By Dionysis Aravantinos / @AravantinosDA
Another Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season is almost over! 16 teams competed over the course of eight months for the trophy and most of the major league awards are already known. Coaches, media, and fans voted for them and we also wanted to give a voice to the real stars on the court, the players.
Eurohoops conducted an anonymous player poll in Europe’s best competition, where 67 players answered eight different questions:
- MVP of the 2018-2019 season
- Rising star
- Most clutch player
- Best shooter
- Best dunker
- Most underrated player
- Toughest defender
- Toughest arena to play at
Overall, 67 players and ten teams participated (Maccabi Tel Aviv, AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan, Zalgiris Kaunas, FC Barcelona Lassa, Herbalife Gran Canaria, FC Bayern Munich, Fenerbahce BEKO Istanbul, Anadolu Efes, CSKA Moscow, Panathinaikos OPAP Athens).
Here are the results:
MVP of the 2018-2019 season:
| Jan Vesely | 18 |
| Nick Calathes | 13 |
| Cory Higgins | 9 |
| Will Clyburn | 7 |
| Brandon Davies | 3 |
| Nando De Colo | 3 |
| Mike James | 3 |
| Kostas Sloukas | 3 |
| Shane Larkin | 2 |
| Adrien Moerman | 2 |
| Derrick Williams | 1 |
| Tibor Pleiss | 1 |
| Bryant Dunston | 1 |
| Sertac Sanli | 1 |
Jan Vesely with 18 votes came in the first place, with Nick Calathes finishing second with 13. Cory Higgins, who didn’t make an All-EuroLeague team this season, was voted third best by the players to win the MVP. His teammate, Will Clyburn received seven votes and the fourth place in our poll.
Rising star:
| Goga Bitadze | 47 |
| Yovel Zoosman | 8 |
| Georgios Papagiannis | 5 |
| Rokas Jokubaitis | 2 |
| Joel Bolomboy | 2 |
| Robin Amaize | 1 |
| Onuralp Bitim | 1 |
| Omercan Ilyasoglu | 1 |
After winning the official rising star award by EuroLeague, Goga Bitadze received 47 of the total 67 votes (70%) and won the first place in the players poll as well. Yovel Zoosman of Maccabi and Georgios Papagiannis of Panathinaikos finished in the top-3.
Most clutch player:
| Cory Higgins | 15 |
| Kostas Sloukas | 11 |
| Mike James | 11 |
| Shane Larkin | 6 |
| Nando De Colo | 5 |
| Nick Calathes | 4 |
| Vassilis Spanoulis | 3 |
| Rudy Fernandez | 2 |
| Sergio Llull | 2 |
| Marko Guduric | 2 |
| Derrick Williams | 1 |
| Sergio Rodriguez | 1 |
| Will Clyburn | 1 |
| Luigi Datome | 1 |
| Dogus Balbay | 1 |
Cory Higgins, Kostas Sloukas and Mike James have proved this season why they are considered clutch in crunch time. Their fellow EuroLeague players recognized that they can come up big down the stretch and voted for these three as the most clutch players. Higgins received 15 votes and the first place, while Sloukas and James were tied in the second spot with 11 votes respectively. Shane Larkin who came up big in the playoffs, Nando De Colo and Nick Calathes concluded the top-5.
Best Shooter:
| Jaycee Carroll | 28 |
| Cory Higgins | 8 |
| Kyle Kuric | 5 |
| Marcus Eriksson | 4 |
| Arturas Milaknis | 3 |
| Ali Muhammed | 3 |
| Luigi Datome | 2 |
| Rodrigue Beaubois | 2 |
| Petteri Koponen | 2 |
| Nicolo Melli | 2 |
| Michael Roll | 2 |
| James Nunally | 1 |
| James Anderson | 1 |
| Krunoslav Simon | 1 |
| Shane Larkin | 1 |
| Jaka Blazic | 1 |
| Braydon Hobbs | 1 |
Jaycee Carroll is one of the deadliest shooters in Europe. After making important three-pointers this season for Real Madrid, he was voted EuroLeague’s best shooter in the first ever EuroLeague players poll. He received 42% of the votes. Cory Higgins with eight votes came in second, while sharpshooter, Kyle Kuric came in third.