Christmas moved to CSKA after the preseason with the Boston Celtics. He played excellent Summer Leagues for the Greens in Orlando (12.2 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 4.0 apg) and Las Vegas (14.2 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 2.2 apg) but was not as impressive in preseason games averaging just 3.3 points and 1.8 rebounds in 12 minutes of action. Still he had a breakout previous season in Rethymno becoming the best scorer of Greek League (18.2 ppg, 56% two-pointers, 37% three-pointers).
Upon graduating from Temple University in 2009 Christmas went undrafted despite the number of accolades in college basketball (two Atlantic 10 Most Outstanding Player titles, three conference best scorer titles in a row). Before coming to Rethymno the guard played in Hapoel Afula, Nymburk and PAOK.
Ettore Messina, CSKA head coach:
We followed Dionte during the summer and he was one of our top options during the offseason signing campaign. He decided to try himself in NBA and he almost made a team with the Boston Celtics. I think he is the player with a lot of energy and good skills offensively. He will surely strengthen our backcourt. He is coming off the excellent school in Temple and we are confident that he will be a good addition to our team.
Media Attention! Christmas will be presented as CSKA player on Sunday, November 4, at 4:00 pm before the game against Spartak in press-conference room (N 110) of USH CSKA.
