Zach LeDay was named EuroLeague Round 24 MVP following his career-high 33 points, eight rebounds, 5-of-7 three-point shooting performance against Panathinaikos. This season, LeDay was also MVP of Round 7, following the win against Virtus Bologna, and of Round 15 after the Barcelona triumph. It is the first time that an Olimpia player is named Round MVP three times during the same season.
Zach LeDay runs, jumps, actually bounces along the sideline. He exchanges high fives with the fans, his eyes widen, he smiles as if he were Magic Johnson at the peak of his career. He leaves a few tenths of a second before coming back on defense to shake the teammate that has just dunked, as happy as if he had perform the play himself. He flies around the bench touching everyone until he gets to the back of it, gets on the exercise bike, and give out his running, loud, commentary on everything that happens on the court when he is off. Zach LeDay is histrionic, loud and funny. But this is only the facade. The public one.
Behind the public image, there is a careful worker. Somebody who pays attention to everything. He pays attention to details. “He takes care of his body, of his eating habits,” Coach Ettore Messina points out . On road games he takes with him all the devices that allow him to always feel ready to go. On game days he eats only fruit to feel himself light and explosive. After each practice he takes off his tank top and submit himself to a long series of shooting drills. Work pays off: Zach LeDay, who as a rookie in Israel many thought of as a potentially new version of Kyle Hines, an energetic but undersized center, is now a power forward with a lethal outside shot, who is making 51 percent of his threes. None of the top ten EuroLeague three-point shooters is attempting more threes than him. With ten games to play, he has already surpassed the total of three-pointers made in a season, a record that dates back to when he was in Milan for the first time. In terms of accuracy it has never been at current levels. But overall, this is the best season of his career. Numbers don’t lie.
| Points | Rating | 2pt | 3pt | FT | Rebounds | Fouls drawn | |
| Career | 11.3 | 13.6 | 52.5% | 42.9% | 86.6% | 4.6 | 3.8 |
| 2024/25 | 15.8 | 19.7 | 52.6% | 51.2% | 92.4% | 4.5 | 5.8 |
Zach LeDay is always the first to arrive at the arena on game days, at least two hours before tip-off. He warms up wearing his uniform. At some point he approaches someone, it could be Nikola Mirotic or Coach Beppe Mangone, and states his intentions for the day. “With great power comes great responsibility,” he often says. The backpack is always with him. It has become a cult object, something that he often replaces, but does not necessarily contain curious stuff. The most significant one is a notebook with notes. “Notes of everything, tendencies of the opponents, concepts to remember, quotes, anything that I might need during the game,” he explains. He keeps it within reach, he glances at the notebook for the last time just before going onto the court. Zach LeDay is obsessive in his pre-game preparation. He leaves the locker room last – always last – a moment after Mirotic leaves. He has his backpack on his shoulder and an energy drink in his right hand. He always has the ball under his left arm. He keeps it in his locker after the last shootaround and finds it there when he returns, next to his game jersey. When he enters the court, doesn’t matter whether he is a starter of he is coming off the bench, he immediately runs to the referee to touch the ball, first thing. Superstitious gestures, rituals. But there is a lot of substance behind every small gesture.
His shooting is the most evident aspect of his evolution. Zach is a player full of energy, physical courage and skills. But he has also become an excellent ball handler, he can run the court and attack the opponent off the dribble, so increasing the number of fouls drawn. His mid-range shot, that unusual movement in which he floats in the air just a little longer than his opponent, stopping the time almost, using only his right hand, forget about the left, is his trademark. “Someone suggested I change my style, but I’ve been shooting like this since I was 14 and shooting like this got me here: no reason to change.”
LeDay is from Texas, from the Dallas area. Football reigns, there. With his physical size and energy, he had started out playing football. But also in basketball. For a while, e played two sports and didn’t necessarily dream of playing for the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL could have been a good fit. Physical domination is in his DNA, but it hasn’t always been enough. He played at South Florida, but they fired the coach who recruited him, Stan Heath, and so he went to Virginia Tech because Coach Steve Roccaforte, who took him to USF, went there. “At Virginia Tech I was coming off the bench most of the time. I was the go-to guy, but I wanted to demonstrate to my teammates that I am unselfish, that I can adapt to any role, no matter if I am a starter or a reserve, and I could still dominate, play as hard as possible and do everything needed to help the team win. Coach Buzz Williams taught me how to use my energy and physicality in the smartest way whether I started or not.” Even now, he doesn’t always start but his performance level is always the same.
When he landed in Israel, to play for Hapoel Gilboa, he was conidered a small but aggressive, physical center. As a rookie, he was the second-best scorer and fifth-best rebounder in the Israeli league. “We had experienced veterans on that team. They took me under their wings. My first year in Israel was also my first time outside the United States. I had a coach (Ariel Bet Halahmi, ed.) who liked to play fast, going up and down the floor, that type of basketball. We got along well and were able to do special things. The team had never done so well. It was a historic season.” Thus he found himself in the EuroLeague, first at Olympiacos, then at Zalgiris and then in Milan during the Final Four season and also the miraculous buzzer beating lay-up at the end of Game 1 of the playoffs. Malcolm Delaney’s throw-in alley-oop.
“Blessed”, he answers when someone asks him how he feels. “Blessed” why? “For example, because I was coaches by the best teachers. Everyone asks me what it’s like to be coached by Ettore Messina and Zeljko Obradovic, who I’ve had for the last five years, but I’ve also had David Blatt and Saras Jasikevicius. My goal is always to do what they want. I don’t consider myself a center or a power forward, I’m a positionless player, who tries to do what it takes to win and my goal is to become one of the best players in the EuroLeague. And in Milan raise the team’s level as I have always tried to do, get back to where we were when I left.”
When he came to Milan the first time he couldn’t be a leader because he was young and there were legends like Kyle Hines, Sergio Rodriguez and Gigi Datome on the team. He was part of the new wave with Shavon Shields and Kevin Punter. “But when I went to Partizan, we were a new team and I found myself to be one of the most experienced players. There I understood how to be a leader. And I brought this leadership with me back in Milan,” he says. LeDay is a vocal leader. One who encourages his teammates. But he is also a leader by example. “In Istanbul, everyone knew he wasn’t able to play,” recalls Coach Messina. He absorbed this mentality from Kyle Hines: if you can play somehow, you play. This too is leadership. The one that inspired the 11,000 people of the Unipol Forum to escort him to the locker room shouting “MVP MVP”.
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