Olympiakos adds three new faces to club’s roster
Olympiakos basketball club, the runner-up in Greece last season, announced the acquisition of three new players yesterday – Lawrence Roberts from the NBA club Memphis Grizzlies, Greek forward-center Loukas Mavrokefalidis from Roma and Costas Vassiliadis from Malaga – the Piraeus team announced. Also yesterday, Lazaros Papadopoulos, a pivotal member of the Greek team that won the European title in Belgrade two summers ago and silver at the Worlds in Japan last summer, has transferred to Real Madrid from Dynamo Moscow on a three-year deal. The move, widely anticipated for a while, was announced yesterday. Reports said Papadopoulos’s contract includes a hefty buyout clause for European clubs. The 27-year-old Papadopoulos is the first signing announced by Real Madrid for the new season. The Spanish club, a former giant in European basketball looking to hit the very top again, is expected to announce further acquisitions in coming days. Last season, Real Madrid won both the domestic league title and the ULEB Cup, a second-tier European club-level competition. The 24-year-old Roberts from the NBA spent the past two seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies, averaging 5.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 0.6 assists in 54 games last season. Mavrokefalidis, who turns 23 later this month, moves to Olympiakos on a three-year deal after having spent the previous season at two clubs, Valencia and Roma. Mavrokefalidis averaged 7.2 points per game in 18 games with the Italian club in domestic competition and 5.9 points in 14 Euroleague games. «I’ll be reuniting with old teammates and coaching staff members, and I hope we finish off what we left half-done at PAOK,» said Mavrokefalidis. Vassiliadis, a 23-year-old guard, averaged 6.8 points with Malaga in 32 Spanish league games last season, as well as 6.3 points in 21 Euroleague games.
