Sasha Vezenkov was born 27 years ago in Nicosia, Cyprus. He has been a Greek citizen since his formative years in Thessaloniki. He plays in the Bulgaria national team, his parents’ country. He spent three seasons in Spain, dressed in the Barça jersey. And he also manages to speak English. The salad transforms every performance of the Olympiakos Power Forward into an impromptu language school. The man responds in one language or another with the same versatility with which he moves on the dance floor. Its 2.06 meters appear everywhere. He has a wrist that can hurt on the outside and at mid-range, a body that bats under the basket, scores two points and rebounds, vision that controls the game and legs that make defenders dizzy. Tavares, who will see him and Moustapha fall in the area this Sunday, is alert: “It doesn’t stop. He’s constantly moving looking for space to shoot, scoring from outside, teaming up with Sloukas, going for the rebound… He’s a player who knows how to play very well and can also move from memory. It will be difficult to stop him. The Bulgarian praised the Real Madrid player: “He’s super dominant. He’s played very well all season but the last month is special. That’s the main reason Madrid are here, but not just him. We don’t just have to focus on Tavares.
In an Olympiakos rocking Sloukas and igniting Papanikolaou, Vezenkov is the heavy artillery. The top scorer of the regular season in the Euroleague (average 17.2 points, adorned with 6.8 rebounds per night) followed Mirotic as the league’s Most Valuable Player, MVP, an award he received last Thursday from his parents and sister, which he showed received as his example. The following day he put in a good performance in his comeback against Monaco with 19 points, six rebounds and three assists.
Lorenzo Brown (Maccabi), Musa y Tavares (Madrid) and Lessort (Partizán) accompany him in the Euroleague Ideal Five. But that individual glory doesn’t sit well with Vezenkov, who is desperate to win his first European title. “The work I did during the season was reflected in the MVP. That’s a regular stage prize and now I want the title. Nothing changes for me because basketball is a team sport. The award motivates me to improve and show that it’s not just a year ago, but that I can keep my performance consistent. In sport, the most difficult thing is to assert yourself. I have to prove it to myself. That’s just the beginning.”
Vezenkov recalls the three seasons at Barcelona (2015-18) after coming through Aris, during which he also witnessed the upheaval of a club that passed through the hands of Xavi Pascual, Bartzokas and Sito Alonso in the dock during that period . “There were bad times,” recalls the Bulgarian, a friend of former soccer player Hristo Stoichkov. “Those moments made me work harder, they made me better and stronger and they made me the person and the player I am today.” Also the semi-final he lost to Efes last year with a three-pointer from Micic , when the latter defended him, left a scar, and then he lost to Barça in the match for third place.
The past has toughened him, the present has crowned him the jewel of the Euroleague and the NBA option appears in the future. Vezenkov was drafted 57th overall by the Brooklyn Nets in the 2017 draft, but his rights went first to the Cleveland Cavaliers and then to the Sacramento Kings. Just last summer, he refused to go to training with Mike Brown’s side, where Catalan Jordi Fernández is first assistant, to focus on the Bulgaria side.
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