This season could see the Olympiacos star move past a number of superstars, past and present
3k Vezenkov rapidly rising up the scoring charts
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Regular Season
Round 3 of 38
Regular Season
Olympiacos PiraeusOLY
8667
Dubai BasketballDUB
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Olympiacos Piraeus star forward Sasha Vezenkov reached the personal milestone of 3,000 EuroLeague points on Friday night, and now he can set his sights on climbing much higher up the competition’s all-time scoring charts.
The 2022-23 league MVP netted 25 points in his team’s 86-67 victory over Dubai Basketball, earning MVP of the Round honors and taking his career total to 3,013 points, which sees him surpass Alexey Shved (3,006) into 23rd place.
Next in line are a pair of retired Real Madrid legends, Felipe Reyes (3,029) and Rudy Fernandez (3,037), whose totals could well be exceeded by Vezenkov during the upcoming double-round week which will see Olympiacos welcome Anadolu Efes Istanbul next Tuesday before travelling to Maccabi Rapyd Tel Aviv on Thursday.
And judging by the form shown by Vezenkov against Dubai, that could be just the start of his rapid rise up the scoring list.
He was particularly hot at the start of the second half, starting off by knocking down a buzzer-beating triple which took him to exactly 3,000 points. Vezenkov then put Shved in the rearview mirror by adding 10 more points in less than five minutes, and he continued to score regularly with his usual accuracy to finish with 25 points on 6-of-8 two-point shooting in addition to 3-of-6 triples.
In this season’s three games Vezenkov has now averaged 20.7 points, slightly better than last season’s 19.8 PPG average. It’s not asking too much to expect him to continue to score at roughly that rate, and with the league’s expansion to 20 teams adding another four regular-season games – plus up to seven more in the postseason – he could make another 42 appearances before the dust settles on May’s Final Four in Athens.
If that does transpire, around 40 games at roughly 20 points per game would take Vezenkov’s career total to more than 3,800 points – lifting him above the likes of Paulius Jankunas, Kyle Hines, Milos Teodosic and esteemed former teammate Georgios Printezis and comfortably into the all-time top 15.
Some of those above Vezenkov, of course, are still playing, so overtaking consistent scorers such as Shane Larkin (3,670 points and counting), Toko Shengelia (3,544) and Scottie Wilbekin (3,179) might prove too much to ask for this season.
There’s no doubt, however, that Vezenkov will continue to propel himself up the scoring charts, and at the age of 30 he should have plenty of time to eventually overhaul all-time legends Juan Carlos Navarro (4,152 points) and Vassilis Spanoulis (4,455).
Just don’t expect Vezenkov to shout too loud about his personal achievements, however. Speaking to EuroLeague TV after the game, the star forward displayed his customary modesty as he reflected: “I was feeling good. I work hard and I was seeing the game.
“But the most important thing is for the team to win. I don’t like to talk about myself. I’m ready to contribute, to give everything every night and I’m happy that we won this game.”
It doesn’t even matter that Vezenkov doesn’t like to talk about himself – he can leave that to the rest of us.