Tyrese Rice signs with Barça Lassa

Tyrese Rice, a 29-year-old point guard from Richmond, Virginia in the United States, has agreed to the terms of a two-year contract with FC Barcelona Lassa.

FC Barcelona and BC Khimki, Rice's former club, reached an agreement on the player's transfer.

Rice is the team's second signing under new head coach Georgios Bartzokas. Barça came to terms with power forward Víctor Claver on 20 July.

Rice, who is known for his excellent passing and his ability to catch and shoot,  has dual citizenship, both in the United States and in Montenegro.

The 6 ft 1 in, 190 lb (185 cm, 86 kg) Rice passed his physical at Hospital de Barcelona on Friday, 22 July. Accompanied by his son, Rice then went to visit his new home, the Palau Blaugrana, where he had some pictures taken.

On Tuesday, 26 July, Rice signed the deal that will keep him at Barça through the 2017/18 season.

Globetrotting success

Tyrese Rice was a four-year letter winner at Boston College, where he was named first-team all-ACC as junior in the 2007/08 season while averaging 21.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game for the Eagles.

That season Rice had the best game of his collegiate career when, on 1 March 2008, he torched the University of North Carolina for a staggering 34 points before halftime on the way to a jaw-dropping 46-point performance. The game ended in a 90–80 loss to the visiting Tar Heels.

After going undrafted by the NBA in the summer of 2009, Rice began a European career that would see him play for six teams in seven seasons.

One-year stops at Panionios in Athens, Greece (2009–2010), the Artland Dragons in Quakenbrück, Germany (2010–2011), Lietuvos rytas in Vilnius, Lithuania (2011–2012), Bayern Munich in Germany (2012–2013), and at Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel (2013–2014), were followed by the past two seasons at Khimki in Russia.

Along the way Rice bagged a slew of team and individual honors, the vast majority of which came during his time in Israel and Russia.

While winning the 2014 Euroleague with Tel Aviv, Rice was named the Final Four MVP following a 26-point game in a 98–86 overtime win over Real Madrid in the championship game.

That same season he also took home Israeli League, League Cup and State Cup titles while with Maccabi.

Then, over the next two years with Khimki, Rice led the Russian club to the Eurocup championship, while at the same time snaring the Eurocup MVP award and the Eurocup Basketball Finals MVP as well.

In the summer of 2010, after leaving Panionios but before joining the Artland Dragons, Rice played for the Utah Jazz in the Orlando Pro Summer League. Later that same summer he played for the Sacramento Kings in the NBA Summer League.