JALEN Green was named Most Valuable Player of the Fiba Under-17 Basketball World Cup following the United States’ conquest of France in the gold medal match.
The Fil-American sensation had 11 points and two rebounds as United States beat France, 95-52, on Sunday (Monday Manila time) to claim the gold in the tournament.
Green, who played in the NBTC last summer for FilAm Sports, averaged 15.7 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.4 steals and was joined in the All-Star Five by USA teammate Vernon Carey Jr., Killian Hayes of France, Andre Curbelo of Puerto Rico and Oumar Ballo of Mali.
Green had 27 points in the USA’s win over Croatia in the quarterfinals. The scoring output was the second-most for the US in the tournament, behind now-NBA player Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who had 30 points in the 2010 semifinals against Canada.
“One thing that Jalen has done a tremendous job of is he has bought into what we’re trying to do with USA Basketball. His defense has improved tremendously in the past year. He's extremely athletic, as everybody can tell, but he’s worked on the finer points of his game, so he's much more of a complete player than he was last year,” said USA coach Don Showalter in an interview with Fiba.com.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
