By Stavros Barbarousis/ info@eurohoops.net
UNICS Kazan is adding one more marquee name to its roster with O.J.Mayo having a one-year deal with the Russian club.
While there’s no signed contract yet, that seems to be more a formality delayed by bureaucratic reasons.
UNICS was last season’s 7DAYS EuroCup runner-up, getting a ticket for the 2021-22 EuroLeague. The Kazan side has already signed another former NBA player, Mario Hezonja, who finished last season in Europe with Panathinaikos.
However, the addition of Mayo who spent the last three seasons in Puerto Rico, Taiwan, and China comes as a surprise.
The 3rd pick of the 2008 NBA draft will have the chance to return to a high level of competition and prove in his 33 years of age that he can still be an asset, especially for a team that according to the EuroLeague rules needs to make it to the playoffs and order to stay in the competition for the 2022-23 season.
Mayo has played for Memphis, Dallas, and the Milwaukee Bucks during his eight years in the NBA. On July 1, 2016, Mayo was dismissed from the NBA for a drug violation. He was eligible for reinstatement around the start of the 2018-19 NBA season.
Local Russian media “Business online” first reported that the two sides were near a deal.