By Antonis Stroggylakis / [email protected]
ABU DHABI– Fenerbahce Beko star forward Nigel Hayes-Davis was in awe of his veteran teammate Errick McCollum after the latter’s feats in the semifinal win over defending champion Panathinaikos Athens.
“If Errick was 2 inches taller and 20 pounds heavier, he’d be making 100 million in the NBA,” Hayes-Davis told Eurohoops some moments after Fenerbahce‘s qualification to the championship game.
McCollum scored 10 out of his 13 points in the last 12 minutes of the game, stepping up big time to provide valuable buckets to Fener when the team’s offense got stuck in some moments in the second half.
He had six points in a row when Panathinaikos approached 47 – 45 late in the third period and, later, he drained the dagger from deep to put Fenerbahce up 73 – 66 with 1:37 remaining in the game.
Overall, McCollum put on the floor a well-rounded performance of 13 points, three rebounds, two assists, two steals, and a block on a Cedi Osman attempt from beyond the arc.
For Hayes-Davis and the rest of the Fenerbahce players, it was rather inspiring to witness McCollum not only making one important shot after another but also putting on immense energy and effort on the defensive end, chasing opponents all over the place and hustling like there’s no tomorrow, at 37 years of age.
“He’s an ultimate professional,” Hayes-Davis said. “He takes care of his body. He comes in early like me, and he’s one of the last ones always leaving the floor after we finish practices. Tremendous leader. Experienced. We like to joke that he started playing in Europe in 1980. He’s been here for a while. He’s seeing everything. To have a guy like that who can step up. Great team win.”
Another Fenerbahce player who emerged as perhaps an unlikely hero was guard Devon Hall. In his maiden Final Four appearance, the American player scored a season-high 18 points on 4-6 triples while hounding 2025 MVP Kendrick Nunn on the defensive end.
He also won Nunn’s fifth foul by drawing a charge.
“Devon hasn’t been looked at as a scoring option,” Hayes-Davis commented. “Devon did a tremendous job. Player of the game. He was fasting, guarded Nunn, and got the charge that got him out of the game. And made huge shots on offense.”
The EuroLeague semifinal was also a payback opportunity for Fenerbahce after a horrid display and a defeat against Panathinaikos in the 2024 semifinal, as well as a 0-2 regular-season sweep this year.
It was personal for some guys for other reasons. Wade Baldwin had declared that he was waiting for this game as a personal rematch after getting injured during the 2024 playoffs vs. Panathinaikos when playing with Maccabi.
Hayes-Davis probably wanted to say a couple of words as well after the victory in the semifinal, but chose to take a different route, following the example of Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo in the aftermath of what happened between him and Tyrese Haliburton’s father.
“I’m really biting my tongue,” Hayes-Davis mentioned. “There are a lot of things I was going to say after we won. But I’m taking a page from Giannis: Win with humility and win with grace. We played against a great team. Against the MVP. Guys who played great tonight. Great coach. We knew how tough is going to be. We’re happy that we were able to not only avenge the two losses from this season but also the beating us last year.”
“We haven’t accomplished anything. All we got was giving us the chance on Sunday”.