{"id":23711,"date":"2021-09-10T09:14:01","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T23:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.draftcentral.com.au\/?p=23711"},"modified":"2021-09-10T09:14:01","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T23:14:01","slug":"nbl-bullets-go-global-with-impressive-double-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/nbl-bullets-go-global-with-impressive-double-signing\/","title":{"rendered":"NBL: Bullets go global with impressive double signing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WITH the NBL season only a couple of months away, the Brisbane Bullets have made waves across the league, signing a pair of impressive international players, including one NBA hopeful. Spanish guard <strong>Tom Digbeu <\/strong>has joined the side as a part of the NBL\u2019s Next Stars program, a pathway that has potential to lead to the NBA. Brisbane has also announced the addition China\u2019s <strong>Chuanxing Liu<\/strong>, as the league\u2019s relationship with FIBA\u2019s Asian region grows. Liu will also be the tallest player in league history at 225cm (7 ft 5 in).<\/p>\n<p>Digbeau joins the league from BC Prienai in the Lithuanian Basketball League, which is held in high regard. He had a strong junior career through FC Barcelona\u2019s basketball academy, before moving to BC Preinai. His father, <em><strong>Alain<\/strong><\/em>, was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the 1997 NBA draft. Digbeu hopes to follow in his father\u2019s footsteps, eligible for the 2023 NBA draft.<\/p>\n<p>The NBL has seen multiple NBA draftees opt for the league over the USA\u2019s collegiate system, such as <strong>LaMelo Ball<\/strong>, <strong>RJ Hampton<\/strong> and <strong>Josh Giddey<\/strong>. With international stars emerging across the NBA, particularly<strong> Luka Doncic<\/strong>, the gates are opening for international talents around the world to make the world\u2019s biggest league, a goal firmly in Digbeu\u2019s sights.<\/p>\n<p>NBL commissioner<em><strong> Jeremy Loeliger<\/strong> <\/em>says the league is thrilled to host NBA hopefuls, with Digbeu a welcome addition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe NBL has never been stronger and its status in world basketball has never been more prominent. The league has proven itself as a legitimate and consistent pathway to the NBA and it is now a prime destination for top young players from all around the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDigbeu has strong basketball pedigree and possesses all the tools to be an NBA player. We look forward to watching his development at Brisbane this season as he joins a new and exciting group of Bullets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With the NBL 2021-22 season just over two months away, Digbeu told of his eagerness to join the Bullets for the upcoming campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Bullets will give me a real chance to develop as a player and as a young man.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe NBL is very well known around the world for its competitiveness, and I know that I will have to play at my maximum level of effort to deserve playing time. This is what I promise to my new club and to the fans, that I will work at my top level every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liu should also give both Bullets and NBL fans cause for excitement, with the rebounding machine coming off a career-best season for the Qingdao Eagles, averaging 9.4 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, while participating as a part of China\u2019s Olympic qualifier team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WITH the NBL season only a couple of months away, the Brisbane Bullets have made waves across the league, signing a pair of impressive international players, including one NBA hopeful. Spanish guard Tom Digbeu has joined the side as a part of the NBL\u2019s Next Stars program, a pathway that has potential to lead to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":23712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2732,188,3835,10,2871],"tags":[220,5761,432,1945,219,5762,1947,5760],"class_list":["post-23711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brisbane-bullets","category-international","category-nba-draft","category-nbl","category-news","tag-brisbane-bullets","tag-chuanxing-liu","tag-josh-giddey","tag-lamelo-ball","tag-nbl","tag-nbl-next-step","tag-rj-hampton","tag-tom-digbeu"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23711"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23715,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23711\/revisions\/23715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}