The Spanish power forward of the Real Madrid Usman Garuba has been awarded the award Euroleague Rising Star thanks to the votes of the main coaches of the teams participating in the competition. Garuba had been chosen best youngster in the Endesa League last April.
Garuba he averaged 3.9 points, four rebounds, 0.6 steals and 0.7 blocks in just over 16 minutes per game in the Euroleague. The 19-year-old player obtained the highest valuation index (PIR) of all the eligible candidates to be awarded in his category with 238 points. In addition, he was the one with the most rebounds (157) and the eighth with the most blocks (27). Garuba He played in every Real Madrid game this season in European competition.
The power forward outperformed all Rising Star candidates in rebounding, stealing, blocking, two-point shooting (62.8%) and actual shooting percentage (48.4%) throughout the season. The 2.03 meter tall young player shone in the playoffs and averaged 10.4 points – with a 66.7% accuracy on two-point shots – in the series that faced the whites with Turkish Anadolu Efes.
The Spanish Carlos Alocen (Real Madrid) and Sergi Martinez (Barça) and the Argentine Leandro bolmaro (Barça) also received votes to be eligible for the award. However, second on the list behind Garuba was Rokas Jokubaitis (Zalgiris Kaunas).
Garuba is the third Real Madrid player to win this award after Nikola Mirotic, in the 2011 and 2012 seasons; Y Luka doncic, which won the trophy in the 2017 and 2018 campaigns.