Former Nets wing Dzanan Musa, a first-round pick in 2018, has been named the Most Valuable Player of Liga ACB, Spain’s top basketball league, for the 2021/22 season, per an official press release.
Fans, reporters, players, and coaches vote on the award, and Musa was the top pick among all four groups, earning the maximum 100 points. Ex-NBA forward Nikola Mirotic finished fourth with 30 points.
After appearing in just 49 games in his two seasons with Brooklyn from 2018-20, Musa returned to Europe and has played in Turkey and Spain over the last two years. He averaged 20.1 PPG, 5.1 RPG, and 3.1 APG on .494/.381/.787 shooting in 29 Liga ACB games (32.0 MPG) for CB Breogan this season.
Former NBA forward Mirza Teletovic stated earlier this year that he’s confident Musa, who just turned 23 years old this month, will return stateside sooner or later.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Veteran forward Luis Scola, who played in the NBA from 2007-17, will exercise his option to assume majority ownership of the Italian team Pallacanestro Varese, the club announced in a press release. Once the paperwork is official, Scola will own 51% of the franchise’s shares.
- Former Warriors guard Nico Mannion is drawing some interest from NBA teams as a possible Summer League player, tweets George Zakkas of SDNA in Greece. Mannion remains under contract with Virtus Bologna in Italy for the time being.
- Having opened a league office in Lagos earlier this year, the NBA is on the lookout for the next Giannis Antetokounmpo in Nigeria, according to Lindsay du Plessis of ESPN, who spoke to NBA Africa VP Gbemisola Abudu about NBA Nigeria’s goals in the country.
- David Aldridge of The Athletic takes a look at what the offseason for the holds for the four teams eliminated in round two, examining the key areas for the Grizzlies, Bucks, Sixers, and Suns to address this summer.
Musa came to the nba in the 2018 draft and at 23 just won the MVP in Spain in 2022. He should’ve just waited a couple years, and right now he’d be on his rookie contract and probably on the same tier as like a Hachimura/Wagner ish dude.
Heaps of players come to the league to early
Giannis was found in Greece, he’s more Greek than Nigerian tbh
“tbh”?
tbl— to be legalistic
tbop— to be our papers
This article from Andscape.com by Marc Spears is three years old but espn still references it, in the HR link:
“I grew up in a Nigerian home,” Antetokounmpo said. “Obviously, I was born in Greece and went to school in Greece. But at the end of the day when I go home, there is no Greek culture. It’s straight-up Nigerian culture.”
“… in Yoruba is spelled Adetokunbo, means ‘the crown has returned from overseas,’ ” Olajuwon said.”
It would not be surprised if Giannis eventually changes his name back like Olajuwon did.