Maroussi's final addition is Stephen Arigbabu

Maroussi Costa Coffee added height and experience to its frontline by signing center Stephen Arigbabu, who averaged 4.8 points and 3.3 boards last season with Olympia Athienitis Larissa. He played there for the past three seasons, coached by George Bartzokas, who is the new boss in Maroussi.

Before Larissa, Arigbabu (208, 37) spent three seasons with three other Greek teams, Papagou (1998-99), Panionios (1999-2000) and Dafni (2000-01). He has also played for Alba Berlin, Mitteldeutscher BC and Koln 99ers in his native Germany and Roseto Basket and Basket Livorno in Italy. Among the highlights in his long career are two German championships and one German Cup with Alba Berlin and the EuroCup Challenge with Mitteldeutscher BC. He also helped the German national team win the silver medal at the 2005 European Championships and the bronze medal at the 2002 World Championships.

source : euroleague.net

Imola added shooter Robert Vaden

Andrea Costa Imola Basket made a surprise signing by agreeing terms with the number 54 of the 2009 Draft, Robert Vaden (1.95-SG/SF) and they announced it via their official website.

Vaden will be undergoing tomorrow morning the routine medical examinations and tomorrow afternoon at 16:00, he will join his new team in practice. After that he will be announced to the press. Vaden is known for his ability to shoot behind the arc, which is mostly what won him a spot in the 2009 Draft. His rights were traded from Charlotte to Oklahoma City. In his last season with the UAB Blazers he averaged 17.6 points 4.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 34 games in the NCAA.

Kafkis and Tsiaras to stay in Paok

Panayotis Kafkis(1.95-PG) and Giorgos Tsiaras(2.07-SF/PF) who were suing their team for a breach of contract decided today to stay in the team with a smaller contract. The team of Paok came back to the players and offered them a smaller contract than they would originally receive. Panayotis Kafkis was going to earn 180,000 euros but he accepted a reduction of 70,000 euros so he will be playing in the next season for Paok for 110,000 euros.

Giorgos Tsiaras on the other hand had a bigger contract of 235,000 euros and he decided to accept a reduction of 90,000 euros leading to a contract of 135,000 euros. These can be considered internal transfers for Paok and it might also seem that there won't be any other transfers for their backcourt but they still need to complete their front line.

Kuqo out and Lishchuk in for Valencia

Ermal Kuqo(2.07-C) and Valencia decided to mutually terminate their contract and so Ermal Kuqo is now a free agent according to his agency's website. The Albanian center is on the lookout for another team and according to his agent there are already offers for him.

In his place, Valencia decided to sign Ukrainian center, Serhiy Lishchuk(2.10-C) who played for Azovmash last season. Lishchuk wasselected by the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies in the 2004 NBA Draft. On February 21st, 2008, his NBA draft rights were traded to the Houston Rockets in exchange for the draft rights to Malick Badiane. He is also a member of the National Team of Ukraine. He averaged 10.8 points 5.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 28 games of the Ukrainian Superleague playing for Azovmash.

Ducan Kecman returns to Partizan

Partizan and former player Dusan Kecman will reunite this season after the sides agreed to a one-year contract. Kecman (197, 31) comes from Panathinaikos, with whom he won the Euroleague title as well as the Greek League and Greek Cup last year. He averaged 2.1 points in fewer than nine minutes per game in a reserve role for the Greens, down from 10.9 points and 2 assists per for Partizan the previous season.

This will be Kecman’s third stint at Partizan. He wore the club’s black and white colors between 2002 and 2004 and again between 2006 and 2008. Kecman has also played for BC Kyiv in Ukraine, Telindus Oostende in Belgium, Efes Pilsen in Turkey, Makedonikos in Greece and FMP Zeleznik and Beopetrol in his native Serbia. Among his other career highlights are winning the Adriatic League twice and the Serbian League four times with Partizan. Kecman will join Partizan after representing Serbia at the EuroBasket Championships in Poland.

source : euroleague.net

The Rubio saga has almost come to an end..

Regal FC Barcelona have reached an agreement with DKV Joventut for the transfer of Ricky Rubio. The player and club have come to an agreement in principle for the player to join FCB.

After much negotiation, FC Barcelona and DKV Joventut have come to a deal for Ricky Rubio to swicth sides. The player has an agreement in principle with Regal Barça, which will be confirmed once he has passed his medical test and signed his contract.

source : fcbarcelona.com

Obradoiro announced Reyshawn Terry

Obradoiro announced the signing of forward Reyshawn Terry (2.03-SF/PF) via their official website. Terry started the previous season in the LegaA2 in Italy playing for Triboldi and later on he moved to Virtus Bologna. He was waived by the Dallas Mavericks after the pre-season games. Reyshawn Terry played for Aris Thessaloniki last season competing in both the Euroleague and the Greek A1 league.

He graduated from North Carolina and played pro for Aris Thessaloniki last season. After being selected with the 44th pick of the 2007 Draft, the forward was traded to Dallas for the rights to Milovan Rakovic (60th pick). He averaged 8.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 20.3 minutes in 19 Euroleague games. As a player of Triboldi he averaged 16.5 points 8.2 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in 8 games. In the LegaA1 he averaged 5.6 points and 3.7 rebounds in 17 games for Virtus.

Praskevicius to play in China

Virginijus Praškevičius(2.06-C) is going to play in China in the next season according to krepsinis.net. The lithuanian veteran who is currently 35 years old will try his luck in China and play for the Xinjiang Gyang Hui Flying Tigers. He will find another lithuanian there, head coach Rytis Vaišvila.

Praskevicius played for Siaulai last season in the Lithuanian League and also in the Baltic League. He averaged 13.2 points 6.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 18 games in the Baltic League and also 11.2 points 5.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 21 games in the Lithuanian League.

Kostas Papanikolaou will remain in Aris

As predicted, the media circus around the name of Kostas Papanikolaou(2.01-SF) is about to come to an end. The media in Greece were sure that Papanikolaou was going to be sold to Olympiakos to begin with and there was even a bold statement from one website that he had already been sold.. Almost a week later and Papanikolaou is still a player of Aris.

Media affiliated to Olympiakos are backtracking now, saying that the demands of Aris were too great (1.2 million euros) and so Panathinaikos is the team that is ahead in the game. The media that are affiliated to Panathinaikos are only speculating that the president of Aris will discuss this with the administration of Panathinaikos upon his next visit to Athens but they are saying that Aris is asking 1 million euros to release the player. They're also saying that Papanikolaou will stay in Aris unless the president of Aris changes his mind..

Athlitikanea.gr published today an extract of statements that the player's agent made in the newspaper "Thessaloniki" saying that there was official interest in the player from Caja Laboral, Real Madrid and Barcelona. When he was asked about Olympiakos and Panathinaikos he said that there was NO official interest from either of the teams.

Papanikolaou is expected to be excluded from the final roster of the National Team of Greece and Dimitris Tsaldaris(1.95-SG) is expected to be excluded as well. Both of them are rumored to be heading back to Aris and Tsaldaris might accept the offer that was made to him back in July.

Dejan Milojevic to end his career?

According to kosarka.rs, Dejan Milojevic(2.02-PF) might put an early end to his career. The serbian veteran that was going to play for Partizan Belgrade once again had another injury in his knee and this time it was too much for him to recover. Milojevic had been suffering from chronic knee pain that made his career take a downwards turn but he leaves an impressive story behind him.

Milojevic played for Galatasaray this past season and the 2 seasons before that he played for Valencia but he was unlucky as he lost a lot of games due to recurring knee injuries. His pro career started in FMP Zeleznik and then he moved on to Buducnost where he showed what he is really capable of. After that he moved on to Partizan, where he impressed the Euroleague crowds. In Turkey he averaged 7.8 points and 5.5 rebounds in 25 games.

CSKA parted ways with Alexey Savrasenko

Center Alexey Savrasenko and our club agreed to terminate the contract, active until the end of 2009-10 season.

Savrasenko joined CSKA after leaving Olympiakos in 2002 and from the time his name is tightly connected with all the red-blue successes. Being the player of our team Alexey won two Euroleague titles, six Russian championships and three Russian Cups. Also he won Eurobasket 2007 with Russian National Team. Savrasenko was rented to Spartak St. Petersburg during previous season.

Andrey Vatutin, CSKA President:

“With saying goodbye to Alexey after so many years of successful cooperation we are leaving some sadness in our hearts and we are truly grateful for all that Savrasenko done for CSKA. I am sure that Alexey will keep the best memories from his CSKA period of life. Our club decided to go on with young centers, but at the same time it is obvious that Savrasenko is still able to play on the highest level. He proved that in the Russian playoffs. But it would be unfair to make this honored player, one of the heroes of the Euroleague 2006 final game, to fight for the place in our rotation. But at the same time the contract was making it difficult to find the new team. I would like to say thank you to Alexey who took our point and understood the situation. I wish good luck to my friend and I wish him success in his pro career. No doubt that our fans will join me to say the words of appreciation.”

Alexey Savrasenko:

“I would like to thank CSKA management for the time with the team. Biggest thanks to all the fans who supported me in my difficult moments. I’d like to thank Sergey Kushchenko separately for bringing me to the team and giving me the chance to play and win for the Russian club.”

source : cskabasket.com

Abdul-Rauf is big in Japan!

Kyoto Hannaryz boosted their roster with addition of former NBA star. They landed Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (186-G-69, college: LSU). The 40-year-old pure shooter will lead the expansion team in their inaugural season in the BJ League. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf is inarguably the brightest star to appear in the Japanese league.

The guard was last seen in Al Ittihad Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Earlier Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf played for Aris in Greece, Roseto in Italy, Ural Great in Russia and Fenerbahce in Turkey. Abdul-Rauf had eight solid seasons in the NBA, where he donned the Nuggets, the Kings and the Grizzlies jerseys. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf averaged unbelievable 30.2 points per game in his junior year at LSU. The guard was named the All-America First Team that season. Later he earned the NBAs Most Improved Player award in 1992-93 season.

source : asia-basket.com