As eight basketball-playing international students appealed to the Taiwanese basketball industry after they were excluded from the draft of an upcoming new league merging the P.League+ and the T1 League, the new league’s preparatory committee spokesperson Chang Shu-jen (張樹人) yesterday said the committee would tomorrow discuss the supplementary measures and whether the international students can join the draft.
The students on Tuesday called for support on their right to play in the upcoming new league, after a merger involving the two leagues impacted their eligibility for the draft.
The international players from the University Basketball Association (UBA), led by first pick prospect Mouhamed Lamine Mbaye of National Chengchi University, issued a joint statement in Chinese one day after the P.League+ and the T1 League announced their decision to exclude them from the draft, which is scheduled to take place on July 15.
Photo: Chen chih-chu, Taipei Times
The decision came as part of ongoing discussions to flesh out the rules for the new league.
The two leagues said they excluded international students from the draft because the new league does not expect the students to “effectively elevate the competitiveness of Taiwan basketball on the international stage.”
Emphasizing that they followed the registration procedures for the P.League+ draft, the eight players said they never expected to be informed of their exclusion from the draft two days before the combine — a trial session —, in which they still plan to participate.
“It’s hard for us to accept the new league’s decision,” they said, adding that the remark that international students cannot effectively contribute to improving Taiwan’s competitiveness in basketball is “unconvincing” and “lacking evidence,” and might even be “discriminatory.”
The eight students in their joint statement said that they had all been looking forward to the P.League+ draft, and their families have spent large sums of money to fly to Taiwan to support them.
“Is our dream shattered in Taiwan now? Or is there still any room for a turnaround?” the eight students asked in their statement.
Following the announcement on Monday, four-time UBA champion coach Chen Tzu-wei (陳子威) expressed his dissatisfaction with the drastic change, writing on social media platform Threads that the change has not given schools and coaches any time to make adjustments.
The international students have received notifications from the P.League+, saying they can decide to join in the combine or withdraw from it.
The two leagues issued a response to the international students’ statement on Tuesday night, reiterating that the preparatory committee for the new league made the decision to bring Taiwan in line with other pro leagues in Asia.
It said that the decision was made in accordance with Taiwan’s laws, and the new league’s rules and regulations, which have not been made public.
The committee offered an apology to the international students for introducing the rule change, saying it hopes they would continue to thrive in Taiwan and hopefully play in the nation’s pro league as international players.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS