By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Andrei Kirilenko chose to return for a year in Europe and, despite losing the Euroleague final, everything else just clicked. He played basketball for the first time after a decade in his country, where he is national icon, he won the VTB and PBL league, got the bronze medal in the Olympics with team Russia and that’s why he has been voted as FIBA Europe Men’s Player of the Year 2012. It’s the second time he wins this award after 2007 when he was European champion with team Russia, winning the Eurobasket final in Madrid against Spain.
Spanish super star and Olympic silver medalist Pau Gasol is second in the voting, while Greek Vassilis Spanoulis, Euroleague and Greek champion as a member of Olympiacos is third. Here is the full list and the results. It has to be noted that Spanoulis is the only player in the list not playing in the NBA.
FIBA EUROPE 2012 MEN’S PLAYER OF THE YEAR VOTING RESULTS
| Player | FAN VOTING | EXPERT VOTING | ACCUMULATED RANKING |
| Andrei Kirilenko | 10754 | 356 | 0.1728 |
| Pau Gasol | 10266 | 348 | 0.1687 |
| Vassilis Spanoulis | 11439 | 305 | 0.1504 |
| Tony Parker | 11696 | 237 | 0.1197 |
| Marc Gasol | 6547 | 124 | 0.0631 |
| Danilo Gallinari | 14066 | 30 | 0.0281 |
| Goran Dragic | 5475 | 48 | 0.0274 |
| Marcin Gortat | 10939 | 35 | 0.0271 |
| Nikola Pekovic | 7483 | 40 | 0.0259 |
| Ömer Asik | 8892 | 17 | 0.0168 |