Walkup also averaged 8.1 points, making a career-best 50 three-pointers, and dished a team-best 4.8 assists this season. What’s more, he collected 3.0 rebounds, including 2.4 on the defensive end, all while playing a team-high 26:39 minutes per game in 38 appearances this season, all as a starter. Walkup had 3 or more steals in 11 games this season. No other EuroLeague player had more than eight such performances in steals. He also had 4 steals five times, tied for the league high, including once in the playoffs. During the playoffs against FC Barcelona, his average improved to 2.2 steals per game as the Reds came out on top in a five-game series despite not having home-court advantage.
The 31-year-old Walkup is in his sixth EuroLeague season, the third with Olympiacos. He debuted with Zalgiris in the 2018-19 season and spent three seasons there before joining Olympiacos in the summer of 2021. During his time in Piraeus, Walkup has started in all 108 of his appearances for the Reds, who have reached the Final Four in each of those three seasons. A Texas native and NCAA star at Stephen F. Austin University, Walkup turned pro with the Windy City Bulls of the G League in 2016. He then came to Europe and spent a season with Ludwigsburg in Germany before making the leap to the EuroLeague with Zalgiris. Walkup has helped his teams win a dozen domestic trophies so far, including two Greek League titles and three Greek Cups with Olympiacos.
Walkup is the ninth different player to be chosen as the EuroLeague Best Defender and the first Olympiacos player to do so since Bryant Dunston received the award in consecutive seasons, 2014 and 2015. Dimitris Diamantidis of Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens has won the award six times (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011). Walter Tavares of Real Madrid is a three-time winner, taking home the award in 2019, 2021 and 2023, as is Kyle Hines who received the award in 2015 and 2018 with CSKA Moscow, and then in 2022 with EA7 Emporio Armani Milan. Other Best Defender honorees include CSKA players Victor Khryapa and Andrei Kirilenko, in 2010 and 2012, respectively; Stephane Lasme in 2013 winner with Panathinaikos; and Adam Hanga, in 2017 with Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz.
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