{"id":74579,"date":"2025-08-11T12:07:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T12:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/74579\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T12:07:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T12:07:06","slug":"daniel-theis-on-returning-to-europe-from-the-nba-maybe-if-spanoulis-didnt-call-i-wouldnt-have","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/74579\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Theis on returning to Europe from the NBA: \u201cMaybe if Spanoulis didn\u2019t call, I wouldn\u2019t have\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Eurohoops team\/\u00a0info@eurohoops.net<\/a><\/p>\n

German international Daniel Theis spoke openly about key moments in his career after returning to Europe from the NBA and signing with Monaco.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Euro Insiders<\/a>, he touched on the offer from Panathinaikos<\/a>, his relationship with coach Vassilis Spanoulis, his NBA experience, and his thoughts on the NBA Europe league.<\/p>\n

Theis confirmed he received an offer from Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos<\/a> but had already been in talks with Vassilis Spanoulis before that.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I received an offer from Panathinaikos. But I had spoken with Spanoulis before getting the offer from Panathinaikos. I\u2019ve known the coach since a holiday in Greece 6\u20137 years ago. Nikos Zisis, with whom I was teammates, is his best friend. That\u2019s how we met and talked,\u201d said Theis.<\/p>\n

He had an offer to join the New York Knicks<\/a> before he decided to move to Monaco.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore coming to Europe, I had an offer from the Knicks<\/a>. Mitchell Robinson was coming back from injury. I spoke with Thibodeau and he told me I would be insurance for them if Robinson couldn\u2019t play. I thought, if I stay until the end of the season and don\u2019t play, what chances will I have in the summer? So I said, \u2018I\u2019m going to Europe. If I play well, I\u2019ll have better chances.\u2019 Maybe I wouldn\u2019t have come to Europe if Spanoulis hadn\u2019t called me. I didn\u2019t just look at the money, but the school, the life, everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theis played for six different clubs in the NBA, starting with the Boston Celtics<\/a> in 2017, and his last club being the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a>, so he knows a thing or two about trades.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrades in the NBA are kind of like, \u2018Thank you, but you have to go \u2014 we traded you to Chicago.\u2019 Then you pass medicals, go back for two days to where you were to get your things and move. It\u2019s tough. After some years, you see the business side of the league. Sometimes it\u2019s not that your team doesn\u2019t want you, but another team wants you more. Or sometimes you\u2019re part of a trade because your contract fits better somewhere else. It\u2019s like Panini stickers \u2014 you take two, I take one. When you have a family, it\u2019s not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theis also spoke about NBA Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it will take a few years before it happens, because everyone worried it would happen immediately. You can compare it to the football European Super League attempt. If EuroLeague and NBA find a way to combine both worlds \u2014 take whatever NBA ideas they have, maybe teams they want, whatever, and put the EuroLeague in it \u2014 I think that\u2019s the way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Eurohoops team\/\u00a0info@eurohoops.net German international Daniel Theis spoke openly about key moments in his career after returning to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-74579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}