The Kaohsiung Steelers have confirmed rumors that they are trying to recruit NBA star Jeremy Lin for next season, admitting they face challenges, but saying they are not giving up.
Steelers general manager Kenny Kao told the Central News Agency in an interview in Taipei this week that the Steelers are trying to enlist Lin, but face competition from other P.League+ clubs.
“If you have a great talent, you have someone that’s a legendary figure and likely the best Asian basketball player ever, and you don’t pursue that kind of talent, you’re not doing your job right,” Kao said.
Photo: AP
Lin rose to fame in 2012 as a member of the New York Knicks when, as the first American of Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA, he unexpectedly led the Knicks to a winning turnaround and inspired the “Linsanity” craze.
He has been a hot topic on the Internet with fans and media trying to guess his next move, as he has not yet been signed by any club in the Chinese Basketball Association, where he played last season for the Beijing Ducks.
Hence, fans and media have speculated that Lin might play in one of Taiwan’s professional leagues, just like his younger brother, Joseph Lin, who plays in the P.League+ for the Taipei Fubon Braves.
Commenting on such speculation, Kao said that every general manager of a club in the P.League+ is trying to enlist Jeremy Lin.
“If you ask any general manager of this league: ‘Are you trying to get Jeremy?’ If he says no, then there’s two possibilities — one possibility is he is lying, the second possibility is that he is going to get fired,” Kao said.
One of the challenges the Steelers face when competing with other teams for Jeremy Lin is the imbalance of resources between northern and southern Taiwan.
“The north maybe can say that it has more hipper things than we do, but that’s no reason to get upset and stop trying. So, like I said, if we don’t try for it, we are neglecting our fans’ wishes,” Kao said.
Apart from trying to recruit the former NBA sensation, Kao said that another goal he has is to build the right culture for the club, so Kaohsiung residents would identify with the club and be proud to tell people they are “Steelers fans.”
He hopes to achieve that by showing everyone the dedication of his staff and the passion of his players when competing with their hearts out on the court, he said.
“I think the fans will appreciate that and I hope they will appreciate the struggle too, because it’s not going to be an instant success. In basketball it’s hard to get instant success because everything is accumulative,” Kao said.
Echoing Kao, Steelers head coach Slavoljub Lale Gorunovic said that he has big expectations for next season.
“I hope next season will be much better than last season because we have more time for preparations and I hope our roster will be stronger,” the Serbian said.
The Steelers were one of two teams, the other being the Taoyuan Pilots, that did not advance into the playoffs last season. The Kaohsiung team finished fifth in the six-team league’s regular-season standings with a 9-20 record.
MOTHER KNOWS BEST: Warriors’ coach Kerr said his 91-year-old mother criticized him for his attitude toward officials that led to his ejection from Monday’s game Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on Wednesday rescued the Oklahoma City Thunder with a game-tying buzzer-beater before finishing with 46 points in a 129-125 overtime victory against the Utah Jazz. The reigning NBA champions looked to be heading for a third straight loss after the Jazz inched into a 114-112 lead following Lauri Markkanen’s layup with just three seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. However, NBA Most Valuable Player Gilgeous-Alexander drained a superb 13-foot jump shot to tie it up at 114-114 as the buzzer sounded to send the game into overtime. Gilgeous-Alexander then took over in the extra period with nine points as the Western
Manchester City have confirmed defender Josko Gvardiol suffered a broken leg in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium. Gvardiol was one of two City centerbacks who went off injured in the second half, along with Ruben Dias, before Enzo Fernandez scored a stoppage-time equalizer for the visitors. The draw left second-placed City six points behind English Premier League leaders Arsenal. City, announcing Gvardiol sustained a tibial fracture to his right leg, added in a statement issued on Monday: “The defender will have surgery later this week and assessment remains ongoing to ascertain the full extent of the
AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE: Sabalenka aims to follow up with a third Australian Open win, while Taiwanese Joanna Garland claimed a WTA 125 title in Canberra Aryna Sabalenka beat Karolina Muchova in straight sets to reach her third Brisbane International final in a row yesterday, a week ahead of the Australian Open. Sabalenka looked in great touch against the tricky Czech, who had won their last three meetings and went into the match as one of the few players with a winning record over the world No. 1. However, Sabalenka showed her class and power as she broke Muchova once in each set to take the semi-final 6-3, 6-4 in 89 minutes to face Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in the final. “I struggled against her a couple of times [in
His team were knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in agonizing fashion on Tuesday, but the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DR Congo) human statue Michel Kuka Mboladinga would be remembered as the tournament’s most remarkable supporter. The colorfully dressed Kuka has earned fame as the fan who stands completely immobile throughout his team’s games, looking toward the sky with his right arm raised and palm open. He has become a media star and on Tuesday was accompanied by a delegation of several hundred Congolese supporters whose trip to Morocco was paid for by the country’s government. They took their
RSS