Former Celtics forward leaves NBA, signs with Euro team (report)

   

While Evan Fournier’s had a lengthy career in the NBA, the former Celtics forward is headed overseas. Fournier is signing a two-year deal with Greek club Olympiacos as part of the EuroLeague, per The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

Evan Fournier

Fournier is coming off a solid outing with France, helping lead them to the silver medal at the Paris Olympics on home soil. Fournier, 31, has bounced around the league in recent seasons, so signing overseas isn’t necessarily a huge surprise.

 

Fournier was briefly with the Celtics to finish off the 2020-21 season after getting acquired at the trade deadline. He played in 16 games (11 starts) with Boston, averaging 13.0 points, 3.3 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game. Fournier also appeared in one game for the C’s in the 2021 playoffs against the Nets.

The Celtics didn’t re-sign Fournier in the 2021 offseason as he headed to the Knicks in a sign-and trade. The C’s instead shipped a pair of second-round picks to create a traded player exception. The front office didn’t end up using that TPE because of their roster construction (the Malcolm Brogdon trade was a big part of that then). So it ended up working for the Celtics down the line regardless.

Fournier had most of his success playing for the Magic from 2014-21, where he spent the majority of his NBA career. He averaged 16.2 points over 435 games across that stretch as he was a reliable scorer. Fournier was picked 20th overall in the 2012 draft by the Nuggets, his first NBA team.

But Fournier’s impact in the NBA started to dwindle ever since his Knicks tenure. He fell out of the rotation in New York and was shipped to the Pistons last season. Fournier had only played in three games with the Knicks before appearing in 29 for the Pistons to close out the 2023-24 season. So instead of bouncing around the NBA as a bench piece, Fournier elected to go overseas to be a contributor elsewhere.