La Salle's Zack signs Euro contract

Aron Minkoff (@AronMinkoff)

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Former La Salle big man Steve Zack has signed on to continue his basketball career overseas in Latvia. He will join BK Liepaja Lauvas, a small-city team that resides along the Baltic Sea in Latvia.

The 6-foot-11 center averaged 8.6 ppg and 9.2 rpg in his senior campaign with the Explorers. This was good enough to earn him a spot on the Philadelphia 76ers summer league team in Las Vegas, but making it onto an NBA roster was not in the cards for him, so he elected to sign to play in Europe.

“I just wanted to get signed and started somewhere and I felt like this would be a great place to started at,” Zack said. “My agency has had guys play there previously and they both had great experiences.”

He will certainly not be the only American on the roster; while the rosters are still being tinkered with, former Tulane guard Kris Richard signed on to play with Liepaja for the 2015-16 campaign.

Zack has never been to Europe, so playing professional basketball across the Atlantic Ocean will afford him the opportunity to travel and see parts of the world that are truly foreign to him.

“I would like to jump around, I would like to see a bunch of places,” Zack said. “I really don’t have a favorite because I have never seen anything before.”

Liepaja plays in the Latvian Higher League in addition to the much larger and more encompassing Baltic League, where they finished third last season. The addition of Zack gives them someone who has a history of success in the postseason and can play a vital role in their future.

Zack played a meaningful role on the La Salle team that made it all of the way to the Sweet 16 in 2013, and has been a steady force inside the paint for the Explorers for the better part of the last three seasons.

He may not know too much about what his future has in store and the places that he will go, but some preliminary research on the area has Zack excited for this next stage in his life.

“Liepaja is a town that is mainly on the beach, public transportation can get you anywhere, you don’t really need to be driving around,” Zack said. “It’s a friendly city, and any overseas country is going to be nice to see and see different cultures.”