History
One of the first basketball games between an NBA and a FIBA (international) team was held in 1978, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Euroleague and Israeli League, surprisingly beat the defending NBA champion Washington Bullets, by a score of 98 to 97. Since then, 5 other Euroleague teams have defeated an NBA franchise: Barcelona Basquet, Málaga and Real Madrid from the Spanish League, CSKA Moscow from the Russian League, and Fenerbahce Ulker from the Turkish League.
In addition to defeating the Washington Bullets in 1978, Maccabi Tel Aviv also beat the New Jersey Nets and Phoenix Suns in 1984, in Israel, and beat the Toronto Raptors, 103-105, in Toronto in 2005.
The first Barcelona Basquet and CSKA Moscow wins came during the 2006 NBA Europe Live Tour, where Barcelona beat the Philadelphia 76ers 104-99, and the Moscow win by 19 over the Los Angeles Clippers (94-75), is the widest Euroleague victory so far.
During the 2007 NBA Europe Live Tour, Málaga beat the Memphis Grizzlies 102-99, and Real Madrid beat the Toronto 104-103. In 2010, only 2 European teams, Barcelona Basquet and CSKA Moscow, beat NBA teams by narrow margins. The most recent Euroleague victories came during the 2012 NBA Europe Live Tour, when Fenerbahce Ulker defeated the Boston Celtics, by a score of 97-91, and Barcelona Basquet beat the Dallas Mavericks, by a score of 99-85.
Most of these games were initially played as part of the now-defunct McDonald's Championship, where NBA teams always won the games. Since 2006, they are mostly played during the NBA Europe Live Tour and the Euroleague American Tour.
In addition to that, one national team squad, the Soviet Union National Team, beat the Atlanta Hawks, by a score of 132-123, in an exhibition game in Moscow in 1988.
Read more about this topic: List Of NBA Vs FIBA / ULEB Games
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