Calathes breaks single-season assists record

Mar 22, 2018 by Euroleague.net Print

Nick Calathes of Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens made Turkish Airlines EuroLeague history on Thursday night with his second assist against Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv. Calathes set the competition's single-season assist record with his 202nd delivery of the campaign. The record-setting assist came on a Mike James three-point shot in the fifth minute of the game that gave their team a 7-14 lead. The previous record belonged to Vassilis Spanoulis, who dished 201 assists for Olympiacos Piraeus last season. The 29-year-old Calathes is also in line to set the single-season record for assists per game this season. Calathes entered Round 27 averaging 8.3 assists per game to better the record of 7.9 by Thomas Heurtel for Anadolu Efes Istanbul in the 2015-16 campaign.

Calathes is dominating the assists standings like no player before. He already has more points-assists double-doubles than any other player in a EuroLeague season - nine. Calathes narrowly missed a triple-double in Round 8 when he posted 29 points, 9 rebounds and 10 assists. He has reached double digits in assists 11 times this season and delivered at least 12 assists in four games this season, which is more than the rest of the EuroLeague combined!

This is the sixth EuroLeague campaign for Calathes, all of which have come with Panathinaikos. He helped the club win the 2011 EuroLeague crown as well as three Greek League championships and three Greek Cups. Calathes was the MVP of the EuroCup in 2012-13, when he led Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar to the title. He has also played a big role for the Greek national team in recent years and helped it to a bronze medal at EuroBasket 2009.