Characteristics of Team Leaders Play as exemplified by the European Championships In Basketball This paper presents a statistical analysis of basketball team leaders performance during a championship status tournament in team sports using the example of the 36th European Championships EuroBasket 2009. The list of player-leaders of particular national teams was developed by means of the expert method, based on the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data. Empirical data gathered were taken from the website of EuroBasket 2009 Poland (www.eurobasket2009.org) and FIBA Europe (www.fiba.com). Formal statistical methods concerning sample description were used. The comparative analysis was conducted by means of various tabular and graphic techniques. The calculations were performed in a STATISTICA spreadsheet. The applied statistical methods allowed a series of conclusions to be drawn concerning the performance of leader-players and their cooperation with other players on the court. The knowledge of particular SGCs (standard game components) realization allows those dispositions of leader-players which are especially significant in the process of cooperation in a basketball team to be improved by coaching.