Basketball: Bay Area Dragons ‘back for blood’ in East Asia Super League ‘revenge season’ with 5 new faces coming in
- Franchise signs five new players, including Oliver Xu from Asean Basketball League champions Hong Kong Eastern
- Dragons have ‘history’ with all three of their Group B opponents, says star Glen Yang – ‘it’s going to be fun, and intense’
East Asia Super League (EASL) franchise the Bay Area Dragons announced on Tuesday they have signed five new players for the new season, while eight members from the team’s inaugural campaign have been retained.
Among the additions, all from mainland China and Hong Kong, Oliver Xu will be the one name local basketball fans are most familiar with.
Xu – the younger brother of Hong Kong Eastern co-captain Adam Xu – has joined the Dragons as a free agent after his contract at Eastern expired after the Asean Basketball League (ABL) season.
The 26-year-old averaged 6 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 19 outings, of which three were as a starter, for Eastern, who were crowned champions for the second time in franchise history in March.
The list of newcomers is completed by guard Adili Kuerban, previously with Fujian Sturgeons in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), guard Seva Chan, who last played with Australian NBL1 West team Cockburn Cougars, forward Ramon Cao, and centre Wang Yunzhang.
Earlier, the Post revealed the Dragons have extended contracts for Hongkongers Duncan Reid and Glen Yang. Also returning are Hayden Blankley, Ju Mingxin, Liu Chuanxing, Kobey Lam, Zheng Qilong, and Zhu Songwei.
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The Dragons, who finished third in the “Champions Week” in March, are expected to add a few more players to their squad before the new EASL season tips off on October 11.
“We’re building this team based on our learnings from the previous season, which was a successful one,” head coach Brian Goorjian said.
“We’re very excited about the potential of our roster this year and can’t wait to showcase our players’ talent to fans in Hong Kong and the world,” the six-time Australian National Basketball League champion added.
The Dragons will play their EASL home games in Hong Kong in the new season. The team has again signed up for the Philippine Basketball Association’s Commissioner’s Cup, in which they finished as runners-up to Barangay Ginebra after a seven-game thriller last season.
In the coming EASL season, the Dragons are in Group B alongside Ginebra, Japanese side Ryukyu Golden Kings, and Seoul SK Knights from South Korea – and Yang is “looking forward” to renewing rivalries.
“It’s going to be revenge season. We’re coming back for blood,” the 26-year-old said. “All those teams we’ve got history with … It’s going to be fun, it’s going to be a lot of action, it’s going to be intense.”
The Dragons will also play several exhibition games in China in September against CBA teams as part of their preseason preparations, with their schedule to be announced in the coming weeks.
