This past season, a number of EuroLeague players made history
EuroLeague stars shattered series of all-time records, milestones
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More than a half dozen of players who we have enjoyed watching on Turkish Airlines EuroLeague floors for over a decade rewrote the competition history books during the 2023-24 campaign. Throughout last season, we had a chance to witness and celebrate EuroLeague milestones we have never seen before in several major statistical categories.
The spotlight was stolen by the reigning EuroLeague MVP, Mike James, for all the right reasons. In Round 28, AS Monaco's 10-year veteran moved atop the all-time scoring charts after surpassing another great, Vassilis Spanoulis, in total career points. Spanoulis was the EuroLeague's leading scorer with 4,455 points and has worn that crown since January 2020. James needed 271 games to top it and went on to finish the season with 4,623 career points. Next year, he'll have a chance to further add to that total.
Nando De Colo of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne also passed Spanoulis on the all-time scoring list in the penultimate round of the regular season and now sits in second place in the all-time scoring charts. What's more, De Colo was responsible for another major milestone when he became the first player in the EuroLeague to reach an accumulated career PIR of 5,000. De Colo did so in Round 30 and finished the season with a career PIR of 5,054, with Jan Vesely, James and Kostas Sloukas following along and all moving into the Top 5 during the season.
Hines sets record, breaks appearances milestone
Fifth on that list of the highest career PIR is EA7 Emporio Armani Milan center and four-time champion Kyle Hines, who became the all-time leader in games played. Hines entered the 2023-24 season one game behind Paulius Jankunas (392), then surpassed him in Round 2. A few weeks later, in Round 9, Hines became the first player to appear in 400 career games, a milestone which Real Madrid's backcourt duo of Sergio Llull and Sergio Rodriguez also matched late in the regular season.
When it comes to games started, the honor of leading the all-time charts now belongs to Nick Calathes of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul. His 35 starts during the 2023-24 season got him to 311 games started, past Paulius Jankunas (283) and eventually Olympiacos Piraeus forward Kostas Papanikolaou (310).
Calathes's all-time milestone trifecta
But that is not the only major milestone Calathes achieved this past season. Calathes became the first player to reach 2,000 assists in the EuroLeague, with the 35-year-old – and the all-time leader in this category – dishing his 2,000th assist in Fenerbahce’s Round 26 game on the road at Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens.
A few weeks later, in Round 30, Calathes wrote his name further into the EuroLeague history books by overtaking Dimitris Diamantidis as the all-time leader in steals. Diamantidis has forever been the EuroLeague's steals king with 434 takeaways, but Calathes passed him and went on to finish the season with 449 steals for his career.
But there's more.
Real Madrid guard Llull became the EuroLeague’s three-point king in Game 1 of the 2023-24 playoffs, surpassing the 623 three-pointers made by FC Barcelona great Juan Carlos Navarro. In his 17th campaign in the EuroLeague, three-time champion and 2017 MVP Llull will enter next season with 632 threes to his name.
Moreover, already the long-time all-time leader in offensive rebounding, Kyle Hines also became the first player to reach 800 offensive boards for his career. Real center Walter Tavares had a major milestone of his own, too, reaching 400 blocked shots. He passed the 400-block mark on a memorable night, a 130-126 quadruple-overtime win against Anadolu Efes Istanbul, which was the longest and highest-scoring game in EuroLeague history.