Maccabi Tel Aviv have reportedly reached agreement with German international center Daniel Theis, with Sport5 reporting a two-year contract worth close to $2.2 million a season — a deal that would place him among the very richest imports the yellow-and-blue have ever signed.
That figure, per Sport5's accounting of the club's foreign payroll, would make Theis, level with guard Lonnie Walker IV, the second-highest-paid overseas player in Maccabi Tel Aviv's history. Only Carlos Arroyo's fabled $2.5 million contract for the 2008-09 championship season, still the benchmark more than fifteen years on, sits above it.
Walker, who joined Maccabi on a three-year, $10 million deal with NBA exit clauses, currently holds the title of the club's best-paid active player. Theis moving in alongside him at roughly $2.2 million a year would underline how aggressively Maccabi has been willing to spend to rebuild its roster this off-season.
Theis, 34, is one of European basketball's most decorated big men of the past decade. He spent eight seasons in the NBA across six franchises — most notably two stints with the Boston Celtics, with whom he reached the NBA Finals in 2022 — before returning to Europe.
With Germany's national team, Theis has been a fixture through three EuroBasket campaigns and was a key rotation piece in the run to gold at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, having also helped Germany to a bronze medal at EuroBasket 2022.
The move to Israel comes out of upheaval in France. Theis had signed with ASVEL Villeurbanne at the start of the summer, but the club's well-documented financial difficulties turned him into one of the hottest available names on the EuroLeague market within weeks.
Maccabi was not alone in circling. Hapoel Tel Aviv showed early interest, and Barcelona reportedly stayed in the conversation after missing out on center Moses Wright, according to Sportando's reporting on the chase. Maccabi is said to have pushed to close the deal quickly and has offered Theis the role of starting center.
The club has been busy reshaping its frontcourt and backcourt all summer, working around a returning core that has included guards Yam Madar and Scottie Wilbekin and forward Bonzie Colson, as it tries to build a squad capable of competing on both the domestic and EuroLeague fronts.
As of now the agreement remains a media report rather than a confirmed transfer. Israel Hayom's Tomer Givati described the talks as being at an advanced stage rather than finalized, and Maccabi Tel Aviv has not issued an official announcement or confirmed the contract's financial terms.
If it closes as reported, Theis would give Maccabi a proven, championship-tested center just as the club looks to reassert itself at the top of Israeli basketball and push deeper into the EuroLeague this season.
