MVP Shorts headlines BCL season seven award winners

MALAGA (Spain) - TJ Shorts II of Telekom Baskets Bonn was named 2022-23 Basketball Champions League MVP on Saturday, during the official awards ceremony in Malaga that unveiled the best of the best in the seventh season of the competition.

His playcaller at the German team, Tuomas Iisalo, was voted Coach of the Season, Sadik Emir Kabaca of Galatasaray Nef was named Young Player of the Season while Alberto Diaz of hosts Unicaja was selected as the first winner of the newly-minted Defensive Player of the Season award.

As expected, the 2022-23 Star Lineup features a host of players from the four contenders that reached the Final Four in Malaga.

Shorts was of course also one of the two guards voted on the season seven Star Lineup, where he was joined in the backcourt by Lenovo Tenerife’s Marcelinho Huertas and Dario Brizuela of Unicaja, with Akil Mitchell of AEK at the power forward spot and Zach Hankins of Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem at center.

Star Lineup Second Team includes Marcus Foster of Rytas Vilnius, Kendrick Perry of Unicaja, Levi Randolph of Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem, DeAndre Lansdowne of SIG Strasbourg and Giorgi Shermadini of Lenovo Tenerife.

The winners of the awards in each of the four individual categories, as well as the 10 players making up the Star Lineup and the Star Lineup Second Team, were selected by four constituencies: an expert media panel that covered the BCL this season around Europe; the fans; the head coaches of the Round of 16 teams; their captains, who were given the opportunity to cast their ballot for the first time.

Shorts who averaged 18.7 points and 7.1 assists per game up until the Final Four in Malaga, was the overwhelming choice of the captains of the Round of 16 teams that voted for the MVP award, receiving 75 percent of their vote.

The 25-year-old American point guard also received an enormous 68 percent share of the vote of the expert media panel, while he was the MVP choice of 43 percent of the head coaches of the Round of 16 teams.

The 2022-23 BCL season concludes on Sunday when the winning team at the Final Four in Malaga will be crowned champions. The last individual accolade to be handed out this season will be the Final Four MVP award.

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