The voting process for the 2015 FIBA Europe Player of the Year bore a distinct purple-and-orange flavor. Current Suns guard Goran Dragic finished fourth, while 2014 first-round pick Bogdan Bogdanovic was right behind him at fifth.
The award takes NBA performance into account, hence the presence year-round NBA-ers like Tony Parker (first), Boris Diaw (third) and Dragic (fourth) in the voting process. The award is based on two voting factors: fan and "expert".
The expert portion appears to carry more weight. Bogdanovic, who stars for Fenerbahce Ulker of the Turkish Basketball League, finished second in fan voting with a whopping 29,094 votes. That's nearly 20,000 more than Parker, who finished third in fan voting with 10,666.
Bogdanovic's resonance with the fans stems from a combination if his tenure in Euroleague and his energetic personality. The 27th overall pick of the 2014 NBA Draft, Bogdanovic is known for his fierce celebrations following a key three-pointer or dunks. Those were on full display at the FIBA World Cup last summer, where he helped lead Serbia to a silver medal by averaging 12.0 points per game on 47-percent shooting.
Dragic, who could play alongside Bogdanovic in a Suns uniform at some point, understands why he was just one of two non-NBA players in the top nine of the voting results.
"He plays like three positions," Dragic said. "He can play point guard, two-guard, three-guard (small forward). For his position, he's a pretty decent size. He can shoot. He can dribble. It's really hard to guard him."
Meanwhile, Dragic scored 185 expert votes, the fourth-best total which coincided with his finish. The Slovenian also made his international mark at the FIBA World Cup as the team's leading scorer (16.0 ppg) and assist man (4.3 apg), leading them to the quarterfinals. Voters also took into account his winning the NBA Most Improved Player of the Year award for the 2013-14 season.
Dragic currently ranks second on the Suns in scoring (16.5), assists (4.1 apg) and fourth in shooting percentage (50.7 FG%).