FRA - Gelabale, Mejia take top honors in France

PARIS (LNB) - ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne's Mickael Gelabale and Cholet's Sammy Mejia have been honored as the French top flight's best players for the 2010-11 campaign.

At an awards ceremony in Paris on Saturday night, Gelabale, a France international, scooped the gong as the French Pro Most Valuable Player while Mejia was named as the league's top foreign player.

While Gelabale is going to play for France later this summer at the EuroBasket in Lithuania, Mejia could be selected to play for John Calipari's Dominican Republic at the FIBA Americas Championship.

France international Yannick Bokolo of Gravelines Dunkerque was second to Gelabale in the MVP voting.

"This is a first for me," said Gelabale, who joined ASVEL from Cholet last summer.

"I'm really happy. Thank you to everyone and my girlfriend."

Philip Da Silva of ALM Evreux was named the Pro B's MVP and JSF Nanterre's Nate Carter was the top foreigner.

Erman Kunter of Cholet was named as the Pro A Coach of the Year.

Kunter and Mejia led the team to a first place finish in the LNB regular season.

Nanterre boss Pascal Donnadieu was honored as the Pro B Coach of the Year.

FIBA