New Taipei Kings star Jeremy Lin and Daron Russell, a new addition to the New Taipei CTBC DEA, have been named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Players of the Month for March, the league announced yesterday.
The league awards two players every month, one for Taiwanese (called “non-imports”) and the other for foreign nationals (“imports”).
The former NBA star averaged 23.8 points and 5.3 assists over four games to earn the non-imports honor for the second time in the league’s inaugural season. He helped the Kings stay atop the seven-team TPBL with a 4-1 record last month.
Photo: CNA
Lin, a Taiwanese-American, qualifies as a non-import as he obtained a Taiwanese passport in 2020.
He on March 23 scored 36 points, including seven three-pointers, in the Kings’ 108-97 victory over the Taoyuan Leopards. On March 30, he scored 12 points in the fourth quarter to help the Kings outlast the DEA 100-98.
Lin received 15 first-place votes out of 24 from the media and won fans’ support with 1,920 votes — nearly 1,000 more than Leopards point guard Gao Jin-wei, who received 969.
Now 36, the former NBA combo guard first claimed the award in November last year, but the spotlight shifted to Gao in December and again in the first two months of this year.
Russell, who made his DEA debut on Feb. 28, averaged 28.3 points, seven assists, five rebounds and 2.8 steals over four games last month. He scored more than 35 points in two of them.
The DEA went 5-2 during the month, winning all four games in which Russell played.
The American point guard tallied 37 points in the DEA’s 116-106 win over the Leopards on March 2, then scored 40 points on the Taipei Taishin Mars on March 9.
His 21-point fourth quarter on March 2 broke the previous single-quarter scoring record of 16.
Russell emerged the winner of the monthly award for foreign players with an overall 33.6 percent of support, followed by Kings center Jason Washburn, who had 31.4 percent.
As of yesterday, the Kings led the league with a 20-6 record, while the DEA were in fourth place at 14-14.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
Taiwanese e-sports veteran Lin “ET” Chia-hung yesterday successfully defended his King of Fighters XV title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan), securing his second consecutive championship. Lin claimed victory with a 3-1 win over Japanese pro gamer “mok” in the grand final, repeating his earlier 3-1 win against the same opponent in the winners’ final. The 40-year-old earned a ¥1 million (US$6,897) cash prize at the two-day tournament, which drew 294 competitors. Mok, Lin’s toughest rival in the bracket, took home ¥400,000 as runner-up. Lin remains undefeated in match sets against mok in King of Fighters XV, holding a 10-0 record,
Batting great Virat Kohli yesterday announced his immediate retirement from Test cricket, just days before India name their squad for a tour to England. Kohli, who scored 9,230 runs in 123 matches at an average of 46.85, posted his decision on Instagram five days after India captain Rohit Sharma called time on his own Test career. Since making his debut in 2011, Kohli struck 30 hundreds and 31 fifties with a highest score of 254 not out, mainly batting at number four in the order. “It’s been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket,” the