The Best of Europe. My All-EuroLeague Teams.
Fifteen players, three teams, one season. My full All-EuroLeague selections — including the story of the year and the most underappreciated guard in the competition.
ALL-EUROLEAGUE FIRST TEAM
Sasha Vezenkov (F) — Olympiacos Piraeus
The MVP. 19.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, PIR of 23.1 — the highest in the league. Three MVP of the Round awards. A season of relentless excellence that carried Olympiacos to the top seed despite injuries to multiple rotation players. There is nothing more to add that the numbers do not already say.
Kendrick Nunn (G) — Panathinaikos Athens
The reigning MVP had a complicated season. Injuries disrupted his rhythm at critical moments. Panathinaikos underperformed relative to their enormous roster investment. The team finished seventh — a result that, in any other season, would have disqualified a player from serious MVP consideration.
None of that changes what Nunn did when he was healthy and available. He led the league in scoring at 19.0 points per game, a PIR that ranked among the league's top five, and individual performances — 40 PIR against Olympiacos, 39 against Partizan — that no other guard in Europe came close to matching.
The First Team is about the best players at their best. Nunn, when healthy, was that.
Sylvain Francisco (G) — Zalgiris Kaunas
The most quietly excellent player in the competition. Francisco averaged 16.7 points and 6.4 assists per game — among the league leaders in both categories — and carried Zalgiris to a fifth-place finish that nobody saw coming. He does not play for a fashionable club. He does not generate headlines outside of Lithuania. He simply makes the right play, at the right moment, in every game that matters.
On any other team — a Valencia, a Real Madrid, an Olympiacos — Francisco would be a household name in European basketball. Instead he has spent his career making Zalgiris look better than they have any right to be. The First Team is long overdue.
Mario Hezonja (F) — Real Madrid
The best individual season of his career. Hezonja averaged 13.2 points per game in a Real Madrid system that demands intelligence as much as ability, and he delivered both. He was the primary offensive engine on a team that finished third — a result that required consistency from their lead scorer across 38 rounds, not just flashes.
His efficiency numbers tell the deeper story: 52.7% from two-point range, reliable from three, a creator who understands when to attack and when to facilitate. The First Team rewards sustained excellence. Hezonja finally sustained it.
Elijah Bryant (F) — Hapoel Tel Aviv
The story of the season. Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv made their EuroLeague debut this year — promoted from the EuroCup, playing in Bulgaria and Sofia due to security concerns, navigating the most unusual set of circumstances any team in the competition has ever faced. Bryant was their anchor. 15.9 points, 5.3 rebounds, a PIR of 20.6, and double-digit efficiency in every single game he played. His peak — PIR of 38 against Baskonia — was the kind of performance that changes how people think about a player.
A first-year EuroLeague team finishing sixth. Bryant is the reason why.
ALL-EUROLEAGUE SECOND TEAM
Mike James (G) — AS Monaco
The EuroLeague's all-time leading scorer had a season that required extraordinary resilience simply to complete. Unpaid salaries dating back to November. A coaching change mid-season. A transfer ban. Public frustration expressed on social media when his own December wages were withheld while his teammates were paid. Through all of it, James averaged 16.5 points and 6.4 assists and remained Monaco's only genuine threat on offense every single night.
The award is for basketball. The context makes it more impressive.
Thomas Walkup (G) — Olympiacos Piraeus
The most underappreciated player on the best team in the competition. Walkup averaged 5.9 assists per game — fifth in the league — and provided the connective tissue that made Olympiacos's offense genuinely difficult to defend. He does not score enough to generate headlines. He does everything else at a level that makes Vezenkov's excellence possible.
Chima Moneke (F) — Crvena Zvezda
The most physically imposing forward outside the First Team. Moneke averaged 6.5 rebounds per game, won MVP of the Round on two separate occasions, and was the dominant presence that allowed Crvena Zvezda to compete with teams that outspent them significantly. His combination of size, athleticism, and defensive intensity is rare at any level of European basketball.
Juancho Hernangomez (F) — Panathinaikos Athens
Often overshadowed by the players around him — which, given Panathinaikos's roster, says more about the company he keeps than his individual quality. Hernangomez averaged 8.4 points and 6.7 rebounds and provided the frontcourt presence that kept Panathinaikos competitive even during the stretches when Nunn was unavailable. His 15-rebound performance against Partizan was the single best rebounding game of the season.
Nikola Milutinov (C) — Olympiacos Piraeus
The rebounding leader. 7.1 per game, relentless interior presence, the defensive foundation upon which Olympiacos built their number one seed. Milutinov does not need to score to dominate a game — his positioning, his physicality, and his ability to control the paint on both ends make him one of the most impactful centers in European basketball regardless of what the box score shows.
ALL-EUROLEAGUE THIRD TEAM
Tyler Dorsey (G) — Olympiacos Piraeus
The forgotten piece of the best team in Europe. Dorsey averaged 17.0 points per game — seventh in the league — and provided the perimeter scoring that gave Olympiacos an attacking dimension beyond Vezenkov. His career-high 37 points against Real Madrid in the penultimate round, combined with seven three-pointers, was the performance that finally forced the wider EuroLeague audience to pay attention. He has been doing this for Olympiacos quietly for two seasons. The Third Team is the minimum he deserves.
Codi Miller-McIntyre (G) — Crvena Zvezda
The assist leader. 7.5 per game — the highest in the competition — and the primary architect of everything Crvena Zvezda did offensively. Miller-McIntyre operates at a pace that most EuroLeague defenses struggle to process, and his ability to find teammates in transition and in the halfcourt makes him the kind of guard that elevates everyone around him. That Crvena Zvezda finished seventh with this roster is directly attributable to what he provides.
Wade Baldwin IV (G) — Fenerbahçe Istanbul
The most consistent guard on the defending champions. Fenerbahçe's season was defined by inconsistency — a roster that never quite clicked, a record that suggested a team doing just enough rather than excelling. Baldwin was the exception. His defensive intensity and half-court execution gave Fenerbahçe a reliable option when the offense stalled, and his ability to perform in high-pressure situations kept them in the playoff race when the season threatened to unravel.
Talen Horton-Tucker (F) — Fenerbahçe Istanbul
The former NBA player who proved he belongs at the highest level of European basketball. Horton-Tucker averaged 15.9 points per game and recorded nine performances of 20 or more points — five of them during Fenerbahçe's nine-game winning streak that rescued their season. His back-to-back MVP of the Round awards in Rounds 29 and 30 were the clearest evidence of what he is capable of when locked in.
Walter Tavares (C) — Real Madrid
The best shot-blocker in Europe. 1.9 blocks per game — the league leader — and a defensive presence so imposing that opponents alter their approach before they even reach the paint. Tavares does not need to score to change a game: his 6.8 rebounds and near-perfect 68.8% shooting from two-point range make him a double threat. Nearly a decade into his time at Real Madrid, he remains irreplaceable.