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Former Badgers standout Nigel Hayes-Davis earns EuroLeague Final Four MVP
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- Former Badgers standout Nigel Hayes-Davis earns EuroLeague Final Four MVP
Nigel Hayes-Davis, who played a starring role for the Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball team, finally has that elusive title and the magnificent postgame interview to accompany it.
Hayes-Davis, 30, was named Most Valuable Player of the Final Four as his Fenerbahçe Beko team, based in Istanbul, Turkey, won the EuroLeague title for the second time in team history, defeating AS Monaco for the crown, 81-70.
Hayes-Davis scored 23 points in the final, with nine rebounds.
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EuroLeague features some of the most prestigious basketball clubs from around Europe, including Real Madrid of Spain and reigning champion Panathinaikos of Greece, a team defeated by Fenerbahçe in the semifinals. A team from Turkey has won four of the past eight crowns.
After a decorated career at UW, in which he was an essential figure in the team's back-to-back appearances in the Final Four and also scored late to oust top-seeded Villanova one year later , Hayes-Davis briefly saw time in the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors and Sacramento Kings in 2017-18 but has been overseas ever since, playing in Turkey, Lithuania and Spain before his current post with Fenerbahçe.
Hayes-Davis was named first-team All-EuroLeague for the second year in a row this season . He had previously been Turkish League Finals MVP in 2024. He averaged 16.7 points and 5.3 rebounds this year.
Hayes-Davis gave an emotional interview afterward that recapped the twists and turns of his career, including his time with the Badgers.
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"I didn't win a state championship; I lost a state championship game in high school," he said. "I wasn't a McDonald's All American. I didn't win Mr. Basketball. I go to college, I'm in the gym at 5 a.m., we have lift at 7. I'm working, I'm working, I'm working. Friday night, Saturday night, (attending the) No. 1 party school in the country, I'm in the gym, 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock. I wasn't player of the year, I wasn't Naismith Player of the Year. I lost in the national championship game again. I kept working. I go undrafted, keep working.
"I end up overseas and you have to deal with that. As an American growing up, your dream is to play in the NBA, and when that doesn't happen, you keep working, keep working. … I've got four-a-days at Žalgiris. You can ask the arena staff, I'm in there four times a day. I go to Barcelona, worst year of my life ... Even then, working.
"Now, I've won it. Now, I'm the best.
"I've done that my whole life, and now I'm finally a winner. I'm finally the best. You don't always get sometimes what you work for. Kids grow up hearing that, 'You work hard and you get what you work for.' That doesn't always happen. But you keep working, you keep working, you keep working. And now I'm the best, I'm the MVP, I'm the champion, my hard work paid off, I'm the best. I earned it and I f***ing deserved it."
Hayes-Davis also recently trained alongside another former Badgers player, Micah Potter, during the ramp-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics, essentially part of a practice squad to prepare Team USA for the Games.
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During his four years at UW, Hayes-Davis was named first-team All-Big Ten once, in 2016, and twice named third-team.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ex-Wisconsin Badger Nigel Hayes-Davis earns EuroLeague Final Four MVP
