The Super Basketball League (SBL) introduced the starting lineups in this year’s All-Star Game in a press conference in Taipei yesterday afternoon, with commissioner Ting Shou-chung taking the stage with all 10 players and the two coaches to promote the mid-season local hoops gala.
With the world’s attention focused on the NBA’s Jeremy Lin, Ting promised that the SBL would do its part by treating fans around Taiwan to a weekend of basketball festivity as the All-Star Weekend moves to Greater Kaohsiung on Friday for the first time in league history to showcase the best of local talent as well as the foreign players.
“We will do our best to turn basketball into our national sport with more people playing the game than any other sport in the country,” Ting said yesterday.
Photo: Fang Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Dacin Tigers skipper Chiou Da-tsong will lead a starting five of Tien Lei (Tigers), Noel Felix (Tigers), Chou Bo-cheng (Yulon Luxgens), Wang Chih-chuin (Tigers) and Chen Chih-chung (Luxgens) for Team Blue to take on Team White, headed by Pure Youth Construction head coach Hsu Jin-tseh and a starting five consisting of Chen “Airman” Hsin-an (Pure Youth), Quincy Davis (Pure Youth), Chang Rong-hsuan (Taiwan Mobile Cloud Leopards) and Taiwan Beer backcourt tandem Wu Yong-ren and Yang Yu-ming.
The All-Star weekend at the Kaohsiung Arena in Greater Kaohsiung will feature a slam dunk contest, a three-point shootout, a skills challenge and an unprecedented shooting star contest in which the head coach from each team will suit up with members from the Women’s Super Basketball League (WSBL) to compete in a shooting contest, as well as an exhibition game between the foreign players (and players from the WSBL) and an all-star lineup of local rookies and second-year players on Saturday before Sunday’s All-Star Game.
Players will also have a chance to pick up more than NT$1 million (US$33,850) in prize money in this year’s All-Star Game, with the game’s Most Valuable Player eligible for NT$100,000, while the winners from the skills challenge, the slam dunk contest and the three-point shootout win NT$30,000 and the winning team gets a hefty check of NT$200,000.
Player of the Week
Yulon Luxgens forward Lu Cheng-rue was named this week’s Player of the Week for his outstanding efforts in guiding the Luxgens to a pair of big wins over Pure Youth Construction and Kinmen Kaoliang.
Lu scored a team-high 22 points in each game and shot 54 percent from behind the three-point line to make him one of the toughest outside threats in the league. It was the first time in his career that he was given the honor.
“It’s a great honor to win, given the number of outstanding players in the league,” Lu said earlier this week.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set