Our championship has had the opportunity to host and produce many great stars of the firmament, who subsequently became true legends recognized throughout the world. The most important individual award – named after an icon of Italian and international basketball like Dino Meneghin – is won by Marco Belinelli (Virtus Segafredo Bologna, with 14.7% of the votes), UnipolSai MVP of the 2023/2024 UnipolSai Serie A regular season, ahead of Rayjon Tucker (Umana Reyer Venezia, 11.4% of the votes) and teammate Tornik’e Shengelia (Virtus Segafredo Bologna, 10.3%). This award was voted on by the clubs (managers, coaches and players), the media and community panel and the fans.
After having amassed individual and team trophies throughout his extraordinary career, the native of San Giovanni in Persiceto can now also boast the title of ‘MVP’ of the Italian championship, a deserved recognition for having led the Bologna team in first place (22-8 record) at the end of the regular season. It is difficult to describe in its entirety a season like the one played by the 1986 class, who found a new youth and put back into his quiver those shots that since he was a boy made him an unsolvable puzzle for defenses. From the inevitable off-balance triples and the cunning in knowing how to take so many shots with the clock stopped – a wild card in the key moments of the Bolognese team’s matches were his four-point games -, the former NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs has combined experience and leadership, demonstrating to the public and to his teammates that at 38 years of age you can never be satisfied with victories. During the season, Marco Belinelli was awarded several times as best player and/or best Italian of the week, consequently he was included in the monthly ‘Dream Team’ of the championship, demonstrating his great value both as a starter and as a sixth man luxury. Throughout the championship, the Bolognese guard recorded twenty-two games in double figures with a streak of sixteen consecutive games with at least 10 points scored between the ninth and twenty-fifth matchdays; six times he reached 20 points and the seventeen matches in which he finished with at least three triples on the scoresheet are worth mentioning. The figures put up by the number 3 of Virtus Segafredo Bologna speak loud and clear: 13.9 points shooting 52.6% from two, 41.2% from three and 90.9% from free throws (fourth best figure in the League); Furthermore, his scoresheet reads 2.1 assists, 1.8 fouls suffered, 1.4 rebounds, +6.8 plus/minus and 11.3 rating in 20.6 minutes on average.
