The cauldron of news about Keenan Evans has boiled over in Greece.
“Live Sport” portal reported that Piraeus Olympiakos has already reached an agreement with the Kaunas “Zalgiris” basketball player for him to play in Greece next season.
The Piraeus club itself soon released a statement that there was no agreement.
Meanwhile, another popular Greek portal SDNA writes that the negotiations lasted a month and mentions the amount.
According to SDNA, the bid for Olympiakos is 1.8 million. EUR per year remuneration – similar to what Istanbul Fenerbahce offered to the basketball player.
Photo by Erika Ovcharenko/BNS/Keenan Evans
This would be more than twice the salary paid to K.Evans by Kaunas “Žalgiris” this season.
It is written that 1.8 million EUR is not an exceptional amount for the Piraeus club, as it pays similarly to its most expensive players – both the Serbian Nikola Milutinov and Moustapha Fall are provided for under the new contract.
It is reminded that “Olympiakos” has already lost three players from “Žalgiris” Kaunas – Thomas Walkupas, Ignas Brazdeikis, Nazas Mitrou-Longas.
The new purchase would indicate that the millionaire Angelopoulos brothers who manage the club are willing to increase investments in the team.
According to SDNA, the acquisition of K.Evans would help Olympiakos to solve a systemic problem: the American plays well one-on-one, can create a shot himself, has a strong drive towards the basket and has the highest level of three-point shooting – 45 percent. this season in the Euroleague. In addition, K. Evans knows European basketball well, he has already adapted to play in the Old Continent.
Photo by Erika Ovcharenko/BNS/Keenan Evans
K. Evans, who moved from Tel Aviv “Maccabi” to Kaunas “Žalgiris” in the summer of 2022, was already the leader of the Lithuanian team last season, but half of the season was canceled by an Achilles tendon injury.
After recovering from his injury, the 27-year-old 190 cm tall American plays at a lower level – he scores 17.3 points in the EuroLeague and is fourth in the tournament in terms of performance. Only Mike James, Markus Howard and Wade Baldwin each have more points.
