MIES (Switzerland) - Season 11 of the Basketball Champions League, powered by Ameresco SUNEL is already nearly upon us.
With that in mind, we decided to look back on the last 10 whirlwind seasons of this competition and celebrate the players who have graced our courts and helped to make our first decade so entertaining.
You saw the Team of the Decade, but let's expand it a bit more than that.
Who are the best 50 players in this competition throughout the last 10 trips around the sun?
Now, obviously, this list and ranking are subjective, and of course, there will likely be some of your favorite players that didn't make the list or that you are sure should have been higher up the list, but allow us to explain our logic a bit and also remind you that this isn't an official awards list.
Team success
Individual awards
Longevity
Impact
The following 50 players were chosen and ranked based on the above criteria, and without further ado, let's jump into the first 10 names.
#50 Jonah Radebaugh (MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg, Galatasaray, UCAM Murcia)
The first name off the list hits our criteria straight off the bat as a member of the 2022 Star Lineup with Ludwigsburg and also as a two-time Final Four contender after making the 2022 Semi-Finals with the German club and then again reaching the big dance with UCAM Murcia in 2024.
When it comes to impact, Radebaugh also scores well on our selection criteria. Ludwigsburg is one of the competition's iconic clubs.
The physical and intense style of basketball, with a focus on defense and fostering an underdog mentality to win the hustle plays and compete with a lower budget, is exactly what the Germans are known for, and of all the players that have worn their yellow-and-black uniform in the BCL, Jonah Radebaugh is possibly the best embodiment of that spirit.
For Ludwigsburg, Galatasaray, and Murcia, Radebaugh used his physicality to make a game-changing impact on both ends of the floor and fully deserves his spot in our Top 50 players of all time.
#49 Alberto Diaz (Unicaja)
What do we really need to say about Alberto Diaz making this list? If this BCL writer had his way, the Defensive Player of the Season award would be called the Alberto Diaz Trophy.
Unicaja's captain is, of course, a double champion of this competition, having led Unicaja to back-to-back titles in Seasons 8 and 9, but even more than that, he's a leader and the walking personification of loyalty, professionalism, and consistency.
Diaz's teammates love playing with him almost as much as his opponents hate playing against him. He's a one-man full-court press, with a hound-like ability to sniff out a steal or an interception, and he quietly goes about his business while making very noisy plays on both ends of the floor.
The only real question to ask about Alberto Diaz's place in the BCL Top 50 Players is: should he have been higher than No. 49?
Either way, Don Alberto, we salute you.
#48 Ismael Bako (Windrose Giants Antwerp, BAXI Manresa)
The Belgian Tower has played in two Final Fours and was named in the BCL Star Lineup in Season 3 when he steered Antwerp on the ultimate underdog run to the Final Four.
His second Final Four was in Season 6 with Baxi Manresa, which was, again, an unbelievable underdog run for a team punching way above their weight.
When you have a player who is consistently a lynchpin, a talisman in the spine of overachieving teams, maybe, just maybe, that player is doing something special.
A persistent double-double threat, Bako outruns and outworks his opponents up and down the floor and dominates the paint on every team he plays for in the BCL.
After building his reputation in this competition, he has since gone on to be a star for the Belgian national team as well. We have rules about homegrown quotas in the BCL for exactly this reason.
You could say that the BCL exists to give players like Ismael Bako a platform to show us who they are, and at the same time, Ismael Bako's career is what it is because of that platform provided by the BCL.
#47 Jasiel Rivero (Hereda San Pablo Burgos)
Jasiel Rivero is another back-to-back champion of the BCL after Burgos became the first team to win two titles in Seasons 4 and 5.
Like Alberto Diaz, he also won the FIBA Intercontinental Cup, and his numbers in that Season 5 run to the BCL title were amongst the best we have seen from a big man in the BCL. Rivero put up 12.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, and dished out 1.5 assists, earning his spot in the BCL Star Lineup second team that season.
Despite Coach Joan Penarroya distributing the minutes and roles across his roster instead of building the team around star players, Rivero was almost certainly the difference-maker for Burgos in being able to defend their title.
The big Cuban is as versatile as he is dominant in the way he covers both frontcourt positions, and he fully deserves his spot in our Top 50 for impact, personal awards, and team success.
#46 Amath M'Baye (Virtus Bologna, Karsiyaka)
Amath M'Baye makes the list with Bologna to his name, thanks to his incredible performances helping the Italians win the BCL title in Season 3 and kickstarting their revival as a major club on this continent, but he could just as easily make the list for his longevity and consistent performance levels for Karsiyaka as well.
The French scoring machine earned himself a spot on the BCL Star Lineup second team in 2019 with Bologna, but his numbers were even more impressive with the Turkish club.
Across two seasons, he averaged 16 points and 4 rebounds whilst also reaching the Final Four in Season 5 with the Turkish club.
M'Baye is another individual who launched his international career after strong performances in the BCL. During that title-winning BCL season in 2019, M'Baye made his debut for France in the World Cup Qualifiers and went on to win two major medals: the FIBA Basketball World Cup bronze in 2019, and a FIBA EuroBasket silver in 2022.
In fact, now that we think about it, 46 is probably a bit too low for Amath as well.
#45 Mike Green (AEK BC, Karsiyaka, SIG Strasbourg)
Another BCL Champion is next up on the list, and in AEK BC's Mike Green, we have our first MVP. To be more specific, we have our first Final Four MVP.
Mike Green was the computer processing the matchups and calculating the odds in Dragan Sakota's famous championship-winning side in Season 2.
Green's piece de resistance in the championship run was 19 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists in the Final against a Monaco team who were probably the best team to reach the Final of the BCL without winning it.
Green also averaged 12.5 points, 4.8 assists, and 3.5 rebounds in Season 1 for Karsiyaka, then followed the title-winning season with 9.9 points, 5.6 assists, and 4.1 rebounds for SIG Strasbourg in Season 3.
He indisputably makes the top 50 for longevity, impact, team success, and personal awards.
#44 Marius Grigonis (La Laguna Tenerife)
Lithuanian star Marius Grigonis is the second Final Four MVP to make this list and the first in a long line of Tenerife players. In fact, Grigonis was the first BCL Final Four MVP when Tenerife won the inaugural season at home in the Santiago Martin.
Grigonis put up 18 points and 3 rebounds, hitting big shot after big shot as Tenerife overcame Banvit to win the title and start the most successful dynasty in this competition.
Grigonis' numbers for the season were equally impressive after recording 9.5 points, 2 assists and 2 rebounds in 21 minutes of action, with 46-36-83 shooting splits.
Grigonis may have only played one season in the BCL, but boy did he make the most of it, and the impact of that season will be forever etched into this competition, from the very beginning.
#43 Tyson Carter (Lavrio, Unicaja)
Now we are just rolling through wall-to-wall MVPs, and with each new name, we find ourselves wondering how he is so low down this list?
The fact that Tyson Carter comes in at #43 just speaks to the incredible cast of players that have played in the BCL. Tyson Carter is a two-time champion with Unicaja and also the 2025 Final Four MVP.
Of course, he could and possibly should be higher up this list, but as you will see, each player, as we go up, is equally deserving of their spot.
Carter is without question one of the most ruthless scorers we have ever seen in this competition. He could blow by perimeter defenders and throw it down on your post players, or he could step back and splash a soul-destroying three from way beyond the arc.
His 14 points, 5 assists, and 3 rebounds to take down Galatasaray in the 2025 Final may not stand out as the biggest stat line in a BCL Final, but when you consider it was in just 18 minutes and look back at the shots that he made, you would really struggle to find a better Final performance in the history of this competition.
#42 Thad McFadden (Hereda San Pablo Burgos, PAOK, La Laguna Tenerife, UCAM Murcia)
If you look at McFadden's and Carter's achievements in the BCL, they are inseparable.
They are both back-to-back BCL Champions, and they are both Final Four MVPs. The only real difference is that McFadden won his Final Four MVP award when Burgos won their first title, and Carter won his in Unicaja's second.
McFadden made his impact on the BCL not just by having the incredible knack of hitting the most difficult shots that his opponents actually wanted him to take, but also for the smile that was always on his face when he did it.
McFadden is one of this league's great characters, and his longevity also makes him one of the true icons of this competition.
He played seven seasons in the BCL, even if the last one with UCAM Murcia in 2024 was only for 3 games.
In his five full seasons, he never averaged below 9.5 points per game, and his debut season with PAOK in Season 1 saw him put up 16.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 2 assists.
He has scored 777 total points in the BCL, ranking him 19th all-time in our scorers list. One word is necessary: legend.
#41 Kyle Guy (La Laguna Tenerife)
Now we come to our first, possibly controversial pick on this list. Kyle Guy is neither a Champion of the BCL, nor is he an MVP of any kind. He also only played 11 games total in this competition.
But in those 11 games, Guy cemented himself as absolutely one of the best offensive talents we have ever seen on BCL courts.
Everyone knows that Txus Vidorreta at Tenerife distributed playing time and shot attempts evenly across his roster. No Tenerife player has ever averaged more in a season than Kyle Guy's 21.5 points, and that record-shattering 34 points in the 2024 Semi-Finals is to this day a BCL Final Four record.
Perhaps you could argue that when somebody eventually breaks that record, Kyle Guy's relevance to the BCL's Top 50 players will fade, but it may well be a long, long time before it is broken, and until that day, Kyle Guy stays in at #41.
The Basketball Champions League's columnists write on a wide range of topics relating to basketball that are of interest to them. The opinions they express are their own and in no way reflect those of FIBA or the Basketball Champions League.
The Basketball Champions League takes no responsibility and gives no guarantees, warranties or representations, implied or otherwise, for the content or accuracy of the content and opinion expressed in the above article.