The MVPs NOBODY is Talking About...

Some of the most important players in EuroLeague aren't going to show up on the highlight reel or the stat sheet, and that's exactly why EuroLeague fans don't know how valuable they really are. We're not talking about MVPs, Defensive Player of the Years, top scorers, or even dunk contest candidates. We're talking about players who impact winning with their decision-making, their timing, their basketball IQ, and they might start or might come off the bench. Over the past few years from watching EuroLeague, I've noticed some guys who are those guys on their teams. So here is my first team. All-Impact. And I know this list is going to spark some debate, so if you have a player that you think should be on the first team All-Impact, put it in the comments. But let's jump into it. One of these guys literally can change the game without ever calling a play for himself, and you probably don't even know the player that I'm gonna say. I'm gonna save it to the end because it's probably my most impactful player from the games that I've watched. Number 1 is Nicolo Mele from Fenerbahçe, and this is not in any Borders. If you watch a game— I played against him a lot— he does little things, cheating the play, taking fouls. Now you look at the stat sheet and he hasn't really done much, but go back and watch the Final Four game, I think, in the championship. Winning plays the whole game. I think he ended with 5 points, winning plays the whole game. And that is—

makes—

puts you on First Team All-Impact. Your stats don't show it, but if you watch the game and you understand basketball, you see He is an impact. And just to clarify, there's 5 players that can be on a team, and we'll add a few more when we get back from shootaround because today we're playing Bologna and they actually haven't lost at home yet. So it's going to be a really hard game for us. Who's first team all-impact in EuroLeague?

Who?

You can't pick from our team. You gotta pick. I already have my 5 for the video. He scores, but you can't— he first of all, impact. You can't like be like, hey, you look at the statue like, what does that nigga do?

If you watch the game, you're like What do you say?

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Be back next time.

The next guy I would say would be Kalantzakis from Panathinaikos. This guy comes in the game and just wreaks havoc on the ball. I remember a few years back when Pana was playing Maccabi, he came in and guard Baldwin and did a really good job on him. And when you look at the stat sheet, you don't see anything. So young players, this is a way for you to go in the game and impact the game without even scoring scoring. Guard the ball. Another first-team All-Impact player would be Bonga from Partizan. Like these other players, he's coming in and picking up the ball, rebounding, doing all the little things that don't show up in the stat sheet. And sometimes he might even catch you with a few tray balls in the game.

So Davy's thoughts about the three goes to Bonga instead, and nothing he can do wrong this evening. Makes it 19-11.

But let's hop into some film. Let's talk a little bit more about Bologna. Very explosive team, have a bunch of off-screen shooters. They have Carson Edwards, who was first team all EuroLeague last year. Speaking of first team all Impact, um, they have Matt Morgan, who's a great shooter. They have Mihajlović. They have Austin, who played at Boise State, was really good. Mendoza. And they haven't lost at home, like we said before, so it's going to be a very tough game. So here, like we talked about before, we're watching to see their first initial sets. This guy could have a chance of being honorable mention at first team all Impact. He did a really good job when we played him. Look at that first shot from Edwards. Lethal shooter. He's up, goes over, still shoots it, still almost goes in. A lot of people ask me, Elijah, you watch a lot of basketball, are you going to coach one day? I don't know.

It's—

I really love the game. Um, game's done a lot for me and I owe a lot to the game, but I really love my family too. So I think my playing days are over. The goal is to— or the plan is to have a farm, and on the farm we'll have, you know, basketball court, farm-to-table food. You can come and train Maybe I'll help with the high school stuff, but my obligation needs to be to my family after all these years they sacrificed, um, for me to chase my dream. So I want to support my wife and her dreams, support my kids and their dreams. But I do love ball, and I'll tell you the last two First Team All-Impact players after the game. You actually might have known one already, but I'll tell you later.

Well, it's Friday night EuroLeague action. Wait, team, have a— well, Tel Aviv win the jump ball, they're in. Yeah, a way white uniform. Down low, double for Tudor. I think that's a good idea. He's already got 6 points. Bryant with a quick 3. Nice rebound. So quick down the other end, Bryant. And they're going to say into the spirits, and look, I think it already hit the glass. Bryant heavily defended, better offense though. Happowell and Bryant streaking down the court and scores so quickly. Quickly and effortlessly. Good move here from Bryant. Easy, found the mismatch. He wants to mismatch Edwards, shoots right over Edwards and gets the soft touch. Crunch time indeed. Bryant raises up, bam, knocks it in. Get in and a score! Plus the one! Go, coach! But basketball is a 40-minute game and you're playing the number one team, and this is why. Ball maybe stolen away, but coaches shake hands. It's done and dusted. Appel World Tel Aviv stay at the top.

Hey, big congratulations. The mindset was completely different on the second half. 43-32, it says a lot. The defensive effort was there, so congratulations, you deserve all. And number 3 is Yakuba Watara from Paris. This guy is an animal on the ball. He plays hard the whole time. He is like the definition of someone that should play for Paris. He's always crashing the glass. Corner 3 is his specialty. But if you look at the game, whether he's— you turn the game on in the third quarter, you can't tell if he's playing well or not based off his energy. So that's what gets him on First Team All-Impact. Now, last but not least is— this hurts saying, but Will Raymond from Maccabi. And If you just go and watch the third quarter of the Fenerbahçe game away, he himself brought Maccabi back in that game. I think he had 3 offensive fouls. He had an and-1 3. He had a slow step, euro step. And even though Maccabi's our rival, I respect players that are able to impact the game without the ball in their hands. And he does that at a very, very high level. And we actually went to the same prep school, New Hampton. Not the same time, but the same prep school. So those were my first team all-impact Melli, Bonga, Yakuba, Kalantzakis from Pana, and Will Raymond from Maccabi. Now tonight we gotta win, a very big win against a team who hasn't lost at home. And two things I did well and one thing I can work on. Two things I did well is I continued to play throughout the whole game, didn't start the game the best. Another thing I did well, I rebounded it decently well, hit some shots. One thing specifically that sticks in my mind to work on is big man blocked my shot at the end. I should have rondo'd him. Knowing he was thirsty to block it. But you learn from your mistakes and you live to see another day. And we got the win, that's all that matters. Dio had a great game. Excited to continue on this journey. And as always, faith plus consistency.