Going back: from Euroleague stars to NBA visitors
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NBA Europe Live presented by EA SPORTS™ marks an ideal opportunity for Euroleague Basketball fans to catch up with some old friends. The visits of four teams from the other side of the Atlantic bring with them a host of players who got their formative training in the Euroleague, as well as a few other who advanced their careers here in Europe. Among the players to take part in this season's edition of NBA Europe Live are former Euroleague champions like Anthony Parker, Maceo Baston, Jaun Carlos Navarro, Marko Jaric and Rasho Nesterovic and former All-Euroleague selections in Pau Gasol and Jorge Garbajosa, among many others. "The Euroleague helped me to increase my confidence, to become a winner, a champion," Baston told Euroleague.net in Rome, where he and the Toronto Raptors face Lottomatica Roma on Sunday. "I'm happy to be back in Europe and my teammates can have a very important experience here and in Madrid'.
No team has a Euroleague influence on its roster quite like the Toronto Raptors, with no fewer than seven former Euroleaguers on the team. Anthony Parker was named Euroleague MVP twice during two stints in the Euroleague with Maccabi Tel Aviv. Altogether, he reached four Final Fours, won three titles and was Final Four MVP once, in 2004.
His teammate for three of those years at Maccabi, during which the club won back-to-back crowns, was Maceo Baston, another American whose game reached the next step while playing in Europe. During that run, Parker and Baston stopped two other current teammates from achieving Euroleague glory. Argentinian swingman Carlos Delfino paid his basketball dues in Italy, where he helped Fortitudo Bologna to the Euroleague 2004 title game, only to run into Maccabi. One year later, it was Jose Manuel Calderon's turn, as the Spanish point guard helped guide Tau Ceramica to the final in Moscow, where it lost a nail-biter to Maccabi. Meanwhile, Spanish nation team star Jorge Garbajosa was a force throughout his career here with Benetton Treviso and Unicaja Malaga. Garbajosa was an All-Euroleague pick in 2003, when he helped Benetton reach the title game. Andrea Bargnani was the Euroleague's 2006 Rising Star award winner as he exploded onto the scene with Benetton in his native Italy. Rasho Nesterovic was one of the Euroleague's most dominant centers in the late 1990s and helped Kinder Bologna to lift the 1998 title. Of course a key part of piecing this international roster together is the Raptors' vice president and assistant general manager, Maurizio Gherardini, who was the guiding force during his 15 years at Benetton Treviso, during which he developed that club into one of the best in Europe.
 The Memphis Grizzlies also have an extensive Euroleague connection, anchored by close friends and world champions with the Spanish national team, Pau Gasol and Juan Carlos Navarro. Gasol came up through the youth ranks with Barcelona and was marked as a star from a young age. He helped the Spanish national team with the 1998 junior world championship and was named the Spanish League MVP after helping Barca win the league title and King's Cup in 2001. Navarro was a teammate of Gasol's through those triumphs, but remained with his boyhood club until this summer. Navarro was a key force when Barca won the 2003 Euroleague and later was named Spanish League MVP in 2006. Casey Jacobsen is another American who grew as a player during his time in Europe. Jacobsen spent the 2005-06 season in Spain with Tau Ceramica, with whom he advanced to the Euroleague title game. Last year he played in Germany, where he was named finals MVP as he helped Brose Baskets win the domestic crown and earn a Euroleague berth. Another Grizzly with experience at Europe's highest levels is head coach Marc Iavaroni, who spent time both with Unicaja Malaga and Olimpija Milan during his playing career.
Last but not least is the lone player on the Minnesota Timberworves with Euroleague connections - and extensive ones. Jaric was a Euroleague champion in 2001 with Kinder Bologna, and reached the title game the following season with the same team. He was one of the Euroleague's top young scorers in those days, averaging 13.4 points in 21 games in 2002, earning him all-Euroleague honors for the first and only time, on a team that included stars like Manu Ginobili, Sani Becirovic, David Andersen and Matjaz Smodis, all of whom would go on to win more Euroleague titles.
"It was a huge thing in my career and a big step forwards," Jaric recalled of that 2001 title while in Istanbul. "I was 22-23 years old at the time and wanted to win the Euroleague title with my team and it was my stepping stone to the NBA. Of course, fans in Bologna were great. I spent two years with Kinder and they have amazing fans, but I need to admit that Fortitudo fans were also as great as them, since I played for both teams."
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Saturday, October 06, 2007
Euroleague.net
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