All-Decade head-2-head: Jasikevicius vs. Teodosic

All-Decade point guards Sarunas Jasikevicius and Milos Teodosic seemed to have gone about their business in very different manners while orchestrating their respective teams throughout their career. A four-time EuroLeague champion and one of the greatest floor generals this century, Jasikevicius wore his emotions on his sleeves with his vintage gestures, while passing magician Teodosic has been running the show and torturing opponents with a stone-cold face. Even though the two playmakers seemed so opposite on the surface, both guaranteed a fantastic basketball show each time they stepped on the floor, giving the EuroLeague its very special flavor.

Jasikevicius was a true winner and not only that he won at least one EuroLeague title with every team he played for between 2000 and 2010, but he is the only player in competition history to win EuroLeague crowns with three different teams. That includes three in a row from 2003 and 2005 with two different clubs, his first coming with FC Barcelona, before back-to-back triumphs with Maccabi Tel Aviv. En route to the latter title with Maccabi, Jasikevicius was the Final Four MVP. He added his fourth in 2009 with Panathinaikos Athens.

Teodosic has one EuroLeague title to his name, with CSKA Moscow in 2016, and for a long period stood as the youngest player named EuroLeague MVP when he was honored in 2010 at the age of 23. In addition, no EuroLeague player was voted more times to the All-EuroLeague teams in a single decade than the six times that Teodosic was honored.

Teodosic averaged 13.5 points in games between 2010 and 2020, which is just a tad better than Jasikevicius’s 13.2 a decade earlier. Teodosic is the top three-point shooter in any decade with 431 triples made and his average of 2.3 per game ranks top 10 for any player in any decade. Jasikevicius was the more accurate shooter, however, impressively sinking 1.9 threes on 40.3% shooting during the first decade of this century.

When it comes to passing, both players have created countless key plays over the years, though Teodosic does have a significant advantage. A man known to see passing lanes few others in the arena would even dare to explore, Teodosic delivered a total of 1,028 assists for an impressive 5.4 per game during the 2010s. Jasikevicius was one of the most prolific passers of his era, however, even though his average comes to 3.9 assists per game.

The two players went head to head nearly a dozen times with two of those coming in the Final Four semifinals. In 2009, Jasikevicius starred for Panathinaikos with 18 points and 5 assists in a dramatic 84-82 win over Olympiacos for which a young Teodosic played 3 minutes and had 3 points. Three years later in the 2012 semis, Teodosic has 12 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in 66-64 CSKA victory over Panathinaikos led by 19 points from Jasikevicius. That game also marked the first Final Four loss for Jasikevicius after winning each of his first eight Final Four games.