{"id":2702,"date":"2019-01-28T16:45:25","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T16:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/zimbabwe\/?p=2702"},"modified":"2019-01-28T16:45:25","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T16:45:25","slug":"zim-basketball-star-chikoko-named-player-of-the-month-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zim-basketball-star-chikoko-named-player-of-the-month-in-france","title":{"rendered":"Zim basketball star Chikoko named Player of the Month in France"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ZIMBABWE international basketball star Vitalis Chikoko has been named French National Basketball League (LNB) Pro A\u2019s Player of the Month for December following a run of good performances towards the end of last year.<\/p>\n<p>Chikoko, who has been enjoying a stellar season for French top-flight club \u00c9lan B\u00e9arnais Pau-Orthez, was announced the winner of the accolade beating two other nominees, Croatian Miro Bilan who plays for ASVEL and Frenchman Paul Lacombe of Monaco.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old polled 47% of the vote cast by French basketball fans beating Bilan (44%) while Lacombe received (9%) of the votes.<\/p>\n<p>Chikoko was instrumental in Elan B\u00e9arnais\u2019 impressive run of four straight wins in December, as he averaged 19 points and 5.5 rebounds and two assists per game.<\/p>\n<div class=\"rmthEs9e\">\n<div class=\"in-post-div\">\n<p>The former Prince Edward pupil also put up one of the most dominant individual performances of the season in the league against Le Mans on December 16 when he managed 24 points, 10 rebounds and three assists.<\/p>\n<p>Chikoko\u2019s latest recognition comes after he made history last month by becoming the first Zimbabwean player to feature in the prestigious LNB All-Star Game played at the Bercy Arena in Paris on December 29.<\/p>\n<p>The LNB All-Star Game is a high-profile basketball exhibition game hosted every year pitting a mix of the league\u2019s star players from France against a team of the best foreign players plying their trade in the league.<\/p>\n<p>The Zimbabwean basketball star who has had enjoyed an impressive debut appearance in the star-studded game ending the match with 19 points and 15 rebounds in a game his side won 153-147.<\/p>\n<p>Chikoko, who is contracted with \u00c9lan B\u00e9arnais Pau-Orthez until the end of the of 2022\/23 season, has previously expressed his desire to play in the NBA and will be hoping his recent fine run enhances his chances of finally making the big leap to the US.<\/p>\n<div class=\"in-post-div\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ZIMBABWE international basketball star Vitalis Chikoko has been named French National Basketball League (LNB) Pro A\u2019s Player of the Month for December following a run of good performances towards the end of last year. Chikoko, who has been enjoying a stellar season for French top-flight club \u00c9lan B\u00e9arnais Pau-Orthez, was announced the winner of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,16],"tags":[74,262],"class_list":{"0":"post-2702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-sport","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-sports-in-zimbawe"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Zim basketball star Chikoko named Player of the Month in France - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zim-basketball-star-chikoko-named-player-of-the-month-in-france\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Zim basketball star Chikoko named Player of the Month in France\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ZIMBABWE international basketball star Vitalis Chikoko has been named French National Basketball League (LNB) Pro A\u2019s Player of the Month for December following a run of good performances towards the end of last year. Chikoko, who has been enjoying a stellar season for French top-flight club \u00c9lan B\u00e9arnais Pau-Orthez, was announced the winner of the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zim-basketball-star-chikoko-named-player-of-the-month-in-france\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-28T16:45:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/14\/2019\/01\/Vitalis-Chikoko_2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"570\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zim-basketball-star-chikoko-named-player-of-the-month-in-france\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zim-basketball-star-chikoko-named-player-of-the-month-in-france\",\"name\":\"Zim basketball star Chikoko named Player of the Month in France - 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