Sasha Vezenkov has cemented his place in history among the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague’s scoring greats by capturing the Alphonso Ford EuroLeague Top Scorer Trophy for the 2022-23 season. The Olympiacos Piraeus forward averaged 17.24 points over 38 games this season in leading the Reds to the Final Four.
The Ford Trophy is the only post-season award based solely on statistics and Vezenkov made it his with ease by topping the scoring charts for nearly the entire season. Vezenkov edged Wade Baldwin for the award in one of the closest races in the history of the Forst Trophy. The Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv guard finished second with 17.17 points per game. Will Clyburn of Anadolu Efes Istanbul was third with 16.7 points per game.
Vezenkov scored at least 20 points in each of his first four games and a total of 15 times in 33 regular-season appearances. His season-high came in Round 24 when he torched ALBA Berlin for 28 points and added 13 rebounds for one of his eight double-doubles. Vezenkov was astonishingly consistent, too; he scored in double figures in all but five of his 38 games this season and sank multiple three-pointers in more than two-thirds of his games.
This season’s point tally was a career high for Vezenkov, who ranked 13th in scoring the season before, with 13.7 points per game. He also led the league in average performance index rating (21.2) and finished second in rebounds (6.8).
Vezenkov is the second Olympiacos player to win the Ford Trophy and, curiously, plays the same position as the first, Linas Kleiza, the 2009-10 winner. The award is named after one of the club’s greatest stars. Alphonso Ford 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 Montepaschi 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.
Vezenkov becomes the 14th winner of the Ford Trophy since it was first awarded in 2005. Three players have won multiple Ford Trophies. They are Igor Rakocevic, who earned it with Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz in 2007 and 2009 and with Anadolu Efes Istanbul in 2011; Keith Langford, who won with Olimpia Milan in 2014 and UNICS Kazan in 2017; and Alexey Shved with Khimki Moscow Region in 2018 and 2021.
The other Ford Trophy winners are Vasilije Micic last season with Efes; Mike James with Milan in 2019; Nando De Colo with CSKA Moscow (2016); Taylor Rochestie with Nizhny Novgorod (2015); Bobby Brown (2013) and Bo McCalebb (2012), both with Montepaschi Siena; Kleiza (2010); Marc Salyers with Chorale Roanne (2008); Drew Nicholas with Benetton Treviso (2006); and Charles Smith with Scavolini Pesaro in the award’s original season, 2005.
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