Five years can feel like an eternity in basketball. For AS Monaco, they were enough to go from the new kids on the block to one of the most recognizable forces in European basketball.
When the Roca Team entered the EuroLeague in 2021, following its EuroCup triumph, nobody could know exactly what would follow. Monaco had ambition, talent and money, but establishing yourself among European basketball’s traditional powers is a completely different challenge.
They didn’t just establish themselves. Across five consecutive EuroLeague seasons, Monaco reached the playoffs every single year. They made two Final Fours, played in a EuroLeague Championship Game and created a fascinating modern rivalry with Olympiacos along the way.
There were heartbreaks. There were historic nights. There was Mike James. And there were moments when a club with virtually no EuroLeague tradition looked completely at home among Europe’s giants. These are five moments from Monaco’s EuroLeague journey that we will never forget.
1. The night Monaco announced itself: Olympiacos, Game 5 — 2022
Monaco’s first EuroLeague season could have ended with simply reaching the playoffs. Instead, the Roca Team decided to introduce itself properly. Facing Olympiacos, one of European basketball’s historic powers, Monaco refused to behave like a newcomer. After losing Game 1 in Piraeus, the French side responded with a stunning 96-72 victory in Game 2.
The series eventually went all the way. Game 5. Peace and Friendship Stadium. A place where countless European dreams have disappeared over the years. Monaco stayed alive until the very end before Olympiacos eventually prevailed 94-88 and advanced to the Final Four.
For Monaco, however, the defeat felt like the beginning rather than the end. In its very first EuroLeague campaign, the Roca Team had taken one of Europe’s biggest clubs to the final minutes of a deciding Game 5. The message was clear. Monaco wasn’t coming to the EuroLeague simply to participate.
2. Breaking through: Maccabi, Game 5 — 2023
One year later, Monaco found itself in exactly the same situation. Another playoff series. Another Game 5. This time, though, everything was different. Maccabi Tel Aviv arrived at Gaston Médecin hoping to end Monaco’s dream, but Mike James had other plans. The American superstar exploded for 21 first-half points before Jordan Loyd took over when Monaco needed him most late in the game.
The Roca Team won 97-86. And history was made. For the first time, Monaco was going to the EuroLeague Final Four. It was also the first time in 26 years that a club from the French championship had reached European basketball’s final four.
Think about the speed of that transformation. In 2021, Monaco had never played a EuroLeague game. By May 2023, it was one of the final four teams standing. This was the night Monaco stopped being the exciting newcomer. It had officially become a contender.
3. The night Mike James became EuroLeague’s scoring king — 2024
March 7, 2024 was bigger than just another EuroLeague night at Gaston Médecin. It was the night Mike James made history. Monaco hosted Crvena Zvezda knowing that its superstar needed just 12 points to surpass Vassilis Spanoulis and become the EuroLeague’s all-time leading scorer. He didn’t make the crowd wait long.
With 3:53 remaining in the second quarter, James pulled up and knocked down the shot that took him past Spanoulis’ mark of 4,455 career points. The game stopped. His teammates surrounded him. The sold-out Gaston Médecin rose to its feet. James was presented with the game ball as Monaco celebrated a milestone that went far beyond the result of one regular-season game.
By the end of Monaco’s 98-80 victory, James had scored 20 points and increased his career total to 4,464, officially sitting alone at the top of the EuroLeague scoring charts. And there was something fitting about the fact that history was made in Monaco.
James had played for Baskonia, Panathinaikos, Olimpia Milano and CSKA Moscow before arriving in the Principality. But it was wearing the Monaco jersey that he climbed to the top of European basketball’s scoring mountain. By the time he broke the record, 1,760 of his EuroLeague points had come with the Roca Team.
That tells its own story. Because Monaco’s rise and Mike James’ legacy became inseparable. The club gave James the platform to become its undisputed leader, and James helped transform Monaco from an ambitious EuroLeague newcomer into a genuine European powerhouse.
On March 7, 2024, those two stories came together. It wasn’t Monaco’s first playoff victory or its first trip to the Final Four. But watching its number 55 become the greatest scorer in EuroLeague history on its own floor remains one of the defining images of the club’s European journey.
4. Revenge against Olympiacos — Abu Dhabi, 2025
Some basketball stories are almost too perfectly written. Olympiacos had eliminated Monaco in the 2022 playoffs. Olympiacos had crushed Monaco’s dream in the 2023 Final Four. So when the two teams met again in a EuroLeague semifinal in Abu Dhabi in 2025, there was history everywhere.
This time, Monaco changed the ending. With Vassilis Spanoulis — an Olympiacos legend — standing on the Monaco sideline, the Roca Team produced arguably the biggest victory in club history. Monaco 78, Olympiacos 68.
The curse had been broken. After years of trying to climb the final steps of the EuroLeague mountain, Monaco had finally reached the championship game. There was something poetic about the opponent. The club that had given Monaco its first great EuroLeague heartbreak was now the club it had to beat to reach its first EuroLeague final.
From Piraeus in 2022. To Kaunas in 2023. To Abu Dhabi in 2025. Monaco’s rivalry with Olympiacos had become one of the defining stories of its EuroLeague era. And this time, the night belonged to the Roca Team.
5. Forty minutes from immortality — 2025
May 25, 2025. For the first time in its history, AS Monaco walked onto the floor to play for the EuroLeague championship. Fenerbahçe stood on the other side. Monaco started like a team that genuinely believed the trophy was coming home.
The Roca Team led 13-4 and then 16-8. Even when Fenerbahçe responded, Monaco remained right there, entering halftime only two points behind. For three quarters, Europe’s biggest prize remained within touching distance. Then Fenerbahçe made its move. An 11-0 run in the fourth quarter created the separation Monaco could no longer overcome, and the Turkish powerhouse eventually won 81-70.
The trophy wasn’t Monaco’s. But that doesn’t make the night any less historic. Four years after playing its first EuroLeague game, Monaco was 40 minutes away from becoming champion of Europe. That alone explains how extraordinary the journey had been.
From newcomer to European power
The easiest way to understand Monaco’s EuroLeague story is through the numbers. Five seasons. Five playoff appearances. Two Final Fours. One Championship Game. But numbers don’t fully explain it.
They don’t capture the chaos of those Game 5s. The Mike James performances. The battles with Olympiacos. The heartbreak of Kaunas. The breakthrough in Abu Dhabi. And they certainly don’t capture how quickly everything happened.
Monaco entered a competition dominated by institutions with decades of European history and behaved as though it belonged there from day one. Maybe that is the defining memory of the Roca Team’s first EuroLeague era. It didn’t need decades to build a European identity.
Five years were enough to create memories that will last much longer.