Recently Zalgiris secured the services of the point guard Mantas Kalnietis by signing a new 3-year contract but the good news might be overshadowed by the loss of the club’s starting center. According to the club’s website, the agents of Mirza Begic sent a notice to Zalgiris by which the contract between the club and the player is unilaterally terminated.
The agents claim that Zalgiris hasn’t paid the fees to them and therefore breached the contract. When contacted by the club the agents were not wiling to discuss the matter and said that their position has been presented in the notice. Zalgiris was unable to reach Mirza Begic since his phone was turned off.
Begic himself has no complaints to the club but it seems that he was told by his agents to sign the document. Zalgiris has already contacted FIBA regarding the issue. However, that hasn’t solved the problem since FIBA’s court is on holiday until January 11, 2011.
It is the second season for Begic in Zalgiris. The player signed a 2+1-year contract in the summer of 2009. Zalgiris will have the option to extend the contract after this season is over.
The first season for Begic in Kaunas has been disappointing as the player arrived in a very poor physical condition because of which he was unable to spend more than few minutes on the court without getting some rest. Zalgiris was seriously concerned with their new player but the agents of Mirza Begic convinced the club that their client needs more time to adapt.
In order to avoid the same problem this season joined the club’s training camp early and worked hard to improve his shape. The results are obvious this season as Begic became the starting center of Zalgiris and also one of the better centers in Euroleague. There were some rumours that the players is attracting the interest of some of the top European clubs. It’s possible that the agents have already found a significantly better contract for their client at another club and because of that they want to terminate Begic’s current deal with Zalgiris.
It is worth mentioning that the deadline of registering new players for Euroleague Top 16 is January 18.
Zalgiris is prepared to start looking for a new center in case they can’t keep Begic in the team.
