T1 League officials yesterday formally introduced US NBA star Dwight Howard to basketball fans in Taipei, ahead of his first game for the Taoyuan Leopards.
Howard is the biggest former NBA name to play in Taiwan, as the eight-time NBA All-Star and five-time rebound king promised to dominate play and bring a championship title to the Taoyuan club.
“This is going to be an awesome time, I can’t wait to get out there and play,” Howard told a press conference, adding that he takes the sport seriously, and aims to help the team win the league’s championship title.
Photo: AP
“This is not me coming here just hanging out. I told the team that I came here to win games. That is our mission. I am looking forward to dominating on the court,” he said.
He has been learning about Taiwan and its culture, so it would be an amazing experience to see cities around Taiwan and meet with fans, he said.
Having visited Taiwan twice before, in 2010 and 2013, for a promotional tour and an exhibition game, Howard said that Taiwanese fans were enthusiastic.
They treated him so well that he promised to come back again, he said, adding that he decided to play in Taiwan before ending his career.
The club’s chief executive officer, Johnny Chang (張建偉), said he had no hesitation signing Howard, and the effort had been worth it.
“When Howard confirmed he would play for us this season, he posted messages on Instagram with Taiwan’s national flag ... in doing so Howard is promoting Taiwan on the international stage,” Chang said.
“He is also promoting our T1 League for the world to see, and for our Leopards team and Taoyuan,” he added.
According to media reports, Howard inked an annual US$1 million deal to play in Taiwan for the Leopards.
Taiwan has three basketball leagues: The T1 League, in its second season, has six clubs based in six major cities; the P.League+, playing its third season, is also comprised of six teams; and the semi-professional Super Basketball League, which began in 2003 and is in its 20th season, operates with four teams.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS