Panathinaikos have agreed a new deal with forward Stephane Lasme that will keep him at the club until 2015.

The new deal comes as a huge relief to all involved with the Greek champions as last season’s Euroleague Defender of the Year was widely rumoured to be joining CSKA Moscow. A couple of media outlets had already stated that Lasme had completed his move to the Russian capital.

However, it wasn’t to be as the forward, a native of Gabon inked a two-year deal with the purpose to further build on Panathinaikos’ rather unexpected success of last season, as they reached the Euroleague quarter-finals and came within a whisker of defeating Barcelona, but eventually lost the series in five games.

The Greens however did recapture the Greek A1 title, by beating bitter rivals Olympiacos and they won the Greek Cup earlier in the year in a game that was marred by crowd trouble.

Lasme’s personal performances certainly impressed the Panathinaikos coaches and fans alike; he was second in blocked shots and tied for fourth in rebounding as the Athens side allowed just 69.8 points per game, the second fewest of any side in the Euroleague.

Before moving to Athens last season, Lasme had previous Euroleague experience with Partizan Belgrade and Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv.