Dunston, 40, Returns to Olympiacos

Olympiacos (Piraeus, Greece) signed Bryant Dunston, the 40-year-old American center and two-time champion of the EuroLeague, Europe's top men's club basketball competition, and Greek-American guard George Papas to one-year deals, the club announced on Monday, 28 September (BasketNews; Basketball Sphere). Both players are returning to the club, and both appear on its roster as signed until 2027 (BasketNews).

The EuroLeague has 20 clubs this season, from cities including Madrid, Istanbul, Belgrade, Tel Aviv and Dubai, and its season ends with a Final Four weekend (euroleague.net schedule; Olympiacos BC). Olympiacos won last season's title on 24 May, beating Real Madrid 92⁠–⁠85 in the final in front of 18,000 fans at the OAKA Arena in Athens. It was the fourth EuroLeague title in the club's history, and French guard Evan Fournier, who scored 20 points, was named the most valuable player of the Final Four (Olympiacos BC).

Dunston first played for Olympiacos from 2013 to 2015, when he won EuroLeague Best Defender in 2014 and 2015, then spent eight seasons at Anadolu Efes (Istanbul), winning the EuroLeague in 2021 and 2022 (BasketNews). Best Defender is the competition's award for its top defensive player; a center is usually a team's tallest player and works closest to the basket. The New York-born Dunston stands 203 centimeters (about 6 feet 8 inches), has won national championships in Turkey, Greece, Lithuania and Italy, and has played 381 EuroLeague games in all (Basketball Sphere).

He had short stops at Virtus Bologna, Žalgiris Kaunas and Olimpia Milano; last season with Milano he averaged 2.9 points and 2.1 rebounds in 17 EuroLeague games (BasketNews). He played almost 11 minutes a game in that role, BasketNews reported, and Basketball Sphere described him as still an effective rim protector, the player who guards the basket against opponents' close-range shots (BasketNews; Basketball Sphere).

He trained with Olympiacos in preseason before the one-year deal was confirmed (BasketNews; Basketball Sphere). Basketball Sphere reported that coach Georgios Bartzokas and his staff saw value in the defensive experience Dunston still brings, and that his signing was confirmed shortly after Papas's (Basketball Sphere).

Papas played for Olympiacos from 2022 to 2024 and returns after stops at Peristeri, Panionios and Maroussi (BasketNews). All three are Athens-area clubs; he spent one season at Peristeri and split last season between Panionios and Maroussi (BasketNews). In his first spell at Olympiacos he won the Greek League and the Greek Cup in 2023, plus the Greek Super Cup in 2022 and 2023 (BasketNews).

The club is already adding trophies this season. Olympiacos won the Greek Super Cup, a season-opening trophy game, on Sunday (Basketball Sphere). In Round 1 of the EuroLeague on Thursday, 24 September, it won 106⁠–⁠89 at Baskonia in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, with Tyler Dorsey scoring 25 points and Sasha Vezenkov 22 (euroleague.net box score). Žalgiris, from Kaunas, Lithuania, also won its opener, 83⁠–⁠77 at Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade (euroleague.net).

Olympiacos, the reigning EuroLeague champion, plays its second EuroLeague game of the season on the road at Žalgiris Kaunas on Tuesday, 29 September, at 19:00 CEST (1 p.m. ET) (euroleague.net). The game is at Žalgirio Arena (euroleague.net). Dunston's return means he goes into that game on the roster of the club where, Basketball Sphere noted, he built his EuroLeague reputation more than a decade ago (Basketball Sphere).