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It's official, so says the Hawks official press release and Twitter account:
OFFICIAL: We have signed 6'11" Republic of Macedonia center Pero Antić! Full details of the signing here: http://t.co/zzXrgQMl9H
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) July 25, 2013
Antić, a 6-foot-11, 260-pound big man, has played with Olympiacos in the Greek Basketball League and the Euroleague the last two seasons, helping the club to back-to-back Euroleague championships. Last year, he averaged 6.2 points and 3.3 rebounds in 15.2 minutes in 30 games (.432 FG%, .321 3FG%, .714 FT%).
"Pero is a skilled and versatile big man who will add depth to our frontcourt," Ferry said. "He will fit in well with what we're building and we're excited to add him to the team."
A native of the Republic of Macedonia, Antić has played professionally since 1999, beginning with Rabotnički in his home country. He has also played with AEK Athens (Greece), Red Star Belgrade (Serbia), Academic Sofia (Bulgaria), Lokomotiv Kuban (Russia) and Spartak St. Petersburg (Russia).
Additionally, the 30-year-old Antić is the captain of the Macedonian National Team, helping the team to the semifinals of EuroBasket 2011 in Lithuania. He averaged 11.5 points and 8.8 rebounds over 11 games in the tournament, while collecting three double-doubles.
We welcome our new Macedonian friends who will surely come about the Hawks bandwagon to follow the first ever player from there to play in the NBA.
Antic, per his YouTube videos, shows an interesting outside game and has some serious size, something the Hawks are hoping two of their draft picks can get (Lucas Nogueira and Mike Muscala) to play in an NBA frontcourt.
Antic will hopefully soften the blow of losing fan favorites Zaza Pachulia and Ivan Johnson, though at this point in time the Hawks still hold Bird rights on Ivan.
Antic makes the 10th guaranteed contract for the Hawks on the 2013-14 roster, not counting the verbal, but not yet official DeMarre Carroll signing to come. The Hawks also have three non-guaranteed players signed (DeShawn Stevenson, Shelvin Mack and Mike Scott) as well as two as yet unsigned rookie (Nogueira and Muscala).
The deal has been reported to be a two year deal, with only 2013-14 being guaranteed. We'll update this post with some video and any more information as it comes available.
Q&A with Pero Antic, Olympiacos Piraeus by Euroleague_Basketball
Dunk of the Night: Pero Antic, Olympiacos Piraeus by Euroleague_Basketball