London coach James Vear paid tribute to Marquis Teague and Aurimas Majaukas as the pair departed from the Lions at the conclusion of their FIBA Europe Cup campaign.
BBL import and salary cap rules mean the duo only played in Lions' European games and will now move on following Wednesday's 82-75 victory against Bakken Bears, and Vear admits he's sad to see them go:
"We said a big thank you to Aurimas and Marquis in the locker room after game" he said,. "They've been fantastic for us both on the court in European games and off the court. They've been at all the practices and worked really hard. they've both very coachable and I can't speak highly enough about both of them.
"I'd love to keep them at the club but it's not possible under the rules, we'll miss them and I hope they both have a successful second half of the season. I'm sure they'll have plenty of offers, and it's great that they went out on a win because they're a couple of guys who play to win."
Lions' captain Justin Robinson also praised the pair:
"They're great guys with high character who came in and did their job every day" he said. "They really raised the level of Lions, they were great guys to have around and fantastic in practice even when they didn't have a game."
Teague, who played 99 NBA games across four years with Chicago Bulls, Brooklyn Nets and Memphis Grizzlies, finished his European campaign averaging 15.6 point per game which leaves him currently seventh in the scoring table for the competition. He added 4.8 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1..3 steals. His season best scoring effort came against Saratov last week when he poured in 28 points while the away game against the Russians saw him finish with a 21 point, 12 rebound double-double.
Lithuanian forward Majaukas averaged 9.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.3 assists in Lions' 12 games in the competition, with his biggest night coming with an 18-point performance in Denmark when Lions faced Bakken.
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