LAPU-LAPU CITY – A former NBA player and a world-caliber coach familiar to Filipino basketball fans are going to grace the East Asia Super League (EASL) Final Four that gets underway Friday at the Hoops Dome.
Josh Childress has been invited to the Queen City of the South to add glitz and glamour to the tournament’s first-ever Final Four under the home and away season.
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The former NBA first-round pick will be joined by Australian men’s team basketball coach Brian Goorjian, whose former team Bay Area Dragons finished runner-up to Barangay Ginebra in last year’s PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
Childress, 40, was the No. 6 overall pick by Atlanta in the 2004 Draft and was an NBA All-Rookie second-team member. He also had stints with Brooklyn, Phoenix, and New Orleans, before taking his act to Australia and in the Japan B.League.
Goorjian just recently signed a new contract with the Sydney Kings in his return to the National Basketball League (NBL) but also serves as EASL ambassador.
The 70-year-old coach, who steered the Boomers to their first-ever Olympic medal in the last Tokyo Games, will be reconnected here with his former Bay Area Dragons player Hayden Blankley, who plays for the New Taipei Kings of the P.League+.
No word on Baron Davis
Former NBA star Baron Davis was earlier announced to be coming, although no word has yet been sent if the 44-year-old guard would be arriving.
A couple of ex-NBA players are also seeing action in the Final Four, including Austin Daye for the New Taipei Kings and Xavier Cooks of top-seed Chiba Jets.
Daye was in the 2009 NBA Draft Class where he was a first-round pick by Detroit. He went on and played with Memphis, Toronto, and San Antonio where he won a championship during the 2014 season.
The son of former NBA player Darren Daye, he’s expected to fill up the star power the Kings lost with Jeremy Lin not listed in the official roster of New Taipei.
The 28-year-old Cooks, meanwhile, had a brief stint with the Washington Wizards last year.
Another former NBA player in Jamil Wilson will see action for the Anyang Jang Kwan Jung along with Filipino Rhenz Abando. He was formerly with the LA Clippers and just recently, reinforced the Converge FiberXers in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
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