Tainan TSG GhostHawks owner Taiwan Steel Group (TSG) has approved the signing of a marquee overseas player, with a deal for NBA free agent Carmelo Anthony in the works, coach Liu Meng-chu said yesterday.
At a pre-game news conference ahead of yesterday’s T1 League matchup against the Taoyuan Leopards, who Tainan beat at home 114-110, Liu said the GhostHawks had opened talks with the former Los Angeles Laker’s representatives.
The GhostHawks’ search for a high-profile addition follows the Leopards’ signing of Anthony’s former Lakers teammate Dwight Howard, who has not yet made his debut with the team.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Liu said that TSG chairman Hsieh Yu-min was enthusiastically trying to make a deal happen for the team and the future of Taiwanese basketball in the international market.
Howard’s addition to the Leopards would boost the team’s firepower and profile, Liu said, and likely pack arenas.
Following the Howard announcement, the Leopards on Thursday sold out 60,000 tickets for its four home games this month and next month within 10 minutes of going on sale on the KKTIX Web site.
Liu said he was excited about Howard’s recruitment into the T1 League, adding that Taiwan was blessed to have a player of the former Laker’s caliber.
Anthony and Howard played together last season and won a gold medal together with the US men’s basketball team at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Thirty-eight-year-old Anthony, a 10-time NBA All Star who has played for the Denver Nuggets, the New York Knicks, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Houston Rockets and the Portland Trail Blazers, became a free agent after the Lakers released him at the end of last season.
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