Cedi Osman: “Easy Choice” To Sign With Panathinaikos

Turkish forward Cedi Osman, who has spent the past seven seasons in the NBA (six with Cleveland, one with San Antonio), said it wasn’t a difficult decision to sign a one-year contract with defending EuroLeague champion Panathinaikos, per Eurohoops.

“It was a long process, but, obviously, it was an easy choice for me,” Osman said of joining the Greek club. “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.”

According to Osman, “a couple” of NBA teams expressed interest in his services during free agency. Eurohoops previously reported that the Lakers offered Osman a training camp deal, and it’s not surprising he declined — it likely would have been non-guaranteed, and L.A. already has 15 players on standard guaranteed contracts.

“At the end of the day, I had to keep going,” Osman said. “I came to a team with seven EuroLeague titles, that has won the EuroLeague and Greek league championships last year.”

Osman, 29, averaged 6.8 PPG, 2.5 RPG and 1.7 APG on .479/.389/.673 shooting in 72 games with the Spurs last season (17.6 MPG). He holds career averages of 9.3 PPG, 3.0 RPG and 2.0 APG on .432/.357/.711 shooting over 476 regular season contests, including 186 starts (22.7 MPG).

Panathinaikos big man Matthias Lessort, who helped France claim a silver medal at the Olympics, said he was excited to have Osman on the roster. Lessort’s draft rights are controlled by the Knicks.

“Cedi Osman is a great player; he can create and shoot, contribute defensively, and of course, having a player of that caliber is very good for the team,” Lessort told Vuk-Milos Petrovic of Basketball Sphere. “Panathinaikos is a great team, and I hope he comes ready to impose himself and help.”