Interesting – and yet, it should have been expected in hindsight – comes the news out of Toronto that the Raptors have extended a four-year $20 million offer sheet to Olympiacos’ Linas Kleiza.
Since Kleiza has reportedly also signed the offer sheet, his former NBA team the Denver Nuggets have a week to match the offer.
With Chris Bosh going to the Miami Heat and Hedo Turkoglu also wanting out, not only do the Raptors have money to play with and open spots at forward, but hey, Kleiza’s a European and Toronto loves them European ballers!
In his first-ever professional season in Europe, Kleiza was named to the All-Euroleague first team and All-Greek League (EΣAKE) first team, finishing third in MVP balloting there.
And now to the YouTube…
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Tags: Chris Bosh, Denver Nuggets, Euroleague, EΣAKE, Greece, Hedo Turkoglu, Linas Kleiza, NBA, Olympiacos, Toronto Raptors, YouTube
I assure you that Linas Kleiza was not the MVP of the Greek League. Your information is wrong there. Linas Kleiza was NOT the MVP of the Greek League.
The voting results of the Greek League MVP award:
1. Michael Batiste (Panathinaikos)
2. Kostas Kaimakoglou (Maroussi)
3. Linas Kleiza (Olympiacos)
4. Nikola Pekovic (Panathinaikos)
5. Josh Childress (Olympiacos)
6. Drew Nicholas (Panathinaikos)
7. Dimitris Diamantidis (Panathinaikos)
8. Vassilis Spanoulis (Panathinaikos)
http://www.talkbasket.net/news/batiste-2009-10-greek-a1-mvp-3143.html
If you want an official confirmation you can look at this (it’s in Greek though).
http://esake.gr/article/14106
Τα αποτελέσματα της ψηφοφορίας:
Μάικ Μπατίστ (Παναθηναϊκός) 57
Κώστας Καϊμακόγλου (Μαρούσι) 34
Λίνας Κλέιζα (Ολυμπιακός) 30
Νίκολα Πέκοβιτς (Παναθηναϊκός) 21
Τζος Τσίλντρες (Ολυμπιακός) 20
Ντρου Νίκολας (Παναθηναϊκός) 16
Δημήτρης Διαμαντίδης (Παναθηναϊκός) 13
Βασίλης Σπανούλης (Παναθηναϊκός) 11
Λανς Χάρις (Κολοσσός Ρ.) 7
Μπίλι Κις (Μαρούσι) 7
Ρόντρικ Μπλάκνεϊ (Πανελλήνιος) 4
Μίλος Τεόντοσιτς (Ολυμπιακός) 4
Τζέιμι Άρνολντ (Περιστέρι) 3
Ντέβιν Σμιθ (Πανελλήνιος) 3
Ίαν Βουγιούκας (Πανελλήνιος) 2
Γιάννης Μπουρούσης (Ολυμπιακός) 1
Μάικ Μπατίστ = Mike Batiste
Λίνας Κλέιζα = Linas Kleiza
As you can see, Kleiza was third with 30 votes, behind Kostas Kaimakoglou (34) votes and Mike Batiste (57 votes).
[...] BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site » Toronto Raptors make $20 million play for Linas K… – In his first-ever professional season in Europe, Kleiza was named to the All-Euroleague first team and was Greek League (EΣAKE) MVP. [...]
@ Michael: Thanks for the info. (oops.) Correction made.
[...] is on the horizon. There aren't enough minutes for Kleiza, Turkoglu and Sonny Weems. …Toronto Raptors make $20 million play for Linas KleizaBallinEurope (blog)Kleiza offer sheet latest example of Colangelo and Raptors' flawed [...]
[...] Meanwhile, up there in the Great White North, the Toronto Sun surmises that the “The Denver Nuggets, who retain [Linas] Kleiza’s rights, aren’t expected to match the offer after using their mid-level exception to acquire Al Harrington.” (BiE’s thinking that the Euraptors might’ve gotten the better end of that machination – at least until playoff time.) Kleiza is to be getting a four-year, $20 million contract from Toronto. [...]