Rudy Fernandez, Dimiris Diamantidis, Nenad Krstic, Ante Tomic and Vassilis Spanoulis headline the 2013 All-Euroleague First Team.

On the All-Euroleage Second Team are Shawn James, Juan Carlos Navarro, Milos Teodosic, Viktor Khryapa and Nikola Mirotic.

CSKA, Barcelona, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Real Madrid and Maccabi were the six teams with first and second team representatives.

Ricky Hickman has been named Euroleague MVP for Game 3 of the Top 16 round.

Hickman scored 24 points with 17 coming in the fourth quarter in Maccabi's 91-73 win over Fenerbahce Ulker.

Hickman also had five rebounds and five assists.

The Euroleague Top-16 groups have been set with Real Madrid headlining Group E and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Group F.

Group E
Real Madrid
Zalgiris Kaunas
Unicaja Malaga
CSKA
Panathinaikos
Anadolu Efes
ALBA Berlin
Brose Baskets

Group F 
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv
F.C. Barcelona Regal
BC Khimki Moscow
Olympiacos
Montepaschi Siena
Besiktas
Fenerbahce Ulker
Caja Laboral 

David Blatt has stepped down as head coach of Russia's national team.

Blatt led Russia to a gold medal at EuroBasket 2007 and a bronze at the 2012 Olympics.

"With mixed feelings, I announce my retirement from the national team of Russia, a team that was a significant part of my professional life," said Blatt in a statement. "My decision is based solely on my sense of what is now the right time. I do it for personal reasons."

Blatt is also the head coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv.

After hammering out the details over the past several days, free agent Malcolm Thomas has finally reached agreement on a contract with Maccabi Tel Aviv, league sources told RealGM on Monday night.

While reports surfaced late last week that Thomas-to-Maccabi was imminent, the 6-foot-9 forward was still sorting through his options while negotiating logistics with the EuroLeague powerhouse, sources said.

Although Thomas had a superb Summer League showing with the Chicago Bulls in July – along with impressive workouts for the New York Knicks and Miami Heat over the last few weeks – in the end he simply could not capture the guaranteed NBA contract he was seeeking. The Bulls, Heat and Knicks were among the teams that offered him non-guaranteed training camp deals.

Privately, Thomas and his camp are hopeful he’ll land an NBA deal next offseason and confident that the chance to excel for an upper-echelon EuroLeague team will allow him to further intrigue American teams, as Jeremy Pargo was able to do. 

Maccabi Tel Aviv, according to league sources, has been engaged in contract negotiations with Malcolm Thomas.

Thomas appeared in five games this summer for the Bulls in the NBA summer league, averaging 11.4 points and 12.4 rebounds.

The 6-foot-7 forward spent part of last season with Ulsan Mobis Phoebus of the South Korean pro league.

Maccabi Tel Aviv released Pops Mensah-Bonsu after medical tests showed Mensah-Bonsu still hadn’t recovered from a knee injury suffered this summer with the British National Team.

Mensah-Bonsu averaged 11.5 points and 7.3 rebounds for Great Britain during the Olympic Games in London.

Atlanta Hawks' head coach Larry Drew went to Israel recently to meet with and observe Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach David Blatt.

“Larry respects the international game and is enjoying the opportunity to share ideas with David Blatt,” Danny Ferry wrote in a text message. “David is a heckuva coach and I know that Larry appreciates that David has been so open. I know Larry is enjoying the opportunity to closely watch [Maccabi's] program. It is a highly respected program.”

Blatt also coach the Russian team to the Bronze medal in the 2012 Olympics.

Tal Burstein has retired at the age of 32.

Burstein needs to undergo surgery on his injured right hip.

Burstein was a starter for Maccabi Tel Aviv that won Euroleague titles in 2004 and 2005.

Pops Mensah-Bonsu has agreed to a two-year deal with Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Mensah-Bonsu arrives from Besiktas, with whom he won the 2011-12 FIBA EuroChallenge last  season.