Russian powerhouse CSKA Moscow has locked up long-term another one of its key players, announcing Friday morning the extension of its contract with All-Euroleague forward Sonny Weems by two more years.
Accordingly, the sides will remain together through the summer of 2017. Weems (1.98 meters), who turns 28 next week, has spent the past two seasons with CSKA, helping the team to a pair of Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four appearances, and VTB titles. He also transformed from a scoring forward into an all-round player who, in addition to his team-best 12.2 points, also posted career highs of 3.7 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game. He raised his game as the season progressed, raising his scoring average to 15.4 points in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Playoffs. Weems almost singlehandedly authored one of the great comebacks this season with 10 points in the last 3 minutes of the fourth quarter to help CSKA force overtime and eventually beat Panathinaikos Athens in a memorable opening game in the playoffs. Weems was then voted by media and fans to the All-Euroleague First Team.
“Sonny is a very good player with a quality experience performances in CSKA and overseas,” said Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach. “He has matured and really feels comfortable in European basketball. What is important is that he really likes to play for CSKA. He is a winner by nature, and from our conversation I realized that Weems is still hungry for titles. I am happy that he stays with us.”
“I really like Moscow, where I have many friends and great teammates,” explained Weems, who also played with Denver and Toronto in the NBA, and Colorado of the NBA Development League, before coming to Europe and making his Euroleague debut with Zalgiris in 2011-12 season. “I still feel a responsibility, an obligation to win the Euroleague for CSKA. I am sure we will be strong enough and confident in ourselves to climb to the top.”
