One Saint For Another?
Tagged in: In The News, NBL
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Grantley Bernard, The Herald Sun (Melbourne)
South Dragons are trialing American big man Bakari Hendrix as a potential replacement for former Century City Wellington Saints team-mate Nick Horvath as early as Sunday’s game against the Harvey Norman NZ Breakers.
The Dragons have started the Hummer NBL Championship season with a league-worst 0-6 record and head coach Shane Heal says a change was imminent in an effort to get the team back on track.
“I told Nick about 10 days ago we were going to make a change,” Heal said. “So we’ve brought Bakari in for a tryout and we’ll see where it goes. He might give us that extra inside presence that we need.”
Hendrix played three seasons at Gonzaga University in the NCAA and trialed with a number of NBA teams before playing in Europe and the NZ Dominion Finance NBL.
Breakers head coach Andrej Leamnis looked closely at the American 203cm, 104kg forward as a potential import earlier this year.
ìIíve seen him play there and heís obviously got some talent and a hell of a body on him, so I think heíd go well in Australia,î Lemanis said at the time.
The 30-year-old Hendrix has played in Turkey, Greece, Italy and France, gathering rave reviews.
“Bakari is just a phenomenal, dominating talent,î a San Francisco summer league assistant coach told examiner.com
“When you see his size, you don’t think he’ll be as agile as he is, but he reminds me of (Utah Jazz legend) Karl Malone with his strength, shooting ability and the way he can run the floor.î
“It’s just amazing to me he’s not in the (NBA).”
Meanwhile, Horvath could still remain as a Dragon despite the move if his pending New Zealand citizenship application were approved, allowing him to compete as a non-import player in the league.
