Panathinaikos lands Ioannis Bourousis

One of the best big men in continental basketball has switched Turkish Airlines EuroLeague teams, as Panathinaikos Athens announced the arrival of center Ioannis Bourousis, who inked a two-year deal with the Greens on Tuesday. Bourousis (2.12 meters, 32 years old) comes off a career-best season with Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz, in which he averaged 14.5 points and a competition-best 8.7 rebounds in 29 EuroLeague games last season, after which he was chosen to the All-EuroLeague First Team for the second time in his career. He led Laboral to its first Final Four appearance since 2008, sweeping Panathinaikos in the playoffs. Bourousis was also chosen as EuroLeague MVP for March, averaging 18.4 points, 9.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.3 steals in five games that month. He joined Laboral from from Real Madrid, which he helped win the EuroLeague title in the 2014-15 season. On the way to that EuroLeague title, the big man averaged 5.0 points and 3.3 rebounds. Bourousis brings 14 years of EuroLeague experience with five different clubs – AEK Athens and Olympiacos Piraeus of his native Greece, EA7 Emporio Armani Milan of Italy, Madrid and Laboral of Spain. He also played for another Spanish team, FC Barcelona. Bourousis earned All-EuroLeague first team honors with Olympiacos in the 2008-09 season. He won the Spanish League title with Madrid in 2015 and lifted back-to-back Spanish Copa del Rey trophies in 2014 and 2015. Bourousis also won a Greek League title with AEK in 2002 and consecutive Greek Cup crowns with Olympiacos in 2010 and 2011. Bourousis is the second-best rebounder in EuroLeague history (1,444), also ranking fifth in performance index rating (2,922), 16th in scoring (2,149 points), second in blocks (176) and seventh in games played (251). An accomplished player with the Greek national team, Bourousis collected a EuroBasket gold medal in 2005 and a bronze in 2009.