On the eve of the FIBA Europe League All Star Day in Kiev, we take a look back at the history of exhibition games in Europe, a tradition which stretches back to 1964.

It was FIBA Secretary General William Jones who first brought the idea to the table at the 1963 European Championships for Men in Wroclaw, Poland. It was decided that the winner of the European Cup of Champions Clubs should play against an all-star team consisting of other teams in that competition.

Real Madrid were the current champions and agreed to host the game in 1964. Despite some political problems surrounding relations between Spain and Yugoslavia, the game was a success and it became a regular fixture in the FIBA calendar, known as the European Basketball Festival.

5 years later, in 1969 it was decided that the all-star team should consist of players from all over Europe, not just those from the clubs playing in the European Cup of Champions Clubs. In fact the format of the event would change regularly. In 1970, the all-stars played the Yugoslav national team to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Yugoslav Federation.

		Michael Jordan partcipated in the 1982 European Selection Game

Sometimes several games were played as in 1971 when the Europeans took on a USA national team. 4 games were played in total in 4 different countries. In 1974 the tour was extended to Brazil where the European’s opponents consisted of an Americas all-star team.

One man who played an integral part in most of these games was Leon Wandel. Appointed to the European Club Competitions Commission in 1968, Wandel was asked by Mr. Jones to take over as Technical Director of all European Selection games in 1974.

“My first game was in 1974,” Wandel recalls.

“It was in Brazil and we played 2 games against an all-star team from the Americas, North, South and Central America. In those years we played in Rio at the Maracanazinho in front of 30,000 spectators. We played 2 games in Brazil which we won and then in Brussels which we also won. The last one was in Rome where everybody was exhausted and we lost. The final score was 3-1 for Europe.”

Selection of the European team was usually taken on by the FIBA Secretary General, the coach of the team and the Technical Director.

“We appointed players who we felt were the best in their position at the time,” Wandel says.

“Of course there were always people who would say, I know better players etc, but there’s no perfect world.”

Over the course of the years the majority of Europe's top players took part in the game, and names such as Kresimir Cosic, Radijoj Korac, Dino Meneghin, Clifford Luyk, Sergei Belov and many other legends can be found on the rosters.

Famous names were not just restricted to the European teams. As the games branched out and were played overseas, names such as Wayne “Tree” Rollins (who would go on to have a long NBA career with the Atlanta Hawks), Brazilian Marcel Ubiritan (the all-time leader in World Championship appearances with 41 games), fellow Brazilian Helio Rubens (who coached the national team at the 2002 World Championships) and Alex Hannum were involved.

Hannum coached the US national team against the Europeans in 1972. In a Hall of Fame career (he was inducted in 1998) Hannum is best remembered for coaching the 1967/68 Philadelphia 76ers. The team recorded a 68-13 record, at the time the best ever (it was bettered by the 1971-1972 LA Lakers and then the 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls), before winning an NBA title. Featuring the legendary Wilt Chamberlain, the 1968 76ers is often recognised as the greatest NBA team ever .

		Leon Wandel

In 1982 the Europeans took on the USA again in 2 games to celebrate FIBA’s 50th anniversary. The USA team was fairly unremarkable and lost twice to the Europeans. However, it contained 1 player who would go on to stake a claim to being the greatest basketball player to ever play the game.

In 1982, Michael Jordan was in his sophomore year of college at North Carolina and yet to make the impact on the basketball world that would come later.

“I remember that game very well and it was in Geneva,” recalls Wandel.

“We played a USA team where Jordan was in his 2nd or 3rd year of college and we were told he was the big hope of college ball. Well, to be honest we were not thrilled and it took until 1984 at the Olympics when he started to be really impressive.”

Despite the fact that all of the games were exhibitions the players rarely treated them as unimportant. Europe won most games with an overall 24-5 record overall but losing to T.S Wisla in 1965, S.P. Fides in 1970, Real Madrid 1973 and 1978 and the USA in 1974 (although Europe won the series 3-1).

“They (the games) were always serious because I tend to believe that players never go into a game with an attitude like 'we don’t care',” says Wandel.

“There are a lot of egos and when you have talented players of a high level, they don’t give up to another player. They really want to shine and maybe, which is not really sport, but at the end to go back to their club and managers and say we were on that team and were good, and it increases the next contract.”

		Kresimir Cosic

1982 proved to be the last of the European selection games until 1996 when the FIBA EuroStars game was created. Click here to read more about the EuroStars.

For a look at the all-time FIBA Europe Selection game rosters and results, click here.