By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
After the big summer of 2011, EA7 Emporio Armani is still in style. The Italians have money to spend and they did by adding former Maccabi Tel Aviv star Keith Langford to their roster and also role player David Chiotti. Langford will be reunited in Milan with his Maccabi teammate Richard Hendrix, but nobody knows yet if Malik Hairston will also remain in the roster.
The former Siena and San Antonio Spurs player is rumored to be the target of CSKA Moscow who already signed Vladimir Micov from Cantu. It will not be a quiet summer for the Russians, specially if Andrei Kirilenko and Nenad Krstic return to the NBA, as their new coach Ettore Messina said in a recent interview to “Gazzetta Dello Sport”.
In Belgrade, Partizan announced the addition of 19 years old French guard Leo Westermann who left ASVEL basket in order to work under the guidance of coach Dusko Vujosevic. One other big name coach from the old “Plavi” school, Bozidar Maljkovic returned to Euroleague as the head coach of Cedevita Zagreb. Maljkovic was the hottest name in Europe 20 years ago, having won the Euroleague four times, two with the miracle team of Jugoplastika Split, one with Limoges and in 1996 with Panathinaikos. Last but not least, Janis Blums left after four seasons Bilbao and returned to his old team, Lietuvos Rytas.