Walter Tavares is the 2022-23 EuroLeague Best Defender

13/05/2023 14:14

The Best Defender Trophy is one of several end-of-season awards that recognizes the elite play of the best players in the EuroLeague.

Walter Tavares of Real Madrid has been chosen as the 2022-23 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Best Defender for the third time in his career.

Tavares has achieved this honor after a vote conducted among EuroLeague head coaches. He set a new record for most blocked shots in a EuroLeague season – 84 and counting. Tavares’s intimidation factor has forced opponents to change shots all season long, and that is one of the main reasons why Real has the best two-point defense in the competition. Opponents hit just hit 49.7% of their two-point shots against Los Blancos; no other EuroLeague team is under 50% in this statistical category. The 31-year-old’s wingspan, size, timing and great overall activity convinced the head coaches that Tavares deserved to win the award for the third time after previously securing the honor in 2019 and 2021.

The Best Defender Trophy is one of several end-of-season awards that recognizes the elite play of the best players in the EuroLeague. The first of this season’s honorees was Sasha Vezenkov of Olympiacos Piraeus as the winner of this season’s Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy. Subsequently, Yam Madar of Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade was announced as the EuroLeague Rising Star, another award chosen exclusively by the head coaches. The identity of the All-EuroLeague teams will be revealed shortly, as will the EuroLeague MVP and Coach of the Year awards. The Executive of the Year award will be announced in the summer.

Thomas Walkup of Olympiacos followed Tavares in the voting for the Best Defender Trophy. John Brown of AS Monaco was third in the head coaches’ voting, Mathias Lessort of Partizan came fourth and Alpha Diallo of Monaco finished fifth. Among others receiving votes were Kyle Hines of EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, Shaquielle McKissic of Olympiacos, Tomas Satoransky of FC Barcelona, Alessandro Pajola of Virtus Segafredo Bologna, Kostas Papanikolaou of Olympiacos, Josh Nebo of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv and Nick Calathes of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul.

 

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