By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg’s Justin Johnson was the fan favorite among the five most impactful players of the Basketball Champions League Regular Season Week 5.
Johnson, 26, earned 37% of the votes edging out Marcus Foster of Rytas Vilnius and him landing 34%. Gavin Ware of JDA Bourgogne Dijon got 14%, Elvar Mar Fridriksson of Rytas ended up with 10%, and Dario Brizuela of Unicaja ranked fifth with 7%. Those players were recently shortlisted, according to the Viziball Advanced Stats system, and handed over to the fans to determine the player of the week.
In a similar fashion, Peristeri bwin’s Miro Bilan was voted the top player of Week 1. Falco Vulcano Szombathely’s Zoltan Perl, Bnei Ofek Dist Herzliya’s Maurice Kemp, and UCAM Murcia’s Jordan Davis stood out from Week 2 through Week 4 leading up to Johnson.
The latest player of the week turned pro in 2018, after completing the successful NCAA run at Western Kentucky. He spent the first four years of his professional career in Italy making his way to 18 games of the FIBA Europe Cup as a member of UnaHotels Reggio Emilia and switched to Ludwigsburg and the Champions League for the 2022-23 season.
Over the first three showings in FIBA’s top European club continental competition, Johnson averaged 12.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 0.3 steals per game, including 15 points, five rebounds, five assists, and one steal in Week 5 as the team coached by Josh King rocked Darussafaka in Istanbul and improved to 3-0 in Group E of the Regular Season.
Photo Credit: Basketball Champions League