Oakland Mills Alum Whittington Signs With Russian Hoops Team

COLUMBIA, MD —Greg Whittington's pro basketball career has taken him to Australia, Japan, Israel and Turkey. After spending much of last season with the NBA's Denver Nuggets, the Oakland Hills alum and former Georgetown Hoya is on the move again, to Krasnodar, Russia.

Late Wednesday, PBC Lokomotiv Kuban, which reached the semifinals of the Russia's top basketball league last season, announced it had signed the 6-foot-8 Whittington for the 2021-22 season.

"We got a versatile forward," Kuban coach Evgeny Pashutin told the club's website. "He is dangerous from the perimeter and acts very well in the paint. He is an aggressive, powerful player. He has a quick first step, makes good use of his athletic ability, loves dynamic basketball with a quick transition from defense to attack, which meets our standards."

It will be the first stop in Europe for the 28-year-old Whittington since the 2019-20 season, when he played for Turkish powerhouse Galatasaray and averaged averaged 12.4 points and 5.5 rebounds in 25 games.

The strong stint in Turkey helped earn Whittington interest from the NBA.

On November 24 of last year, Whittington signed a two-way contract with Denver, which in most years allows a player to bounce back-and-forth between an NBA team and its G League affiliate. However, the 2020-21 G League season was limited to a monthlong bubble tournament in Orlando in February.

When Whittington signed with Denver, some writers covering the Nuggets thought the 2011 Howard County Player of the Year had a chance to play his way into the team's rotation.

Quenton S. Albertie, who covers the team for Nugglove.com, wrote about Whittington's potential to finally find a role in the NBA. Albertie said it appeared Whittington had matured since his college days, when some questioned his work ethic.

"(In Turkey) Whittington showed himself to be fluid athlete capable of making plays off the dribble and scoring from all three levels," Albertie wrote. "Defensively, Whittington has the length and athleticism to guard at least both forward spots. His hands, timing, ability to guard in space and to recover on the ballhandler is promising in terms of his potential as a plus defender.

"If his focus is on basketball, and he's matured, he has the talent level of a rotation player."

Albertie even compared Whittington's body control and soft touch to Jerami Grant, a player who had been a standout for the Nuggets until he left the team ahead of the 2020-21 campaign.

Alas, it did not go quite as Whittington might have hoped. He suffered a left knee injury in training camp, which caused him to miss the first three months of the season and eventually required arthroscopic surgery.

But Whittington battled back and ended up playing in four regular-season games for Denver, albeit for just a total of just 12 minutes and without scoring a point. He made make his NBA debut on Feb. 27 in a 126-96 win at Oklahoma City.

However, Whittington continued to struggle with knee issues, and on April 8, he was cut when the Nuggets added guard Shaquille Harrison to their roster.

A return to Europe could allow Whittington to flourish again like he did in Turkey during the 2019-20 season.