The king of the stopper is called Edy Tavares. This Sunday, the Real Madrid center surpassed Fran Vázquez as the top blocker in the history of the Spanish basketball league: 739 blocks, one more than the Galician interior. The podium is completed by Fernando Romay (671) ahead of George Singleton (588) and Arvydas Sabonis (528), a quintet of giants.
Tavares raised the endless arms that extend his 2.20m height to first stop Doumbouya's shot in the white team's match against San Pablo Burgos at the Movistar Arena (90-79) and thus equal Vázquez's record, and then block Koprivica and reach first place in the standings alone. The match was then stopped and the Cape Verdean received a giant fly swatter as a tribute and posed on the court with his wife and two children, in addition to later taking the match ball. He had just written another page in the ACB encyclopedia and expanded, at 34 years of age, records as huge as his size.
The Cape Verde colossus recorded his first 122 blocks in the competition in three seasons with Gran Canaria and the rest, 617, have been signed with the white Madrid shirt that he has worn since 2017 until playing a total of 408 league games. That is, at an average of 1.81 blocks per game, a rate at which he surpasses his fellow travelers. From his 2.09m, Fran Vázquez reached 738 blocks in 656 games (1.12 per appointment) distributed between Unicaja, Gran Canaria, Girona, Barcelona, Tenerife and Zaragoza. Romay shook his 2.13m in 416 matches with Madrid, Ferrol and Zaragoza up to 1.61 caps per stake.
“I will remember this forever,” said Tavares after the meeting; "As I am shy, I felt embarrassed when the game stopped. I don't like the focus and I was shocked. I wanted that moment to end and continue playing," added the center, author of 42.5% of Madrid's blocks since his white debut in 2017. In this stretch, he has placed more hats than 12 entire ACB teams, one every 11 minutes on the court. “And to continue until I retire,” he promised.
"Edy is a brand, a wall that, due to its size, greatly affects the rival's game. It has improved over the years to the point of being decisive in both defense and attack," Fran Vázquez comments to this newspaper. The former international center explains the keys to the peculiar art of blocking: "The important thing is the moment, the jump, the timing. I have put many blocks but I have also changed the shot without putting them in. The opponent sees that there is a lock that changes the way he finishes. Against a tall player, he decides the moment. When the little one wants to penetrate, you give him a little more distance so that he trusts himself and believes that he can shoot and then reach with these long arms. It is also about intimidating with the threat of the plug.”
Tavares made his debut in the ACB on January 6, 2013 with Gran Canaria, then directed precisely by Pedro Martínez, his current coach in Madrid, against Unicaja, and placed his first blocks in the domestic competition on the following day, curiously during the visit to the white team that Pablo Laso was preparing. Winks of fate, Tavares' blocking debut in the ACB occurred with Pedro Martínez as coach and against Madrid, his coach and his club now. His best record in a match was the eight blocks against Zaragoza in November 2025 (Fran Vázquez had 12 with Barça against Valladolid in 2007 and Romay, nine with Madrid against Cajabilbao in 1986).
Tavares' blockbuster record adorns an extensive service record under the hoop. The Cape Verdean has been named the best defender in the ACB in the last six seasons and won the award for best shot in the Euroleague in 2019, 2021 and 2023. In the European competition he is also the top blocker (557) and all-time rebounder (2,202), and in the Spanish league he ranks eighth in catches (2,864), a list led by Felipe Reyes (4,725). In the Madrid of triples, the king of the block is Edy Tavares.
