The driving force of the Slovenian national team gave an excellent performance at EuroBasket this year, where Slovenia finished at fifth place. The player from Ljubljana was also voted among the top five players of EuroBasket. The 27-year-old game organizer is also playing outstandingly well in the NBA for Phoenix Suns.

This year is all about the basketball players who excelled at the European Championship.

The other candidates besides Dragić are the MVP of the tournament and player of San Antonio Spurs Tony Parker, who is also the most likely to win, the Euroleague MVP and Olympiacos player Vassilis Spanoulis from Greece, the outstanding Khimki point guard Petteri Koponen from Finland, the Orlando Magic center from Montenegro Nikola Vučević, the CSKA center Nenad Krstić, the Lithuanian and Lokomotiv-Kuban game organizer Mantas Kalnietis, the center of the Spanish national team and of Memphis Grizzlies Marc Gasol, the Italian forward of Detroit Pistons Luigi Datome and the Croat Fenerbahče player Bojan Bogdanović.

Last year the award went to Andrej Kirilenko, the best also in 2007, while in 2005 and 2011 the award went to Dirk Nowitzki, in 2006 to Theo Papaloukas, and in the years 2008 and 2009 to Pau Gasol. Three years ago it was awarded to Miloš Teodosić.