Keenan Evans will return to Israel at the start of the season – but this time not as a player of a local team. After two years in the Premier League, one at Hapoel Haifa and one at Maccabi Tel Aviv, the 25-year-old Evans is already preparing for the challenges that await him at Zalgiris Kaunas, with whom he will join Eliyahu in the first round of the Euroleague season.
In an interview with the team’s official website, Evans hinted at the circumstances that led him to leave Maccabi Tel Aviv after only one season, even though the parties had an option to continue the contract for another season.
“From the first moment it was clear to me that my decision about the team I will play for next season will be based on the role that will be assigned to me in the team,” said Evans, who is planned to be the leading Lithuanian coordinator, perhaps contrary to what awaited him. “I was looking for a place where I could continue to improve my game, bring myself to a new level and make a mark. I know that in Zalgiris I will have the opportunity to do that.”
Evans has revealed that the person who recommended him to accept the offer from Zalgiris is the new player of Hapoel Jerusalem, Speedy Smith, who starred last season in the uniform of arch-rival Ritas Vilna.
Evans also talked about the volatile season he experienced at Maccabi Tel Aviv. “I got everything I wanted from this experience, and even more than that. The team and I got to one of the lowest points that can be at a certain point, but then it changed and we took the highest there is. We lost something like eight or nine games in a row, and then we had two streaks of “Six wins. It was fun to get to the Euroleague playoffs and experience the atmosphere in games like that. I look forward to feeling it again next season.”
* Another Maccabi Tel Aviv player last season, Derek Williams, has found a new team. According to reports across the continent, the forward has signed with Panathinaikos and will join the emerging team of Diane Radonic, who, like Maccabi Tel Aviv, is undergoing reconstruction. He will join another former Maccabi Tel Aviv player, Knight Walters.