Matthew Hurt is coming to Ljubljana!

In the playing position of power forward, the senior roster of Cedevita Olimpija will be strengthened before the continuation of the competitive season 2025/26 by American basketball player Matthew Hurt, who started the season in the Italian team Trapani Shark and will finish it in the jersey of the Ljubljana club.

In the playing position of power forward, the senior roster of Cedevita Olimpija will be strengthened before the continuation of the competitive season 2025/26 by American basketball player Matthew Hurt, who started the season in the Italian team Trapani Shark and will finish it in the jersey of the Dragons, with whom he has signed a contract until the end of the season. The twenty-five-year-old, 206-centimeter-tall player was this season one of the key members of the Italian collective in the Basketball Champions League. Hurt drew attention to himself already during his student years at Duke University, where he was among the main pillars of the team, and he gained his first professional experience both in the NBA League and in the developmental G League competition.

“We all know that after the departures of Nikos Chougkazas and William McNair, we needed reinforcement in the tall playing positions. We were very active on the market, and we are therefore pleased that Matthew Hurt will be part of Cedevita Olimpija in the future. He is a basketball player with great offensive potential, and he is also distinguished by his shooting from distance, his feel for rebounding, and his basketball intelligence. Our wish is for Hurt to integrate into our playing system and into the atmosphere that prevails in the locker room in the shortest possible time, and to form a firm whole together with the rest of his teammates in the continuation of the season, when the most important battles in both international competitions await us,” said, upon Hurt signing the contract, the sports director of Cedevita Olimpija, Chechu Mulero.

“Matthew Hurt is a player at the power forward position and represents exactly what we were looking for to complete our roster. This is his first season playing in Europe; he is a young player with plenty of room for progress. We hope that he will quickly adapt to our playing system and that his qualities will help us achieve the goals we have set,” said head coach Zvezdan Mitrović upon adding the new player to the squad list.

“I’m really excited to join Cedevita Olimpija. I have heard great things about the team and the city. I’m excited to add to a really good team. I can’t wait to see the fans soon!” said Matthew Hurt upon signing the contract with Cedevita Olimpija.

In the strongest league in the world, Hurt was part of several teams, but he spent most of his time in the G League, where he played for three seasons. He obtained NBA experience in eight games in the jersey of the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2023/24 season, averaging 4.0 points and 2.0 rebounds per game. In the developmental league, he appeared for the Memphis Hustle team, for which he averaged 20.0 points and 7.0 rebounds per game in the 2023/24 season, and he played in 26 contests.

In the summer of 2024, he moved to Australia, where he signed a contract with the South East Melbourne Phoenix team. In the 2024/25 season, he showed excellent performances, averaging 20.1 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.3 assists, and he was selected to the best five of the NBL League. Last summer, he moved to Italy, where he signed a contract with the Trapani Shark team. In the Champions League, he played in six games and averaged 12.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, while in the Italian national championship he averaged 8.8 points and 3.3 rebounds per game over 12 games.