If he was waiting for a contract in Europe after leaving Zenit St. Petersburg, Thomas Heurtel will not be playing on the Old Continent this season. According to the combined information from The Team and from Basketnews, the 35-year-old point guard will indeed be leaving for China, since he has signed with the Shenzen Leopards!
Led by former Celtics power forward Jared Sullinger, the club was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the last Chinese championship playoffs, and will therefore be counting on the Béziers native to do better.
Given that he waited until the Euroleague rosters were (almost) complete to commit to China, we can well imagine that this was not Thomas Heurtel's first option, especially since it will not allow him to return to the French team during the international windows, as he had hoped.
But the 7th best passer in the history of the Euroleague (1,340) has therefore not found a buyer among the clubs involved in the most prestigious of European competitions, perhaps (in part?) because of his bad reputation.
