By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Kevin Pangos was the latest addition to the 2020-21 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague All-First Team, as EuroLeague announced Thursday.
Pangos joins Vladimir Lucic, Nikola Mirotic and Vasilije Micic, who all gained entry in the previous days.
Per EuroLeague:
As a result of voting that included fans, media and, for the first time in EuroLeague history, head coaches and team captains, Zenit St Petersburg point guard Kevin Pangos is a member of the 2020-21 All-EuroLeague First Team!
Pangos comes off a fantastic season in which he led Zenit to its maiden EuroLeague Playoffs appearance with both his leadership and excellent play. He did not miss a single game all season and led Zenit in scoring (13.5 ppg.), three-pointers made (2.3 per game), assists (6.7 apg.) and PIR (14.8). Pangos ranked third in the league in assists and seventh in threes.
He started the season with a bang with 23 points and 7 assists in an opening-night road win at Anadolu Efes Istanbul. Pangos authored one of the best 10 individual performances of the season with a career-high 33 points plus 11 assists for a PIR of 41 in Zenit’s regular-season finale against Panathinaikos OPAP Athens, which clinched a playoff berth. Pangos reached double figures in assists seven times and made at least 3 three-pointers 14 times.
The 28-year-old guard took his game up a notch in the playoffs, which he led in assists (7.2 apg.) and ranked fourth in PIR (17.8) and fifth in scoring (16.2 ppg.). Pangos carried Zenit to a Game 1 upset of FC Barcelona with 19 points on 4-of-6 three-point shooting plus 9 assists and had 22 and 8 in his team’s Game 4 victory to even the series. Pangos’s great play helped Zenit become the first eighth-seeded team to win a EuroLeague Playoffs series opener and the first to take a series five games.
This marks Pangos’s second All-EuroLeague honor; he was a member of the All-EuroLeague Second Team in 2017-18 after he led Zalgiris Kaunas to the Final Four. He was also named to the 2015-16 All-EuroCup Second Team after he led Herbalife Gran Canaria to the EuroCup Semifinals in his first season as a professional and his only season in that competition. Pangos is one of only 14 players to have been named to both the All-EuroLeague and All-EuroCup teams in his career. He joined Zalgiris in the summer of 2016 and spent two successful seasons there. Pangos signed for Barcelona in 2018, but injuries caused him to miss nearly all of the 2019-20 campaign. He bounced back with a vengeance this season with Zenit as one of the best players in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.