Welcome to the second matchup in our quest to crown the greatest All-EuroLeague First Team of all time!
Vote for the best All-EuroLeague First Team in history: 2006 vs. 2014
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Each season, the top five players in Europe’s premier basketball competition are recognized with All-EuroLeague First Team honors. Over the past quarter century, these elite selections have showcased a who’s who of basketball legends, from rising stars to Hall of Famers and everything in between.
This summer, we're putting them all head-to-head to answer one big question: Which All-EuroLeague First Team stands above the rest?
We’ve seeded all 24 teams into a bracket created by our panel of in-house EuroLeague experts. Several times a week, we’ll reveal a new matchup on the official EuroLeague Instagram account, where you can vote for your favorite.
Right here on the official EuroLeague website, you’ll find a quick breakdown of each matchup – and which team we think deserves the edge.
Let the debates begin. Let the voting begin. Let the best team win!
2006 vs. 2014
2006
- Theo Papaloukas, CSKA Moscow (age 29)
- Juan Carlos Navarro, Barcelona (age 25)
- Anthony Parker, Maccabi (age 30)
- Luis Scola, Baskonia (age 26)
- Nikola Vujcic, Maccabi (age 27)
2014
- Sergio Rodriguez, Real Madrid (age 27)
- Keith Langford, Milan (age 30)
- Rudy Fernandez, Real Madrid (age 29)
- Sonny Weems, CSKA (age 27)
- Ante Tomic, Barcelona (age 27)
Looking back, we can really say that the 2006 team was just entering its prime! Parker was the two-time reigning MVP, Papaloukas would become the next MVP and Navarro’s was still to come as well, while in Scola and Vujcic this team has two of the most effective offensive big men in EuroLeague history.
The 2014 team could really get up and down the floor and that speed might have caused problems for the 2006, especially with Weems playing power forward. With the exceptions of Parker and Rudy, neither team has great defenders, so this would be a high-scoring matchup.
In the end, I think the 2006 team would be too strong in the paint. The incredible basketball IQ of the 2006 quartet would be well-equipped to seek out mismatches and score too much for their 2014 counterparts to keep up.