Edy Tavares wins Best Defender of the Year award for a 3rd time

Edy Tavares completed the week in an impressive way, after winning the Best Defender of the Year award for the 2022/23 EuroLeague season.

Earlier in the week, the star big man led Real Madrid to the EuroLeague Final Four, won MVP of the Round awards for Games 3 and 4 of the EuroLeague playoffs as well as the MVP of the Month award for April and May.

On Saturday, Edy Tavares won the Best Defender of the Year award as well. He achieved this honor after a vote conducted among EuroLeague head coaches. He set a new record for most blocked shots in a EuroLeague season – 84 and counting.

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Tavares’s intimidation factor has forced opponents to change shots all season long, and that is one of the main reasons why Real has the best two-point defense in the competition. Opponents hit just hit 49.7% of their two-point shots against Los Blancos; no other EuroLeague team is under 50% in this statistical category.

The 31-year-old’s wingspan, size, timing and great overall activity convinced the head coaches that Edy Tavares deserved to win the award for the third time after previously securing the honor in 2019 and 2021.

Tavares is the third player in EuroLeague history to win this award three times after Dimitris Diamantidis, who won it six times with Panathinaikos (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011) and Kyle Hines, who received it three times: with CSKA Moscow in 2015 and 2018, and with Armani Milano last season.

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