Olimpia Milano signs Kevin Punter
Punter inks a one-year deal
Olimpia Milan has reached a deal with Kevin Punter, who was born in New York, on June 25, 1993, and is coming from Red Star Belgrade. He’s a 1.93 mt shooting guard. "I’m ecstatic, I can’t wait to come to Milan and start working to try to do something special in my return to Italy," Punter said. "Kevin is a young player who is constantly improving, with the necessary experience to help Olimpia: we are happy to have him with us," Olimpia’s general manager Christos Stavropoulos said.
HIS CAREER – Born and raised in the Bronx, in New York, he attended the Salesian High School in New Rochelle. In 2011 he moved to the Body of Christ Academy in Raleigh, North Carolina where he averaged 24.2 points per game. From 2012 to 2014 he played at the State Fair Community College in Missouri (20.3 points per game in his second year) and finally played from 2014 to 2016 at Tennessee. In his first season he averaged 10.3 points per game, in the second he exploded to 22.2 points per game, made 36.9% of his three-point attempts, 81.7% of his free throws and dished 3.5 assists per game. He was included in the second All-SEC team and was the conference second-best scorer. In 2016, he made his professional debut in Greece, playing for Lavrio and then ended the season in Antwerp in Belgium. In 2017, he played for Rosa Radom in Poland. In February of 2018 he moved to AEK Athens where he won the Greek Cup and the Fiba BCL (15.3 points per game, while converting 41.9% of his threes). The following season he played at Virtus Bologna and again won the Fiba BCL, winnin the Final Four MVP award (he had 26 points and seven rebounds in the championship game against Tenerife). In 2019, he played for Olympiacos Piraeus until December, making his EuroLeague debut, and then finished the season at Red Star Belgrade. In 12 games with the team he averaged 15.9 points per game, made 48.1% of his threes and 89.4% of his free throws, with an open streak of nine consecutive double-digit games, including the 24 points that he scored against Alba Berlin and Panathinaikos Athens.
NOTES – He averaged 19.3 points per game in the Polish game, playing for Rosa Radom. He appeared in 29 Italian games in 2018/19, averaging 14.2 points per game.