Βy Giorgos Orfanakis / info@eurohoops.net
The level of basketball in China doesn’t claim laurels of quality, neither on a national level nor on a club level, but the list of players choosing to leave the NBA or Europe to play in the Asian country is getting longer all the time.
There are several reasons for this. If we had to choose two, then certainly the (very) high earnings, combined with the reduced requirements compared to the EuroLeague, would certainly stand out.
With Sonny Weems, Keith Langford and Erick Green ready to follow, Eurohoops presents the most important cases of players who chose not continue in Europe, despite the fact that they had very good offers in their hands, preferring instead the CBA (Chinese Basketball Association).
Aaron Jackson – 31 years old
The case of Aaron Jackson is one of the most talked about and interesting of the summer! Coming off the best season of his career in the EuroLeague, the American guard automatically became one of the most sought after free agents on this year’s summer market.
The player was very high on the lists of Anadolu Efes, Barcelona, and Olympiacos, with these three teams submitting a formal collaboration proposal. At the same time, Jackson was waiting for developments regarding the NBA, which he never concealed was his greatest desire, as it is for most players who are born in the USA.
And yet! The team that managed to win his signature was the Beijing Ducks, who offered him a one-year contract for 2.3 million dollars and convinced him. For the record, Jackson chose to leave the EuroLeague after a season averaging 7.6 points, 3.6 assists, 1.4 rebounds and about 22 minutes of playing time.
Giannis Bourousis – 33 years old
Just a few weeks after winning the double with Panathinaikos, Ioannis Bourousis chose to leave Greece for the Zhejiang Lions.
The Greek center’s divorce with the Greens was in a very friendly atmosphere but this doesn’t mean that the fact the player left Greece just one year after his repatriation in the summer of 2016 wasn’t surprising.
Bourousis’s season (7.8 points, 4.8 rebounds) might not have been like the one he had in the colors of Baskonia, but even so, not many expected him to change not just country but continent!
Edwin Jackson – 27 years old
From the courts of Europe and the ACB, straight to China! This was the course followed by Edwin Jackson, who, last season, was the top scorer in the Spanish championship with an average of 21.4 points in the colors of Estudiantes.
Even though he’s only 27 years of age, the French forward preferred to leave Europe for the Guangdong Southern Tigers, where he will have Jonas Kazlauskas as his new coach.
It’s a given that after such a productive season, Jackson would have found a role in a EuroLeague team. This, however, will not happen since, after Villeurbanne, Barcelona, Malaga, and Estudiantes, he will travel outside of Europe for the first time in his career to try something completely different.
Luis Scola – 37 years old
Luis Scola has had a brilliant career on the courts of the EuroLeague and the NBA but it looks like the he’s going to “register” the last kilometers of his basketball journey in China.
Actually, the Argentinian power forward counts a total of 743 appearances in the best league in the world and 144 appearances in the EuroLeague, with the numbers being fully indicative of his lastingness at the highest level.
A few months ago he was released by the Brooklyn Nets, his name was referred to as a possible target for EuroLeague teams and more specifically, Baskonia, but in the end the player signed a contract with the Shanxi Brave Dragons, making the list even longer.
Kyle Fogg – 27 years old
As with the case of Edwin Jackson, Kyle Fogg decided to leave the Spanish championship in order to continue his career in China, where the pay is clearly higher.
The “disclosure” of this particular move was made by the player himself, by informing those who follow him on Instagram that he feels blessed for the opportunity that he is given to discover a new continent.
It’s worth mentioning that Fogg played in 37 games with Malaga in the regular season and the playoffs in the ACB, averaging 9.3 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists. Together with Edwin Jackson, in fact, they are the only two players who decided to continue in China despite the fact they are still just 27 years old.