AEK Athens: Done deal with Pappas, Colom and Harris around the corner / News - Basketnews.com

Credit:

Coach Stefanos Dedas seems eager to assemble the new roster of BCL powerhouse AEK Athens as quickly and effectively as possible, after assuming the leadership duties about 20 days ago.

Manny Harris

Position:SGAge:31Height:196 cmWeight:83 kgBirth place:Detroit, United States of AmericaProfileNewsStatistics

To begin with, Nikos Pappas can already be considered a player of AEK. The 31-year-old Greek has a verbal agreement with the club's owner Makis Angelopoulos and will return to his homeland after a very brief stint with Hapoel Jerusalem, which included one and only Basketball Champions League game against champs San Pablo Burgos, and a two-week run with Polish club Stelmet Zielona Gora.

On 5 March, Pappas suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon and missed the rest of the season. That was the third grave injury for him, with an estimated time of recovery being five months. The agreement between the player and AEK Athens is for 1+1 years as Pappas has almost completed his recovery.

However, Pappas could have been just the "appetizer" for what was about to follow. AEK management has been in constant contact and a step away from finalizing the agreement with Spanish point guard Quino Colom. Dedas had worked with Colom at Bahcesehir in Turkey, where the former player of Valencia Basket and Baskonia averaged 15.6 points, 6 assists, and 3.1 rebounds during the 2018-19 season.

Furthermore, the "Queen" has turned to a familiar face in Manny Harris, the US guard-forward who won with the Athenian club the Greek Cup and the Basketball Champions League in 2018. Harris also worked with coach Dedas (and Quino Colom) at Bahcesehir, had some workouts with EuroLeague teams - like Olympiacos Piraeus - two years ago, but the deals never materialized. Up next for AEK in the transfer market could be the Greek point guard Antonis Koniaris, who last played for Ionikos and Olympiacos, as well as Giorgos Bogris, who is coming off an uneventful second stint at Tenerife.For all those deals to take effect and be officially announced, AEK Athens must first come to an agreement with FIBA in order to get their 12 bans lifted.

Thank you for reading us! We have even more content for you.