Shawn Jones is the newest addition to Cedevita Olimpija roster!

Shawn Jones, the 203-centimeter tall American player with a Kosovo passport, is the newest addition to the roster of Cedevita Olimpija. He finished last season with Israel’s Hapoel Haifa, and in the 2021/22 season he wore the jersey of Split.

In the playing position of Power Forward, the senior team of Cedevita Olimpija is stronger for Shawn Jones. Born in the United States, Jones also holds a Kosovo passport since 2016, and played with the Kosovo national team in the 2019 World Cup qualifiers and pre-qualifiers for the 2023 World Cup.

“Shawn Jones is a player who has been playing in Europe for a long time, so he has a lot of experience, and at the same time he has already worked successfully with our head coach in Israel, and I hope it will be the same here in Cedevita Olimpija. Jones is a very useful player who plays with great energy. I think he will be of great importance especially for our young players in the playing positions of Power Forward and Center, where he will help them, both in matches and trainings to become the mainstays of our team. We are happy that he has joined us and I hope that he will help us achieve our goals,” Cedevita Olimpija’s Sports Director Vlado Ilievski said at the signing of the contract with Jones.

“Shawn Jones is a versatile player who will be a very good addition to our list of tall players with his skills and mobility, and I believe he will also complement the other players very well. He has experience playing in Europe and in the regional league, and I already worked with him in Jerusalem, so I know him, and I know that he is a good guy who likes to train,” said the head coach of Cedevita Olimpija, Simone Pianigiani.

“I’m very excited and honoured to get a chance to play for such a prestigious club, that has very strong tradition of winning. The main goal for the new season is to keep the tradition going. I’m excited to see the coach and to meet my new teammates, and to play in front of the fans. I’m looking forward to every day, and I think we can have a good season for sure,” said Jones upon joining Cedevita Olimpija.

After spending four seasons at Middle Tennessee College, Jones initially began his career in 2014 with the Los Angeles Clippers, for which he played in the NBA Summer League, and later played four preseason games with the Miami Heat. Before the start of the season, he moved to the Sioux Falls Skyforce, for which he played in the development league, a year later he played for the Washington Wizards in the summer league, but then before the start of the season he moved to Europe, where he wore the jerseys of Andorra, Hapoel Jerusalem, Avellino , Dinamo Sassari, Hapoel Holon, Anwil Włocławek, Split, Spójnia Stargard and finally Hapoel Haifa. Last season, he first spent eight games in Poland, and last November he moved to Israel, where he stayed until the end of the season.

In his European career, Jones won two titles of the Polish Cup champion (2019, 2020), in 2020 he was also selected as the most valuable player of the Polish Cup competition, and one title of the Israeli Cup winner (2016).

He made a total of 26 appearances in the Basketball Champions League with Sassari, Holon and Anwil, and recorded his best statistics in the 2019/20 season, when he averaged 10.7 points and 7.5 rebounds per game in ten games. In the 2022/23 season, he averaged 11.1 points, 6.7 rebounds and 0.6 assists in seven games of the Fiba European Cup, while in the Israeli national championship he averaged 11.4 points and 5.9 rebounds per game in 14 games . In the ABA League in the 2021/22 season, he played in eight games for Split, spent an average of 22.4 minutes on the floor and scored 10.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game.