Crvena Zvezda signs Gal Mekel

Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade continued to build its roster by announcing on Thursday that scoring guard Gal Mekel has joined the team for the upcoming Turkish Airlines Euroleague season. Mekel (1.92 meters, 27 years old) averaged 11.7 points and 4.7 assists in under 21 minutes over six Euroleague games last season with Nizhny Novgorod. Although he scored his first points in the competition last season, he had briefly debuted in the Euroleague back in 2009 with Maccabi Tel Aviv of his native Israel. He spent most of four seasons with two more Israeli team, Galil Gilboa and Maccabi Haifa, interrupted by one with Benetton Treviso of Italy. He then jumped to the NBA, appearing in 31 games during the 2013-14 season with Dallas and 4 last season with New Orleans before moving in midseason to Russia with Nizhny, with whom he also averaged 8.5 points in 17 domestic games.