Ty Lawson and Kolossos Rhodes nearing a deal / News - Basketnews.com

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Ty Lawson had agreed and signed with Greek club Kolossos Rhodes last January. An official announcement followed the deal. However, the American guard could not resolve some major issues with his visa in China and had to remain in Chinese territory for the months to follow.

Ty Lawson

Position:PGAge:33Height:180 cmWeight:89 kgBirth place:Clinton, United States of AmericaProfileNewsStatistics

Kolossos were forced to call off the deal and sign another player for the remainder of the season. "We were talking on the phone, and all of a sudden, the immigration officers stopped him," the team's GM Giorgos Gotzogiannis told BasketNews.com. "We exchanged contracts, he changed his ticket to Greece two times, but in the end, he couldn't fly over to Rhodes."

Nevertheless, Lawson, 33, eventually landed on Greek soil in the first week of May. He watched a Greek League playoff game between AEK and PAOK at OAKA, went sightseeing, practiced at a facility located in the northern suburbs of Athens, and even got to enjoy a bit of Athens by night, as the country was gradually coming out of the lockdown.

The former starting point guard of the Denver Nuggets, who first came to Europe to join Zalgiris Kaunas during the 2011 NBA lockout, has been living in Greece for more than two months now, and he did travel to Rhodes on July 6 to work out for Kolossos's coach Ilias Kantzouris. The two of them worked together in Kaunas, where Kantzouris was an assistant coach to Ilias Zouros.

While Gotzogiannis is trying to assemble the best team possible ahead of next season, which will again find Kolossos in the first division, Ty Lawson explores his options. The Maryland-born athlete received a lifetime ban from the Chinese Basketball Association in September 2020 because of some social media posts deemed inappropriate by the Fujian Sturgeons, his team at the time.

As of now, no final agreement has been reached between Kolossos and Lawson. "No deal yet. We are working out the details," Lawson told BasketNews.com upon request. "There are still some details to be discussed, but we're very close, and in the next 2 or 3 days, we hope that the issue will be over with," Gotzogiannis concurred. "It's not an easy case, although the financial part has been taken care of," he added.

The player has another offer on the table, but the Greek team seems confident that their roster will most likely include a former NBA star next year.

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