The two-time Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champion is happy to be playing in his native France.
Nando De Colo’s photo album: 'The best feeling is to win the EuroLeague'
There’s no denying that Nando De Colo is one of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague’s best-ever players. The French guard has already written his name into the competition’s history books, and he continues to make an impact at 36 years of age for LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.
De Colo, a two-time EuroLeague champion with CSKA Moscow in the 2015-16 and 2018-19 campaigns, was named the EuroLeague MVP in the first of those seasons (2015-16). He has also been selected to the All-EuroLeague Team on six occasions: three times in the First Team (2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18) and three times in the Second Team (2014-15, 2018-19, 2020-21).
De Colo’s historic numbers
The veteran guard has played 279 games in the EuroLeague, the 24th most of any player this century, while he is second all-time for points (4,290), first for free-throw percentage (93.4%), 11th for assists (990), sixth for steals (315) and first for combined PIR (4,831). Those numbers have come from spells with four clubs: Valencia Basket (2010-11), CSKA (2014-19), Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul (2019-22), and ASVEL (2022-present).
Prior to his first EuroLeague season, De Colo ended up becoming a BKT EuroCup champion in the 2009-10 campaign with Valencia. Speaking on his rookie year in the EuroLeague, he has fond memories of what the Spanish side achieved one season prior: “We just won the EuroCup the year before, so it was a great experience. Even if we didn’t start the season really well, we finished strong and I learned a lot from that.”
Becoming a EuroLeague champion
From Valencia, De Colo went on to spend a couple of years in the NBA before returning to the old continent and joining CSKA. There, he began to put his stamp on the EuroLeague, with De Colo guiding CSKA to the Final Four in all five of his seasons at the club. Two championship trophies came during that time, as well as his lone MVP trophy, but the Frenchman prefers to emphasize the team effort behind those successes.
“The best feeling right now is to win the EuroLeague, for sure,” he comments. “The MVP is great, but the main feeling during those days is winning my first EuroLeague. I think it is one of the most accomplished seasons I did (2015-16), but because we had a great team, how it worked. When the team is playing good, you are playing better and I can really show everything that I can do on the court.”
Returning to France
De Colo went on to spend three years at Fenerbahce after leaving CSKA in 2019, before deciding to return to France in 2022 after 13 years away. Importantly for the guard, having the chance to represent a French club in the EuroLeague is something that he didn’t want to let pass him by, even if last season saw ASVEL have a league-worst 8-26 record.
“Great feeling [to be playing for ASVEL],” he states. “Even if the season wasn’t as we expected, to play in the EuroLeague with a French team is always something special. I’m really glad that I got this experience and I hope we will try to do our best for this season.
“I think the opportunity to bring a club like ASVEL to a better level was something really interesting for me. The project, the goals the club wants to have, for sure it will take time and we need to go step by step, but try to do our best every day. It’s always a great feeling and I’m really happy to be here.”