Vassilis Spanoulis was voted bwin MVP for the 2013 Final Four in a vote by accredited media members at the Final Four. Spanoulis received the Final Four MVP honor for the third time in his career after leading Olympiacos Piraeus to the 2012-13 Turkish Airlines Euroleague title at The O2 in London. He joins the legendary Toni Kukoc as the only players to have been named Final Four MVP on three occasions.
Spanoulis named bwin MVP of 2013 Final Four
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"This is exciting, I feel great! This is unbelievable; I cannot describe to you how I feel,” Spanoulis said. “This is something I never even imagined in my life. I have to thank my teammates, coaches and all those unbelievable fans. It is something amazing. One game lasts for 40 minutes and it took me a little while to figure out how they were playing me. Fortunately, we found answers. What we did is truly unbelievable and I cannot describe how big this is for us. Winning a third Final Four MVP and tying Toni Kukoc is something amazing. I worked very hard and again, I want to thank the Euroleague, teammates, coaches, fans... everybody who supported us and believed in me."
Spanoulis had a rough start to the championship game and at halftime was scoreless with a minus-10 performance index rating and 3 turnovers in 14 minutes and 25 seconds of playing time. Madrid trailed by 4 at halftime and was outscored by 12 in his time on the floor. But in the second half, his greatness shined through. He started the second half with back-to-back-to-back three-pointers and never looked back. Spanoulis went on to record 22 points over the last 20 minutes on 5-of-7 three-point shooting. His performance index rating in the second half was 23 as the Reds pulled away and claimed their third Euroleague crown.
Spanoulis becomes the second player in competition history to become Final Four MVP in the same season he was named Euroleague MVP. His former teammate Dimitris Diamantidis did the same in 2011.