After fans were offered the chance to vote for their favourite 'All-Time NBA Dynasty' and 'All-Time NBA Jersey' campaigns, now European hoops fans are being asked to select their top 'NBA All-Time European Moment'; The vote will run until midnight on March 9
Sunday 27 February 2022 15:06, UK
In more recent years, European players have begun to dominate the NBA.
Nikola Jokic is the reigning Most Valuable Player, Giannis Antetokounmpo won the two before that and Luka Doncic is following fast on their heels as the latest MVP-calibre star to head from this continent across the bond.
An honourable mention too for Rudy Gobert who is fresh from being named as an All-Star for a third straight season.
On the journey to get to this point though there have been various points along the way where European players have reached unforeseen peaks which deserve recognition as vital stages along the journey.
A panel of European basketball experts has now shortlisted their 5 favourite All-time NBA European Moments and now it's up to you, the fans, to vote for their favourite. The five moments are:
The first moment to potentially vote for is also the first chronologically.
Croatian big man Toni Kukoc was a vital player for the Chicago Bulls as they completed their second three-peat of the 1990s in 1998.
Kukoc was the 4th and is currently the last player to win the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award and the NBA title in the same year having joined Kevin McHale, Bill Walton, and Bobby Jones in accomplishing that feat, when the Bulls won the first of their titles in 1996.
In 1997 and 1998, Kukoc again came off the bench as sixth man as the Bulls won their fifth and sixth NBA titles and was the team's third-leading scorer during those championship years.
Next up we have the most recent entry on the list, as Giannis Antetokounmpo poetically scored a playoff career-high 50 points in Game 6 of the 2021 NBA Finals – and consequently their first title in 50 years.
The Greek Freak's historic performance led the Milwaukee Bucks to a 105-98 win over the Phoenix Suns and capped off a magnificent NBA Finals for Antetokounmpo as he claimed Finals MVP honours to boot.
Antetokounmpo became just the seventh player in NBA history to score 50 points in an NBA Finals game as he carried the Bucks' offense throughout the night, shooting 16-25 from the field (with only one field goal outside the paint) and 17-19 from the free throw line, while adding 14 rebounds, five blocks and two assists.
Rolling the years back a decade to the 2011 NBA Finals and once again it was a European big man who inspired his side to victory.
This time it was Germany's Dirk Nowitzki who led the Dallas Mavericks to lift the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
Dallas faced the Miami Heat, which had acquired All-Stars LeBron James and Chris Bosh before the season began, and were heavily fancied to win.
A Game 1 loss in Miami saw Nowitzki tear a tendon in his left middle finger and it looked like grim for Dallas. MRIs were negative though and Nowitzki vowed that the injury would not be a factor.
In Game 2, he led the Mavs from a 15-point fourth quarter deficit and scored the winning basket to tie the series and repeated the peat in Game 4 after Dallas had dropped Game 3.
Two vital contributions in the clutch and Nowitzki scored 10 fourth-quarter points in the series-clinching game in Miami after the Mavericks had won Game 5. It sealed the franchise's first-ever championship and Nowitzki won the Finals MVP.
The first European to win NBA Finals MVP was Tony Parker, four years before Nowitzki.
Frenchman Parker and the Spurs swept the 2007 NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers to win their third title in a five-year span.
Throughout the series, Parker consistently outplayed Cavaliers counterparts Daniel Gibson and All-Defensive Team member Larry Hughes and scored a series-high 24.5 points, hitting on a 56.8 per cent of his field goals and just over 57 per cent from beyond the arc.
The offensive masterclass, when you coupled his scoring with his ability to facilitate and run the offense, was enough to see him named NBA Finals MVP.
The final entrant on our list is a player who was destined for greatness ever since he broke into the Barcelona team in 1998, Pau Gasol.
Gasol went on to have an outstanding career internationally and in the NBA itself. The Spaniard is a six-time NBA All-Star and a four-time All-NBA selection, twice on the second team and twice on the third team. He was also the first non-American to win the the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2002 with the Memphis Grizzlies.
But no doubt the pinnacle of Gasol's career came when he won his rings with the Los Angeles Lakers, back-to-back in 2009 and 2010.
The Lakers beat the Orlando Magic in 2009 and then won a Game 7 with the Boston Celtics in 2010. In that deciding game of the 2010 NBA Finals, Gasol played a starring role as he scored 19 points, grabbed 18 rebounds and recorded two blocks as the Lakers repeated as champions.
It was a fantastic display by Gasol who was a vital cog in that successful Lakers team and it makes him more than worthy of being included as a potential vote on this list.
