too.
PS: the actual standings in the voting list are the following
- Drazen Petrovic
- Arvydas Sabonis
- Toni Kukoc
- Dejan Bodiroga
- Sarunas Jasikevicius
Coach: Zeljko Obradovic
