Lukša Andrić kicked off Cedevita team
Adriatic league team KK Cedevita Zagreb, from Croatia, has kicked Lukša Andrić off the team after he refused a proposal to lower his salary.
Cedevita started this season with very big ambitions. They were favorites to win the Adriatic league, had the biggest budget of all teams in former Yugoslavia, and hoped to play a major role in the Euroleague as well.
But, the results have been very disappointing so far. The club didn’t qualify for the top-16 of the Euroleague and is only in 7th place of the Adriatic league with a 9-8 record. In the last round Cedevita took a real beating in Belgrade from Red Star that won the game with 90-65, and in the round before that Cedevita suffered a shocking defeat at home against outsider KK Split by 70-75.
Cedevita reacted by handing out fines to the players and coaches, and three players were even notified that their salaries would be lowered; Marko Tomas, Lukša Andrić and Marin Baždarić.
Croatian national team player Lukša Andrić (208 cm) refused, and pointed out that a contract is a contract. He was then immediately kicked off the team.
Sports Director Matej Mamic says:
“Until further notice Lukša has been kicked off the first team and will be practicing with the 2nd, for refusing to lower his salary. We brought him here as a franchise player, expecting him to be among the top-3 big men in the league and we paid him accordingly (€ 450.000). If he changes his mind, he is welcome back to join the first team. Every player knows what is expected from him. Now, we are nowhere near that expectation and we had to take action.”
Lukša Andrić is currently averaging 10.1 ppg and 4.1 rpg for Cedevita. The last two seasons he played in Turkey for Galatasaray Medical Park Istanbul and averaged 11.1 ppg and 4.2 rpg in 19 Euroleague games.
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I haven’t seen any game of Cedevita but comparing the stats from last season in Turkey and this year in Cedevita it is evident like they are THE SAME!!!
So, or Cedevita didn’t know the player at all or the club did have too much expectations on this over-rated and over-paid player.
It sounds like club is crazy but in reality this was a must for them, legally you can not do much when player is respecting all his obligation but plays with 50 percent of his capacity…that was the case here..
Interesting stance from the club’s management.