Basket rumors

Olimpia Milano has agreed on a 2-year deal with Kyle Hines, born in Sicklerville, New Jersey, on September 2, 1986, 1.98 mt. tall, power forward and center, coming from seven seasons at CSKA Moscow. “I want to thank Mr. Armani and Mr. Dell’Orco, for allowing me to join Olimpia Milano. I’m excited about the opportunity to join such a historical team and look forward to helping to add to the past success of the club. My family and I can’t wait to make Milan our new home and start this new journey with all the Olimpia Milano fans,” Hines said. “We are bringing to Milan a player with great personality, a team-player first with a winning mentality – Olimpia’s general manager Christos Stavropoulos says – I’m personally happy because after so many years we are back to be part of the same team, with the same enthusiasm and willingness to emerge.”

HIS CAREER – Kyle Hines played one year at the Camden Catholic High School in New Jersey and then for the next three years at the Timber Creek Regional High School. In his senior year, he was named in the second All-State team and became the school’s all-time leading scorer. In 2004 he landed at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, where in 2005 he was named Southern Conference’s freshman of the year and as a junior he was voted Southern Conference Player of the Year (he averaged 20.9 points, 9.0 rebounds per game). As a senior he averaged 19.2 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. During his last three college years, he was always named on the All-Southern 1^st team. His professional career began in Italy in Veroli where he won the Legadue Italian Cup for two consecutive seasons (16.9 points and 8.6 rebounds on average during the first year, 18.5 points and 8.1 rebounds during the second). In 2010, he moved to Bamberg where he won the Super Cup, the German Cup, the league championship and was the playoff MVP (he averaged 12.9 points and 5.4 rebounds in his EuroLeague rookie season). In 2011 he arrived at Olympiacos Piraeus where in two years he won the EuroLeague title twice and the Greek championship in 2012. During the first EuroLeague run he averaged 9.9 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, during the second he had 9.4 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. In 2013 he signed for CSKA Moscow where he won the EuroLeague two more times, in 2016 and 2019, in addition to winning six VTB League championships. In 2016 (when he scored 10.9 points per game) and in 2018 he was named Defender of the year in the EuroLeague. During the last season he had 8.8 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. For his career he is shooting 61.6 percent from two-point range.

NOTES – During his college career, he had a streak of 37 consecutive games with at least one blocked shot. Among his teammates he had Ricky Hickman (he played for Olimpia in the 2016/17 season). He is one of six NCAA players in history to have had at least 2.000 points, 1.000 rebounds and 300 blocked shots for their careers. He was named on the All-EuroLeague team of the last decade. He is the first American in the list of appearances in the EuroLeague, has a nine-year streak of Final Four appearances, from 2012 to 2019. He is the second EuroLeague all-time offensive rebounder, he is also sixth overall in rebounds, third for blocked shots, fifth in two-point baskets scored. At CSKA he played along Vlado Micov (2013/14), Sergio Rodriguez (2017-2019) and was coached by Ettore Messina (2013/14), his general manager at Olympiacos Piraeus was Christos Stavropoulos.