Moses Wright confirms he’ll join Cyprus for EuroBasket, recounts memorable derby night

Moses Wright confirms the report about him playing with Cyprus and explains how the opportunity presented itself. The American-born big man describes how he experienced some exciting moments during and after the latest EuroLeague derby and reveals his good luck charm in those games.Moses Wright sat out for the better part of the latest Greek derby between Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens and Olympiacos Piraeus for EuroLeague Round 8.

The American big man stepped on the OAKA glass floor for only three minutes, recording one assist and two missed field-goal attempts. However, he still relished Evan Fournier’s daggers down the stretch, which allowed the Reds to come out with their biggest win in the season so far (94-89).

One of those clutch shots turned into a game-changer since Panathinaikos were leading 83-82 with almost three minutes left when the Frenchman took matters into his own hands, hitting a buzzer-beater from long distance over Cedi Osman’s hands. 

“It was unreal,” Wright recalled.

“Seeing the ball leave his hand, it felt like it was in the air forever. Seeing it go through the hoop was a sigh of relief, like ‘Ok, we’re still here,'” he shared. 

Prior to the visit to OAKA last Friday, Olympiacos had returned to Piraeus empty-handed three times, losing to Fenerbahce on their opening night and then to Anadolu Efes and Bayern Munich. Hence, the derby win served as the perfect morale-booster in a period where the Reds seemed to have picked up the pieces, as they had shown against Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Wright, 25, thinks road wins like that are “huge, they give everybody motivation that we’re still here.”

“Even though we started off the season a bit rocky, we got it all back together now. We just need to keep moving forward with the energy that we had in OAKA,” he stressed.

Apart from energy, Wright brought to OAKA a pair of sneakers with an intense red-and-white note and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s signature. Choosing a pair of shoes from the ‘Greek Freak’ collection, the ex-NBA player had the trademark Olympiacos motto ‘This is Pireaus’ inscribed on his footwear.

It’s not a coincidence that Wright had chosen to wear the exact same pair on March 14, when he was named the MVP in the Reds’ 71-65 win over their main rivals.

That night, the Georgia Tech graduate broke his EuroLeague scoring record, pouring out 19 points on a perfect 9/9 from the field and adding three rebounds to his stat line. 

Since Olympiacos won both derbies, Wright has every right to think that pair is his good luck charm.

“Those are the derby shoes,” he remarked.

“I’m bringing them out for the derbies every time we play them. Every time you’re going to see them on my feet. They’re derby shoes. I haven’t put them on anywhere else,” he went on to point out. 

About an hour past midnight, Wright and his teammates witnessed a warm reception by more than one thousand Olympiacos fans, who had gathered in the Peace and Friendship Stadium parking area waiting for the team’s bus to arrive.

The club’s co-presidents and owners, Panagiotis and Giorgos Angelopoulos, mingled with the ecstatic crowd, celebrating Olympiacos’ fifth straight EuroLeague win at OAKA.

When the bus touched base, fans turned night into day with songs, chants, and flares. Wright said the scene resembled something out of a movie.

“The only thing you could see was red flares, all the hands trying to grab you, and people screaming ‘Olympiacos!'” he recounted. “Amazing night.”

Following the derby, Olympiacos demolished BCL side Promitheas Patras (106-66) in Piraeus. Wright had 13 points, nine rebounds, and two assists in an evening where every player who touched the court managed to score, and Evan Fournier didn’t have to undress.

One-sided games like that can be useful in the bigger scheme of things only when no injuries get in the way, and coaches have the chance to try out certain plays and situations.

Ahead of another EuroLeague double-week, where Olympiacos are hosting ASVEL on Tuesday and will be playing guest to Maccabi Tel Aviv on Thursday, a mundane domestic outing can serve “as preparation of intensity and how we’re going to play going forward,” Wright stressed.

“Rest, recovery, repeat. We have to stay healthy. I don’t see anybody stopping us this double-week and in the following ones,” he declared with a surplus of confidence.

At Olympiacos, Wright must face some serious internal competition in Nikola Milutinov and Moustapha Fall. The Serbian center dominated against Panathinaikos’ big men on Friday before adding one more double-double (19 points, 10 rebounds) to his rèsumè while facing a feeble Promitheas frontline. 

“It’s always a challenge going up against them in practice,” Wright commented on his teammates.

“They’re great defenders, great players and great athletes. I look forward to facing them because I can get better every day.”

And if Milutinov and Fall have recorded several appearances with their national teams in FIBA competitions, it seems that the time has come for Moses Wright to follow in their footsteps.

The only difference is that he won’t be joining his native US team but Cyprus, as the country will make its international debut at the 2025 EuroBasket.

What’s more, Cyprus’ participation in the main tournament’s group stage is a lock since they will be one of the host nations, along with Poland, Latvia, and Finland.

Asked whether he’ll play for Cyprus in the EuroBasket, Wright appeared somewhat reserved at first. 

“Yes, I guess so,” he laughed. “They want me to. That’s the plan when I talked to them,” he added. “We’re going to see how it is going forward.”

Wright clarified that the deal with Cyprus has been finalized, confirming SDNA’s first report, and that now, it’s up to the country’s Basketball Federation to make it public.

“I don’t know when they’ll let it out,” he said. 

As such, Wright would become recognized as a European player, which would open up more pathways for him in the future, as some leagues, such as the Spanish Liga Endesa, have much more relaxed rules for European Union passport holders.

Cyprus is placed in Group E of the 2025 EuroBasket Qualifiers alongside France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. They lost their first two games by a combined margin of 62 points to Bosnia and Herzegovina (66-99) and Croatia (63-92).

The next EuroBasket Qualifiers game is scheduled against France on November 21. Even if approved for citizenship, Wright would most likely have to miss the game, as Olympiacos play against Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz on that same day. Hence, his debut could come on November 24 against the same opponent – France.

But how did the idea of obtaining the Cypriot citizenship come up?

“I always wanted to play for a country — be it my country or somebody else,” Wright explained. “Cyprus came in when I told my agent that.”

Certainly, judging by Wright’s description, the process of obtaining the Cypriot passport must have been a lot easier and much simpler compared to the competition that awaits the team and the player in Limassol next August.