Nick Calathes of FC Barcelona became the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague's career leader in assists on Thursday during his team's game against AS Monaco. Calathes's second assist of the game gave him 1,608 for his career, which is one more than his former teammate, Vassilis Spanoulis, for the all-time lead.
Calathes becomes EuroLeague assists king
The record-setting assist came on a pass to center Sertac Sanli for a layup with 8:13 on the clock in the third quarter.
Calathes accomplished the feat in 269 games, which is 89 fewer than it took Spanoulis. The new assist king is also the all-time leader in average assists with 6.0 per game coming into the game. The next closest player, Thomas Heurtel of Real Madrid, has 5.3 on average for his career.
The record should rest in Calathes's pocket for some time as the only active player within striking distance, Sergio Rodriguez of AX Armani Exchange Milan, trails Calathes by 80 assists and is averaging 4.7 this season.
The 33-year-old Calathes achieved a milestone that has been 10 seasons in the making. The first eight of those came with Panathinaikos Athens, where he teamed with his current coach, Sarunas Jasikevicius, as well as Spanoulis in a star-studded backcourt as a EuroLeague rookie in 2009-10. He won the EuroLeague with the Greens in 2011 and was named to the All-EuroLeague Team twice as a member of the club.
Calathes also played one season in the 7DAYS EuroCup with Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar, leading that club to the 2012-13 EuroCup crown as the season's MVP. He joined Barcelona in the summer of 2020.