By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Unicaja Malaga defended their Basketball Champions League title after defeating Galatasaray in the final held in Athens.
It was clear that the MVP award would go to a player from the Spanish side, and the honor went to Tyson Carter.
The American guard led Unicaja in scoring with 14 points in the final, following in the footsteps of Kendrick Perry, who won the MVP award last year in Belgrade. Carter received the MVP trophy from Efthimis Rentzias.
Speaking at the press conference after the game, Carter was asked to choose between this and last year’s BCL triumph.
“The first one was good because it felt like redemption from the first year, and it felt really good. But this one, defending the title, we already won, and we’re right here in the moment—it feels even better right now.”
Talking about the game, he said:
“We had to keep them off the rebounds. We started the game aggressively, imposed our will. We know they are a really good team. We didn’t have a slow start, and that helped us stay in control for most of the game.”
The US guard also spoke about how much coach Ibon Navarro had helped him improve over the years.
“It means a lot to me. When I came here, I wasn’t as mature as a player. He’s helped me mature and grow in many ways—offensively and defensively. I can’t speak enough about it—controlling the pace of the game and getting better as both a point guard and shooting guard.”
Ibon Navarro interrupted with a comment:
“Making sure you’re on time for practice,” Navarro said. Tyson added, “Yeah, that too.”
Lastly, Carter shared his thoughts on his relationship with last season’s BCL Final Four MVP, Kendrick Perry.
“It’s my brother. We’ve developed a really good relationship over these three years. From day one, when we got here, we were excited to play with each other. We have a special friendship. He said those words on Twitter and encouraged me to play hard. I wasn’t going for MVP. We have a really good team, it could be anybody, but I wanted to do everything for the team to win, just like him.”