By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
The latest newcomer for the defending champion of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, Panathinaikos Aktor, Cedi Osman arrived in Athens on Sunday.
“It was a long process, but, obviously, it was an easy choice for me,” he talked about his agreement with the Greens, “I have known Panathinaikos for a lot of years. I played against them as a kid. And Ergin [Ataman] was my coach since I was a kid. There were links with other teams, but it was not a really hard choice for me.”
Real Madrid was initially rumored as a potential destination for the Turkish small forward. After considering his options to extend his NBA career and rejecting an offer to join the training camp of the Los Angeles Lakers, he ended up inking a one-year contract with the storied club based in Athens.
“There was a couple of teams that we were talking,” Osman commented on interest from NBA teams, “At the end of the day, I had to keep going. I came to a team with seven EuroLeague titles, that has won the EuroLeague and Greek league championships last year.”
“We will go for the back-to-back”
Osman, 29, joined Kostas Antetokounmpo, Lorenzo Brown, Jerian Grant, Marius Grigonis, Juancho Hernangomez, Panagiotis Kalaitzakis, Mathias Lessort, Konstantinos Mitoglou, Dimitris Moraitis, Kendrick Nunn, Ioannis Papapetrou, Kostas Sloukas, and Omer Yurtseven on the team coached by Ataman.
“That is why I am here,” he replied about looking to help the Greens retain the EuroLeague championship, “We have a great team. They did an amazing job last year. But this year, I believe the league is even harder. A lot of great teams with a lot of great transfers. But, obviously, we are the best. We will go for the back-to-back.”
After spending the last ten days in Slovenia, the training camp of Panathinaikos continues in Athens, before a trip to Cyprus for friendly matchups against FC Bayern Munich on September 15 and Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv on September 16.