Bonzie Colson returns to Maccabi Tel Aviv on a two-year deal

Maccabi Tel Aviv moved quickly after winning its 58th club championship, finalizing the return of Bonzie Colson on a two-year contract worth about $1.5 million per season. The champions are expected to announce the signing later today, Friday, after a long negotiation in which Colson strongly wanted a second stint at the club. EuroLeague champion Olympiacos also entered the race recently and made a formal offer, but Colson ultimately accepted the Israeli champions’ proposal.

Colson, 30, and 1.98 meters tall, previously played two highly successful seasons for Maccabi between 2022 and 2024. He was a key part of the team’s back-to-back runs to the EuroLeague playoffs, averaging 10.7 points and 5.6 rebounds in his first season and improving to 12.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in his second.

Despite his success and a guaranteed contract, Colson left Tel Aviv in the summer of 2024. He departed alongside players such as Wade Baldwin and Lorenzo Brown after the events of October 7 and the demanding season Maccabi endured during the war. He then joined Fenerbahce in Turkey, where he spent the past two seasons.

In his first season with Fenerbahce, Colson was part of the club’s historic EuroLeague title run. This season, the team reached the Final Four again but was eliminated in the semifinal before winning the Turkish league championship. In recent weeks, especially during the EuroLeague playoffs, his role shrank significantly, and he played fewer than 10 minutes per game in Fenerbahce’s latest EuroLeague matches. He finished the current EuroLeague season with averages of 7.1 points and 3 rebounds, then activated an exit clause to complete his return to Kiryat Shalom.