101 Greats of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
Those 87 points by Myers are not a European record,
however. The world record at the professional
level belongs to Erman Kunter, who managed to score
153 points, 81 in the first half, with Fenerbahce in the
Turkish League against Hilaspor in 1988. Other great
performances include Radivoj Korac scoring 99 points
against Alvik Stockholm during the 1965 EuroLeague;
Drazen Petrovic destroying the Union Olimpija junior
team (sent to the game by the club’s decision after a
sanction) with 112 points in the first game of the 1985-
86 season; and Zdenko Babic of Zadar tallying 144
points against Apoel of Cyprus in a Korac Cup game a
week later. But in the last 25 years in Europe, nobody
has touched Carlton Myers’ mark. What is true about
Myers’ performance is that, after three quarters, the
coach and his teammates realized it could be a historic
milestone and they looked for Myers on each play.
EuroLeague record
Between 1995 and 2001 Myers played with Fortitudo
Bologna, before playing the following three seasons
with Virtus Roma and then spending the first half of
the 2004-05 season with Montepaschi Siena and the
second half in Spain with Forum Valladolid (21.3 points
in 28 games). After that, Myers went back to Italy and
Scavolini and then, in 2010, he put an end to a brilliant
career with Riviera of Rimini. Behind him were 637 Italian
League games with an average of 19.5 points. Over
those many games, he had made 39.4% of his threepoint
shots, 51.4% of his two-pointers and 85.2% of his
free throws. Myers was Italian champ with Fortitudo in
2000 and also won the Italian Supercup and Italian Cup
with the same team in 1998, being named MVP of the
final. He was named MVP of the Italian League twice, in
1994 and 1997, and he was the top scorer of the EuroLeague
in 1997. But one can see that he is still missing
a European title at the club level. He tried several
times, but he never went farther than the semifinals.
However, Myers still holds a EuroLeague record: his 41
points against Real Madrid on March 7, 2001, is still – together
with Alphonso Ford, Bobby Brown and Kaspars
Kambala – the best scoring mark in the modern-day
EuroLeague since 2000. In that game, which Fortitudo
won 88-70, Myers had also a performance index rating
of 45, his highest.
Crown in Paris
However, Myers’ results with the Italian national
team made up for his lack of international titles with
clubs. He made his debut in blue during the 1993 Euro-
Basket in Germany and did well, scoring 14.3 points per
game. After missing the 1995 EuroBasket in Athens,
he was back for the following one in 1997 in Barcelona
and he won the silver medal after Italy fell to Yugoslavia
in the final 61-49. Myers was the top scorer in that
final, with 17 points. In the group stage, Italy defeated
Yugoslavia 74-69 thanks to 24 points from Myers, but
in the title game, Yugoslavia was better with Predrag
Danilovic at the helm. The rivalry between Myers and
Danilovic had moved from Bologna – the former with
Fortitudo, the latter with Virtus – to the international
stage. At the 1997 EuroBasket, Carlton Myers’ final
figures were 15.8 points, 1.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists.
The best was yet to come, though. In the 1999 Euro-
Basket in France, Myers led Italy all the way to the gold
medal. His 16.3 points, 3.0 assists and 1.6 rebounds in
30 minutes per game were key for the Italian triumph. In
the title game against Spain, a 64-56 victory, he scored
18 points. He nailed 22 against Turkey, Russia and Bosnia-Herzegovina
and then had 20 points against the
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