By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Sasha Vezenkov’s impressive 45-point performance from last week is still being talked about around Europe. It was the third-best scoring output in modern EuroLeague history and the best-ever performance by an Olympiacos player in the competition’s history.
He came five points short of an EuroLeague record that is still held by Fenerbahce Beko’s Nigel Hayes-Davis. The US forward was the first to congratulate him on a historic night, despite almost taking him down from the top of the all-time best scoring performances.
“I had no idea what’s going on. I was on an off day traveling, and I think I was at a grocery store. I was looking around for some chips or something, and someone sent it in a group chat. The guys were like, Sasha had 45, and my first thought was, that’s so cool. He probably took two dribbles. He took three. I texted him and told him he should have gone for it. Everyone knows he’s a great player, but to have a night like that, those don’t happen often. So to be that close to something… He said he’s fine with it,” Nigel Hayes-Davis said to Meridian Sport.
He heaped praise on Vezenkov but admitted he is satisfied that his record remains untouched.
“I watched the highlights of him scoring it. Amazing. I’ve said publicly before and I’ve told him he’s one of my favorite players to watch in Europe because, and he knows himself, I’ve told people – one-on-one, he may not beat a lot of people. Just hand him a ball from the top of the key and say, score. But when you watch him play – fantastic. He’s fantastic, huge fan of his. So, you know, congratulations again to him on a historic, historic night, and I’m happy I’m still number one for now.”
After scoring 50 in ALBA Berlin last season, Hayes-Davis said that he sees Baskonia’s Markus Howard potentially being the next player to set a new record.
“I would say the reason I said Marcus Howard is because last year he was shooting like 15 threes a game. So in order to break a record, you need to shoot the ball, and he’s shooting the ball.”
Speaking about the possibility of someone topping his 50-point performance, he gave a great example.
“Roger Bannister was the first person to run a four-minute mile. Before that, everyone was like, it can’t be done. No one said it’s possible. After he finally did it, it started happening all the time. And the reason I bring that up is because I think, for a while, 50 points in EuroLeague seemed impossible, and now that you’ve seen someone do it, it’s like, maybe it is. With the change of basketball, maybe a little more up-tempo game, and now the belief that, oh, it’s possible, I think it’s something you can see a lot of players kind of start to flirt with and get close to it. Again, it’s extremely tough, especially in EuroLeague, just based on the time and the number of shots you’re going to get, but for now, I’m still happy,” Nigel Hayes-Davis concluded.