Taiwan was buzzing last week with the arrival of King James in town. He ran a couple of clinics and posed for pictures all over town, but nothing has received the buzz of this youtube clip. Unfortunately, I was slow on posting this and Yahoo already put it up. My favorite part of the video is watching the Taiwanese players and their utter lack of understanding that they are supposed to let LeBron do anything he wants to do. 

After five days of action we have passed the half-way point of the tournament. I have been able to see all the teams play more than once now, so I feel comfortable talking about the squads beyond a recitation of box scores (way to go Asia-basket). If you are interested in box score numbers you can find those on this link.

In years past the William Jones Cup has been a mixed bag of teams in terms of talent level, usually including some ‘B’ teams and some club teams from Australia or the US. While there is still a disparity in talent level between the teams this year, almost all of the teams have brought their ‘A’ squad in preparation for the FIBA Asia Championship coming up at the end of September (Japan being the notable exception). There have been some great games and some strong performances by teams and players alike. This is by far the best collection of teams I have seen in my five years of watching this event.

After five days the standings are as follow:

1) South Korea 5-0
2) Taiwan 4-1
3) Jordan 3-2
3) Philippines (Smart Gilas) 3-2
3) Iran 3-2
4) Japan 2-3
5) UAE 0-5
5) Malaysia 0-5

While South Korea sits at the top of the leaderboard at this time with a perfect record, I cannot say unequivocally that they are the best squad here. And that is not necessarily a knock on South Korea. What South Korea has shown is that they play with a consistency that is rare among Asian national teams.

Perhaps because life is busy I will take the easy way out and throw out a few observations that I have made during the tournament so far.

1)      Marcus Douthit is the best big man playing for an Asian national team. This statement probably will anger some other fans. Koreans will argue that Ha Seung-Jin is the best, but seeing his flat-footed performance against Iran showed how glaring a weakness his lack of athleticism is. Hamed Haddadi from Iran is usually discussed as the best big man from Asia. Haddadi is massive, and a force inside, but Douthit showed in their match-up how much of a liability Haddadi’s lack of quickness is. When Haddadi is on the floor, he gets points in the paint, but in turn clogs up his team’s offensive movements. While I am a fan of Taiwan’s Tseng Wen-ting, he just do not have the strength to handle a player of Douthit or Haddadi’s size in the post. For the teams that are not here, Lebanon has added Loren Woods, and China has Yi Jianlian and Wang Zhizhi. Woods is solid, but is not an intimidating factor on the offensive end. Wang is getting old, and Yi struggles to guard stronger players (well-documented during his NBA career). If Douthit plays to the level he has shown against Taiwan and Iran, the competition better take notice.

2)      Japanese basketball is going through a period of uncertainty and transition that extends beyond the JBL and bj league debacle. While there are many big name players not on the Jones Cup squad, it is hard to rationalize why you would be testing out young players one month before the FIBA Asia Championships. Every other team in this event is playing as close to full strength as they possibly can.

3)      Asia Basketball Update favorite Jet Chang can score at the international level. I have heard people mention that they are unsure how his skills translate outside of the DII world. Jet has received increasing in each game, culminating in his performance last night against the UAE. Taiwan was extremely sluggish after their emotional victory over Jordan the night before, but Jet poured in 20 points in the second half to spark the Taiwanese squad. In 21 minutes of action per game he is averaging 13.8 points.

4)      Of the nine best teams in the region only China, Lebanon, and Qatar are not here. Unfortunately for Iran, Taiwan, and Qatar, their grouping at the Asia Championship will prevent one of the teams from progressing to the Quarterfinal round. I predict the only drama over the first few days of that tournament will be in Group B.

5)      It may not be a real FIBA event, but after watching the drama in Jordan-Taiwan game it is clear that the regional rivalries are really heating up. Watching Zaid Abbas kick a chair 20 feet and the look of fear in the Taiwanese referee’s eyes was the highlight of the tournament for me so far!

Four more days of action coming up. Hopefully over the weekend I can take some time to edit some video clips to share some of the action with you.

Final Random Thought: There are three BYU-Hawaii alum playing in this tournament (Jet Chang, Wu Tai-hao, and Asi Taulava). If Yuta Tabuse was here it would be four. Pretty amazing the connections the Seasiders have developed in the region.

A few days ago Ed Odeven of the Japan Times floated the rumor that Lance Allred was close to signing with the Kyoto Hannaryz for next season. Once again Odeven was spot on, as I was able to confirm with Allred that in fact he has now officially signed the contract.

Allred had a short stint with the Cavs in 2008, and has played parts of five season in the D-League with Idaho and Utah. Internationally, Allred has played for teams in France, Italy, and New Zealand. From what I can tell, his only experience in Asia was when he played with a D-League All-Star team that toured China in 2008. 


Allred's signing is exciting news on multiple levels. First, this is big news for the bj league, as Allred is the biggest name to sign with a league team so far this off-season. Allred will be the fourth player with an NBA resume to play in the bj league following Abdul-Rauf, Satterfield, and Swift. As I discussed last season when following Jeremy Tyler, the bj league has the potential to be the most exciting and competitive league in Asia as teams are allowed three import players on the floor at any given time. The key is the bj league needs to get top-notch imports. Allred is such a player. This is also great news for Kyoto as they make a big splash with their first import signing of the off-season. Kyoto ended last season in the middle of the pack of the highly competitive Western Conference. At this early date Allred is the best big man in the league. If Kyoto is able to add some more strong imports they will be in good shape this season. The fact that Allred is a published author means there is a chance that a player will finally document playing ball in Asia.

Finally, on a personal note, I am beyond thrilled that Allred will be in my region of the world this season. In December 2003 I returned back to the US after two years in Japan. During that time I was unable to watch or play much basketball. The first game I saw in person was Weber State visiting BYU. While BYU handled the Wildcats pretty easily, the best part of the game was watching Weber State's surprisingly good, and at that point unknown, big man Lance Allred go head-to-head with Rafael Araujo. Allred scored 15 points that night despite constant double-teams. It was fun to be back in the States and watching basketball after two years away from the game. The next year Allred absolutely destroyed BYU inside with 27 points and 18 rebounds.

The Miri Firehorse taking the title in their first season in the NBL in what ended up being a very controversial final game. True to form the referees exerted control over the game early, calling lots of fouls early. This affected Perak most as star import Chris Kuete had to sit early with three fouls. Anthony Johnson stepped in and proved to be the star again for Miri as he took advantage of Kuete's absence to draw numerous fouls and get to the line 13 times during the game. Johnson ended with a team-high 23 points and 15 rebounds.