Two weeks ago, Von Wafer was riding pretty high. His Shanxi Dragons team had just made it into their first postseason for three years and his name was about to be included in the shortlist for the CBA’s foreign player MVP. Now however, things are very different. On Saturday when America was tuning into the NBA All-Star Dunk Contest, Wafer was releasing a public apology in China following his behavior in the final minutes of a playoff game. Writing that he was
The CBA playoffs are now in full swing and everyone in China is glued to their TVs watching everything play out. A couple of teams are already going home, while others are hanging on to the postseason dreams by their fingertips. With that in mind, let’s check in on the best-of-five quarterfinals to see who is doing what and which notable American free agents are coming home. [Read more…]
The traditional ‘quiet week’ in Chinese basketball is rarely what it’s designed to be. Instead, the brief break that splits the regular season and the playoffs are often the most frantic few days in the CBA schedule as teams race to get ready for the postseason. But this year however, things have been even more chaotic than usual. Not only did the playoffs create some unexpected matchups, the recently unveiled foreign MVP shortlist also raised a lot of eyebrows. With
With a triple-double of 14 points, 13 rebounds and 12 blocks on national TV, Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside has shown that impactful midseason signings can be found in the strangest of places. Whiteside was a 2010 second-round pick of the Sacramento Kings. He was waived by both the Kings in 2012 and the Memphis Grizzlies three months ago. In between, Whiteside was playing for Jiangsu Tongxi in the second tier of Chinese basketball. With the regular season of the Chinese Basketball
The NCAA College Basketball Tournament is underway. Millions of people had hopes of raking in the cash with Yahoo! and Quicken Loans offering a $1 Billion reward for a perfect bracket. However, most of their hopes have been dashed, thanks in large part to two unlikely upsets. Los Angeles Lakers guard Kent Bazemore is all about it, having played for a mid-major school that made a Cinderella run of its own, stringing along unlikely upsets with Old Dominion from the Colonial Athletic
The Guangdong Southern Tigers and the Shandong Gold Lions met in Game 1 of the Chinese Basketball Association Finals last night, with the Southern Tigers taking an 88-81 win to go up 1-0 in the best-of-seven series. Despite it only being the first game, the result was crucial: In the CBA’s 1-2-2-2 setup where the lower-seeded team hosts the first game, the Tigers now head back home with a chance to take a commanding 3-0 lead if they can hold serve.
Welcome, everyone, to Where Are They Now? With another week in the books, we’re back again with another crop of yesteryear’s stars and their current whereabouts. In recent weeks, we’ve covered everyone from Stephon Marbury and Tracy McGrady to Jonathan Bender and Acie Law IV. In other words, we have no limits or bounds in where we must look or who we need to find. So who are the players in this week’s Where Are They Now? Let’s get underway and find
This week, there was a groundswell for Kevin Love’s inclusion in the MVP conversation. Thanks for joining us in 2012, folks. Love should should have been in it months ago. We know all the names that already comprised the conversation – LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul – with Tony Parker and Dwight Howard on the periphery. Those six candidates differ from Love in two ways. 1. They all play on winning teams. 2. This season, they all couldn’t wash Love’s socks. Yes,