By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
As it was finally confirmed today by his agent Misko Raznatovic and as it was expected long time ago, Thomas Heurtel is the new member of Anadolu Efes. Heurtel will return to Vitoria at the start of Top16 but as an opponent of Laboral Kutxa.
The Spanish team already replaced him with Darius Adams. So the only detail about the deal which is still unkown is the buy out that Laboral Kutxa got. Despite many report, according to sources close to the situation Anadolu Efes will pay a sum around 300.000 US dollars to the Basques, a lot less than the rumored asking price by Laboral Kutxa. However given the fact that Heurtel will became a free agent in the summer, selling him now was the only way for his previous club to get something in exchange for him.
Heurtel made on Monday his first quotes as a player of Anadolu Efes about his strange Euroleague debut vs his ex-team Laboral! “We will start the Top-16 race with the road game vs Laboral! This will be an interesting case for me. I will play my first game against my old team and for sure it will be a tough match. We need to reach the maximum number of wins we can, so we have to make a good start in this tough group”.