By Nikos Varlas/ info@eurohoops.net
French swingman Axel Toupane is the latest acquisition of Olympiacos by signing a two-year contract with the Greek club. Toupane re-introduced himself to European basketball last season with the jersey of Zalgiris Kaunas in what was a tremendous run for the Lithuanian powerhouse.
Toupane helped Zalgiris reach the EuroLeague Final Four for the first time in 1999 by posting 6.9 points and 2.1 rebounds per game and putting up some tremendous defense that was often praised by his head coach, Sarunas Jasikevicius. The amounts of passion and energy he displayed were often impressive but not exactly surprising, according to a certain NBA superstar and Toupane’s former teammate.
“He’s a terrific player with lots of room for improvement. He plays the game the right way. He’s a quiet guy who doesn’t say much. He wants to win and puts a lot of energy in the game for that. He wants it a lot,” Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo said to Eurohoops on Toupane, in light of the French player joining Olympiacos.
Antetokounmpo spent ten days with Toupane back in 2017 when the latter joined the Bucks with a ten-day contract and had a first-hand experience of the abilities of the new Olympiacos player.