Sasha Vezenkov has already booked Euroleague MVP, and for this he almost does not need a ball

The last season of the Greek Bulgarian turned out to be so chic that such a continuation of the banquet was hardly imagined even in Bulgaria. There, at the end of the year, Vezenkov, just in case, was recognized as the best athlete in the country – and this is only the second time in history when the award went to a basketball player. The last precedent dates back to 1958. Then they honored the center of the Sofia “Slavia” Vanya Voinova, who led the women’s national team of Bulgaria to the EuroBasket gold medals.

Vezenkov did not lead the Bulgarians to any medals at the last EuroBasket, but he made a good noise. And most importantly, he continued to do the same, already as an Olympiacos player.

Vezenkov is the best player in Europe right now and he doesn’t even need a ball to do it

According to Vezenkov, until the age of 15, most of those around him strictly called him by his full name – Aleksandar. Only after a Bulgarian with a Hellenistic background got into the first professional club – Aris, and one of the coaches began to call him Sasha, only then did the diminutive address become common.

“Now very few continue to call me Aleksandar. My mother and a couple of close people. Also, the Olympiacos manager who is responsible for the equipment calls me Alexandrus, in the Greek manner. But basically everyone calls me Sasha,” said the main contender for the Euroleague MVP title in a recent interview.

In this seemingly trifling episode of Vezenkov’s biography, it is easy to see a simple metaphor indicating the childish carelessness and excitement with which Sasha breaks the Euroleague. This season, the Olympiacos striker was named the player of the tour five times, 61% of Euroleague club general managers named him MVP of the tournament in the first half of the season (17 rounds), and a week ago Vezenkov took the award for the best player in February.