Former Oregon high school basketball star becomes EuroLeague's all-time leading scorer
A former Oregon high school basketball standout has etched his name atop one of the world's most prestigious professional basketball leagues.
Mike James, a Grant High School (Oregon) alum and Portland basketball legend, passed Greek legend Vassillis Spanoulis as the EuroLeague's top scorer of all-time.
Playing for AS Monaco, he hit a step-back jumper in the second quarter of a win over Serbian club Cvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade on Thursday.
Play was stopped after the shot, which drew a rousing ovation from the crowd to commemorate the achievement. James, who is regarded as a EuroLeague MVP candidate this season, finished with 20 points in the 98-90 win to push his career total to 4,457.
Watch the sequence for yourself:
Perhaps more impressive, James, who is 33, notched the feat in 85 fewer games than Spanoulis, who retired in 2021 after a storied career (4,455 points) in Greece.
In high school, James helped lead Grant to the Class 6A OSAA state championship in 2008 alongside standout forward Mike Moser, who went on to play at UCLA, UNLV and Oregon.
As an undersized guard at 6-feet tall, James was overlooked by big colleges, but he made a name for himself playing two seasons at Eastern Arizona and two more at Lamar.
He went undrafted in 2012 but played well enough professionally overseas to make his way back to the NBA. He played five seasons overseas before his first of three stints with Phoenix in 2017. He also had stints with New Orleans (2018) and Brooklyn (2021).
Outside of the United States, he's pretty much won wherever he's gone. James has won championships in the top league in France, Italy, Greece (twice) and Russia.
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-- Andy Buhler | andy@scorebooklive.com | @sblivetx
