The elite five was selected by a combined vote of head coaches (35%), team captains (35%), media representatives (20%) and fans (10%).
S.Francisco, who already surprised Kaunas and the whole of Europe last year, managed to raise his game to unprecedented heights this season – the 28-year-old Frenchman finished the regular season recording averages of 16.7 points, 2.8 rebounds, 6.4 assists and even 19.5 utility points.
Eriko Ovčarenko/BNS photo/Moment of the match
It is in the utility points category that only Nikola Milutinov, Elijah Bryant and Saša Vezenkov surpassed S.Francisco – all of them also entered the symbolic five. Jean Montero, the leader of Valencia and winner of the rising star award, was among the five best basketball players of this season’s Euroleague.
Meanwhile, Žalgiris remained third in the assists category – Mike James and Codi Miller-McIntyre had a somewhat higher average.
S.Francisco, who is playing in the third season in the EuroLeague, scored the first double-double of his career in the EuroLeague already in the seventh round match against Bologna “Virtus”, and during the course of the season he added three more such performances.
Together with Tyler Dorsey, Žalgiris finished the regular season as the players who hit the most three-pointers (103), while S.Francisco scored at least 3 three-pointers in 22 meetings and was the undisputed leader of the EuroLeague according to this indicator.
S.Francisco also won tour MVP laurels twice this season, and was recognized as the most valuable player of the month in October.
Looking at the history of “Žalgiris”, in the past, only Arvydas Sabonis and Brandon Davies have entered the top five of the best basketball players of the Euroleague, while the second five were once recognized by Tanoka Beard, Darjuša Lavrinović, Kevin Pangos and Paulius Jankūnas.
