By Lefteris Moutis
The games before the Euroleague Final Four have almost finished (still remains to be held the fifth game of Panathinaikos–Maccabi series) and the award “Alphonso Ford” to the first scorer of the season has already found his next owner: Bo McCalebb!
The guard of Siena has 16.88 points per game a little ahead of Vassilis Spanoulis, who has higher accumulated points (314 versus 287) but lower average (16.53 points).
MacCalebb will receive his award in Istanbul the day between the semifinals and finals during the fancy gala organized by Euroleague in its eighth year of establishment of the trophy in memoriam of one of the best scorers who ever played in European courts.
Alphonso Ford died at the age of 32 years from leukemia on September 4, 2004, shortly after his last season in action with Scavolini Pesaro. He was as strong character and “winner” inside the court, as in life. He knew his health problem; he was receiving constant treatment, but he never gave up. He wanted to win his illness! A week before his death he was feeling great, but after a hospitalization of several days with high fever, passed away …
However, his memory never faded. Euroleague established the same year the award “Alphonso Ford” to the first scorer of the season and 20 days before, he was honored also by the… specialist in dunk contests, James White.
The gifted scorer of Scavolini Pesaro won the contest in Italian All Star Game and spoke to eurohoops.net for his decision to… fly to the basket wearing the jersey of the Alphonso Ford: “I wore Al Ford’s jersey as a tribute to the fans of Pesaro and for the player himself. I never met him: I just have seen clips of him playing. But I wanted to do something to honour him and the city”.
White has evolved winning the dunk contest into an… annual routine –he has already won dunk contests in 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2011- but he doesn’t face it as an obligation: “The win in Pesaro may be my last one, if I play again in Europe”.
As he confesses, maybe there is a chance for an exception: “If i play in the NBA next season, I’ll try in get in that contest but that’s pretty much it for me. Contests are great, but what matters to me is how I play the game of basketball”.