By Antonis Stroggylakis / info@eurohoops.net
While Fenerbahce Beko veteran forward Nicolo Melli admits that he would’ve liked to have been named 2026 EuroLeague Best Defender, he tipped his hat off to award winner Alpha Diallo of AS Monaco.
“It’s not true that I don’t care about personal trophies. If you arrive 2nd, you want to be 1st,” Melli told Eurohoops. “It’s better to be 2nd than 3rd, but for sure you want to be 1st. If you have the chance, if you have a shot for it, you better just go for it.”
“That being said, is Alpha Diallo a good defender? Definitely. There’s no discussion there,” Melli added. “It’s not that they gave it to someone who doesn’t play defense. He’s a beast on defense. And he probably always guards the toughest [opposing] player.”
Fenerbahce was widely regarded as the top defense team of the regular season. That aspect of their game was the main factor why they held the first seed for the larger part of the campaign before finishing 3rd in tthe standings.
Melli was the main anchor of that often suffocating defense with an influence on the game the stats sheet won’t ever do justice to. The 35-year-old Italian player excelled in multiple roles at the rearguard: Guarding dangerous opponents in 1 vs. 1 situations, providing multiple helps all over the place, guiding his teammates and being the glue that held together Sarunas Jasikevicius’ signature switching defense.
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“We are two totally different defenders,” Melli also commented on Diallo. “Statistics, as you said, cover a part of the story. What I say is that if they had given me the trophy, I think it would’ve been more a trophy for the team. To acknowledge that Fenerbahce was the best defensive team.”
When the 2026 Best Defender was announced, Fenerbahce star guard Wade Baldwin reacted to the news, feeling that his teammate was snubbed.
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The annual EuroLeague Best Defender is voted by the competition’s head coaches. Olympiacos Piraeus guard and 2024 Best Defender winner Thomas Walkup finished 3rd, Real Madrid center and three-time (2018, 2019, 2023) DPOY Edy Tavares came 4th while Panathinaikos Athens Jerian Grant was 5th.
“Alpha Diallo is an incredible defender. He deserved it,” Melli commented. “I would have said the same thing if they had given it to Edy Tavares. That’s not the point. Of course, I would’ve loved to win it. But, again, if I’d won it would’ve been an achievement for the team. A trophy for what we did as a team. I was just one of the guys that helped Fenerbahce be the top defensive team in the EuroLeague for the regular season.”
Melli went on to help Fenerbahce advance to the Final Four by posting 11.0 points (on 16-30 shots) and 5.8 rebounds as his team beat Zalgiris Kaunas 3-1 in the playoffs. He and his teammates will look to win the back-to-back championship title in Athens, Greece.
“Again, I don’t feel snubbled. I don’t feel that Alpha Diallo didn’t deserve it. It is what it is. I wish I won it because, as I said, it’s better to be 1st than being 2nd. But we have bigger goals in front of us.”