Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy: Alexey Shved, Khimki

For the second time in his career, Alexey Shved of Khimki Moscow Region has won the Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy. Shved led all scorers with 19.8 points to add the Ford Trophy for the 2020-21 season to his award from 2017-18. The Ford Trophy is awarded annually to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague player with the highest scoring average over a minimum number of games. It is the EuroLeague’s only end-of-season award that is based solely on statistics. Shved’s scoring average was half a point more than the runner-up, 2018-19 Ford Trophy winner Mike James of CSKA Moscow. Shved scored in double figures in all but one game for Khimki this season.

Although he missed Khimki’s first four games, Shved needed no time to get going, scoring 32 points in an overtime home loss against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv in his season debut. Shved went on to match his season high of 32 points twice more – against FC Bayern Munich in Round 22 and LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne in Round 32. Against Bayern, Shved made 15 free throws without a miss, which is the fifth-best free-throw shooting in competition history. Shved scored at least 20 points on 12 occasions. More than just a scorer, he also topped the regular season charts with 7.7 assists per game. Over the last four seasons, during which he has played 97 games, Shved leads the EuroLeague both in accumulated points (2,078) and scoring averaged (21.4 ppg.). Behind Shved in the scoring race this season were James (19.3 ppg.), Jordan Loyd (17.3 ppg.) of Crvena Zvezda, Vasilije Micic (16.4 ppg.) of Anadolu Efes Istanbul and Nikola Mirotic (16.0 ppg.) of FC Barcelona.

Shved averaged 21.8 points per game when he captured the Ford Trophy for the 2017-18 season. He raised his average in the 2018-19 campaign to 23.3 points, but took part in just 14 games, which left him ineligible for the award. Shved was second in scoring in the 2019-20 season with 21.4 points per game, behind only Shane Larkin (22.2 ppg.), when the competition came to a premature end due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A product of the CSKA Moscow youth system, Shved was a member of CSKA’s EuroLeague-winning squad in 2008 and he helped the team get to the EuroLeague Championship Game in 2009 and 2012. After three seasons in the NBA with Minnesota, Philadelphia, Houston and New York, Shved joined Khimki in 2015 and has been the face of the franchise ever since. He was chosen as the 2016-17 7DAYS EuroCup MVP and earned All-EuroLeague honors the following season. Among his other major achievements are helping the Russian national team win respective bronze medals at EuroBasket 2011 in Lithuania and the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Shved is the third multiple-winner of the Ford Trophy since it was first awarded in 2005. The other two are Igor Rakocevic, with Tau Ceramica Vitoria-Gasteiz in 2007 and 2009 and with Anadolu Efes Istanbul in 2011; and Keith Langford with Olimpia Milan in 2014 and UNICS Kazan in 2017. The other Ford Trophy winners are Nando De Colo of CSKA Moscow (2016); Taylor Rochestie of Nizhny Novgorod (2015); Bobby Brown (2013) and Bo McCalebb (2012), both of Montepaschi Siena; Linas Kleiza of Olympiacos Piraeus (2010); Marc Salyers of Chorale Roanne (2008); Drew Nicholas of Benetton Treviso (2006); and Charles Smith of Scavolini Pesaro (2005).

The trophy is named in memory of the late Alphonso Ford, who died of leukemia in September 2004 after a brilliant career in which he was the competition’s leading scorer twice, in 2000-01 and 2001-02, both seasons with Olympiacos. He subsequently led Siena in scoring as it reached the 2003 Final Four. Ford owns the EuroLeague’s all-time best scoring average with 22.2 points in 54 career games. Shved is fourth (16.8 ppg.) on that list, trailing Panos Liadelis (19.3 ppg.) and Arvydas Macijauskas (17.4 ppg.). The Ford Trophy is the first in a series of EuroLeague end-of-season honors. Other awards to be announced this week include the EuroLeague Best Defender and the EuroLeague Rising Star. The All-EuroLeague honorees will be announced later and the MVP award at this season’s Final Four in Cologne, Germany. The Alexander Gomelskiy Coach of the Year Trophy and the EuroLeague Club Executive of the Year are post-season awards.