Casper Ware stays with CSKA

The American basketball player, who joined red-and-blues in March from Yenisei Krasnoyarsk, played great in the end of the season for CSKA. Ware appeared in 19 games, starting 16 of them and averaging 12.2 points (38% of three-pointers), 1.7 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 27.0 minutes. Fans especially remember his game against Zenit: in the regular season he hit the game-winning free throws in the last seconds, and in the Game 4 of the final series he scored a buzzer-beating shot in the second overtime.

Andrey Vatutin, PBC CSKA President:

Casper has every chance to become the real favorite of our fans. In addition to the fact that "small" player always attract more sympathy, he has already given us a huge amount of emotions, extraordinary feelings in the final series. At the same time, Ware showed himself to be an excellent teammate and a smart player, quickly fitting into the team game at the end of the season. We have no doubts about Casper's professional qualities and we are glad that he stays with us for at least another two years.

Emil Rajkovic, CSKA head coach:

I am very glad that Casper will be a part of our team in the future. He has proved his quality on and off the court in the period that he was playing for CSKA. He showed that he can successfully adapt to the team needs and played with big effort on defense but also was really team oriented offensively. That is very important for us as we want to play team basketball with aggressive defense and sharing the ball on offense. We are confident that he will show high quality performances on the court and give us and our fans many reasons for joy.

Casper Ware, CSKA guard:

I am excited to say to the fans that I will be returning to CSKA Moscow for two more years. I'm excited to get a contract extension and can't wait to get back and work. I just want to thank everybody at the club for believing in me, for giving me this opportunity.