By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
Stephan Lasme was thinking about his future in Athens, until CSKA Moscow entered the picture. The Euroleague defensive player of the year is rumored to have been offered 2,5 million euros for two seasons, an incredible raise compared to the 375.000 dollars he was paid this year by Panathinaikos and the Greens are not going to match those numbers. The initial offer of Panathinaikos was a respectable 1,8 million dollars for two seasons and at the time it seemed enough to seal the deal. The last offer was 2,4 million dollars.
The negotiations have broke down, Lasme is expected to sign in Moscow and the new hot name for the Greeks is Roma’s Gani Lawal. There is also interest for Alex Tyus by Panathinaikos, but Lawal after his great finals series in Italy has already received an offer.
That doesn’t mean that Lawal will end up wearing Green. The player is also being offered to Olympiacos, Maccabi Tel Aviv is interested on him and also teams from Turkey are following his case. At this point the bottom line is that Lasme is about to sign with CSKA and that creates a domino which will affect the plans of many teams.