HoopsHype Ranks Cavaliers Legend Žydrūnas Ilgauskas Among Greatest European Players

HoopsHype released its list of the 50 greatest European basketball players on Tuesday. Žydrūnas Ilgauskas ranked 21st, the only Cleveland Cavaliers player on it.

Ilgauskas was raised in Kaunas, Lithuania, and became a professional player at age 18 with Atletas Kaunas. During the 1994-95 season, he averaged 20.3 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 2.8 blocks. Cleveland selected him 20th overall in the 1996 draft.

He did not play that first season. A broken bone in his foot cost him all of 1996-97, and he made his NBA debut on Oct. 31, 1997.

In 1997-98, Ilgauskas played all 82 games, averaged 13.9 points and 8.8 rebounds, and earned a spot on the All-Rookie First Team.

Then the feet failed him again. He appeared in five games during 1998-99, missed the entire 1999-2000 season due to injury, and underwent navicular surgery that January. In 2000-01, he played 24 games before another injury ended his season.

He missed a total of nine games from 2003 to 2005.

Ilgauskas played 843 regular-season games, starting 724 of them. He averaged 13.0 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks per game, with shooting percentages of 47.6% from the field and 78.0% from free throw line. Over his career, he accumulated a total of 10,976 points, 6,191 rebounds, and 1,327 blocks. Notably, he scored a career-high 35 points in a single game and once grabbed 22 rebounds.

In the playoffs, he appeared in 80 games and averaged 10.2 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks.

He made All-Star teams in 2003 and 2005. He is still the Cavaliers' career leader in blocked shots. On Dec. 2, 2009, he passed Danny Ferry for the franchise record in games played.

Cleveland retired his No. 11 on March 8, 2014. He was the third European player to have a number retired by an NBA team, after Dražen Petrović and Vlade Divac. Petrović ranked ninth on the HoopsHype list and Divac 13th.

Ilgauskas started at center next to LeBron James beginning in 2003 and reached the 2007 NBA Finals. He moved to the bench after Cleveland acquired Shaquille O'Neal in 2009.

On Feb. 17, 2010, Cleveland traded him to Washington as part of a three-team deal that also included acquiring Antawn Jamison. Washington then purchased his contract eight days later, before he played any game. He later re-signed with the Cavaliers on March 23. This series of events led to the creation of the 'Ilgauskas rule' in the 2011 collective bargaining agreement, which prevents bought-out players from rejoining the team that traded them for the remainder of that season.

He signed with Miami on July 17, 2010, and appeared in 72 games, starting 51, averaging 5.0 points and 4.0 rebounds. Dallas defeated Miami in the 2011 Finals. Ilgauskas retired in September that year and joined the Cavaliers' front office as a special advisor in 2012.

Dirk Nowitzki topped the list. Giannis Antetokounmpo is second, Nikola Jokić third, Pau Gasol fourth, and Tony Parker fifth. Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs made the biggest jump of anyone, up to 31st.

The 50 came out of HoopsHype's ranking of the 80 greatest international players. More than half of that group was European. Franz Wagner, Jusuf Nurkić, and Jakob Poeltl received votes but didn't make the 50.