This is huge. Shavon Shields is the first player ever to earn a spot in the Italian league championship series in each of his first six seasons in the league. He earned a berth to the finals in Trento in 2017 and 2018 and again has done the same in Milan in 2021, 2022, 2023 and now 2024. The Lithuanian Ksystof Lavrinovic played five consecutive Italian league finals with Siena between 2007 and 2012. He returned to Reggio Emilia in 2014 but left the team before having the opportunity to be part of another championship series trip. Dino Meneghin, Mike D’Antoni and Roberto Premier played a record-eight straight finals but not in their first six seasons in the league. Tomas Ress has played seven with Siena. Franco Boselli and Vittorio Gallinari with Olimpia; Shaun Stonerook and Rimas Kaukenas with Siena played six in six seasons. Shields record in the Italian league playoffs is 14-3.

SHIELDS IN THE FINALS – Shavon Shields has played 29 finals games, the sixt-best overall but second-best among foreign players only behind Rimas Kaukenas (34). Tomas Ress with 45 is at the top of the list. Among scorers, with 437 he is third overall, just four points shy of Kaukenas himself. Here the current leader is virtually unreachable: Carlton Myers has scored 604 points in finals games. Finally, Shields is first all-time in two-pointers with 130.

SHIELDS Vs VIRTUS – Shields has played 27 times against Virtus Bologna, his most frequent opponent in the league. He played Virtus twice with Trento and the other 25 times with Olimpia, including Super Cup and EuroLeague games. He averages 15.7 points and 4.2 rebounds per game on 53.3 percent two-point shooting and 40.5 percent from three. Six times he has scored twenty or more points including a 35-point outing during the 2020-21 regular season. The 35 points are his career high in the Italian league.