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Turkish Airlines Flight Time Contest winner: Alen Smailagic, Partizan

The 2022-23 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season has provided many outstanding dunks and blocks with plenty of hangtime. In the 2022-23 Turkish Airlines Flight Time Contest, the fans were given the opportunity to choose which player flew highest, and they chose Alen Smailagic of Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade!

During Game 2 of Partizan's best-of-five playoff series against Real Madrid, Smailagic rolled off a pick to get the ball from Yam Madar far away from the basket. Seeing that Vincent Poirier would arrive late to contest his shot, Smailagic opted to dribble and attack from the wing. Real's Guerschon Yabusele came to help Poirier and double-team the Partizan center, but Smailagic had only one thing in mind: going for the dunk. He slammed in front of Yabusele and Poirier and swung from the rim to add even more flair to the play.

Smailagic got more than four times as votes in the contest than the second-place choice of the fans, Joel Bolomboy of Olympiacos, whose entry was an outstanding alley-oop slam against Real. Kostas Antetokounmpo of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul came in third place with a huge dunk in traffic against Zalgiris Kaunas.

Smailagic, 22, is the first-ever Turkish Airlines Flight Time Contest winner. In his first EuroLeague season, he averaged 5.4 points and 2.0 rebounds in less than 11 minutes per night. Congratulations, Alen!

Euroleague Basketball (EB) is a global leader in the sports and entertainment business, devoted to running the top European competitions of professional basketball clubs under a unique and innovative organizational model. Owned and administered by some of the most successful and historic clubs in the world, EB manages the continent’s two premier men’s basketball competitions, the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and the 7DAYS EuroCup, as well as the sport’s premier under-18 showcase, the EB Adidas Next Generation Tournament.

The EB competitions bring the elite of European basketball to all five continents and to the entire sports community through the OTT platform EuroLeague TV. EB also organizes a series of community and educational activities, led by the One Team program, in alignment with the United Nations Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. On the academic side, the EB Sports Business MBA trains future professionals in sports management.