Olimpia Milan officially signs Freddie Gillespie

Olimpia Milan has reached an agreement with Freddie Gillespie, 2.08 center, born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on June 14, 1997, coming from the New Zealand Breakers of the Australian league.

FREDDIE GILLESPIE – "I’m thrilled to come play for Olimpia Milan. There is a history of excellence here that I’m happy and excited to be a part of. I feel I’m ready to help this team achieve its goals for this season."

HIS CAREER – Raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, he attended the East Ridge High School there. In 2015, he began attending Carleton College, a Division III school. In his second year at Carleton, he scored 10.0 points per game, grabbed 8.3 rebounds per game, and averaged 2.6 blocks per game. In 2018, he began playing in Division One at Baylor University, at Waco, Texas. During the 2018/19 season, he averaged 5.3 points and 4.4 rebounds per game; during the 2019/20 season he increased his numbers to 9.6 points, 9.0 rebounds, 2.2 blocks per game. He was named the Big 12 conference’s most improved player and was named to the all-conference’s second team and all-defensive team. Undrafted in the 2020 NBA draft, he signed with Dallas but failed to make the team at the end of training camp. In 2020/21, he played for the Memphis Hustle of the G-League (10.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game) before making his NBA debut with Toronto. In 2021/22, he returned to the Memphis Hustle (11.4 points, 12.2 rebounds, 2.75 blocks per game, first overall in the league) except for a period spent at the Orlando Magic. In 2022/23 he signed for Bayern Munich, starting in 26 EuroLeague games and averaging 4.3 points and 6.0 rebounds per game in 18.9 minutes on the court. In the following season after 13 games, he moved from Bayern to Red Star Belgrade. During this season, he was with the New Zealand Breakers (6.9 points and 5.3 rebounds per game) of the NBL.

NOTES – Gillespie has appeared in 29 NBA games, 20 in Toronto and nine more in Orlando.