Kurt Rambis among former Los Angeles Lakers slated to coach Chinese teams – NBA Update
After the influx of the National Basketball Association players in the Chinese Basketball Association, now it’s the turn of the coaches. As per reports, three top coaches from NBA have also found work in the Chinese league, the
regular season of which will begin from this Sunday.
Incidentally, all three coaches are ex-Lakers and the list also includes Kurt Rambis, the Minnesota Timberwolves head coach, who was fired about three months back. The other two are Jim Cleamons and Danniel Mauro Panaggio.
All three veterans boast of a good coaching experience, but they have never touched Chinese league before and as such this will be a completely new experience for them.
Chinese league might not be as competitive as NBA is, but still they maintain a good standard and it was because of that very reason that they were able to produce international players like Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian.
The influx of these coaches will go a long way in introducing the “triangle offense” strategy in the Chinese league.
Cleamons has a signed one year deal with Zhejiang Guangsha. The team management wanted their team to improve its rank in the next season therefore club manager Ye Xiangyu spent a handsome amount to get the services of coach Cleamons.
In the last season of the Chinese league, Zhejiang attained sixth spot among the eight teams that had qualified for the 2011 playoffs.
Cleamons has earlier coached Dallas Mavericks for one year as head coach and has taken uo the contract for one year. The main highlight of Cleamons squad in the Chinese league is the ex-starting forward of the Denver Nuggets, Wilson
Chandler. In addition to that Zhejiang also have the services of ex-NBA player Josh Boone.
In contrast to Cleamons, the other two coaches, Panaggio and Rambis, have signed long contracts with their respective teams. Panaggio has inked a four year deal with Shanghai Sharks which is owned by Yao Ming, whereas Rambis will
provide assistance to Panaggio during his tenure in the Chinese league.
Rambis couldn’t take a full time coaching job, as he is still under contract with ESPN, but has promised that he’ll keep helping the Sharks.
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