Week nine’s Super Basketball League (SBL) Player of the Week honor went to a very deserving Chen Hsuen-shiang, who won the nod from the members of the Basketball Writers’ Association for his outstanding efforts over a three-game stretch last weekend.
The soft-spoken forward for the last-placed Bank of Taiwan proved that the coveted weekly award does not always go to a player on a winning team, but rather to someone who brings the greatest impact to his club. His 29-point outing with five threes was the main reason that the bankers were able to pull off a 108-102 shocker in double overtime against heavily favored Taiwan Beer for only their third win of the season.
“When they first called me about it [winning the Player of the Week honor], I thought it was a prank call,” Chen said at the league’s weekly press conference.
“I would like to thank the coaches for leaving me in the game long enough to help the team win,” he said.
Chen and the rest of the Bank of Taiwan squad will try to add to their winning total with a victory against the red-hot Yulon Luxgens at 8pm this evening at the Taipei Municipal Gymnasium.
It will be an uphill battle for the Bankers all the way, since the Luxgens have won nine straight under the leadership of veteran point man Chen Chih-chung, last week’s Player of the Week, and are not about to let the Bankers spoil their bid to win 10 in a row.
Also worth exploring is the factor of how well the Bankers’ interior defense can contain Yulon big man Tseng Wen-ding, who can post up well against anyone inside the paint and hit the mid-range jumper if he needs to.
Today’s other game promises to be an interesting contest between the Taiwan Mobile Leopards and Kinmen Liquor at 6pm in which the Distillers, losers of five straight, will do whatever it takes to win in order to keep their playoff hopes alive.
As for the Leopards, who have lost five of their last six and are in desperate need of a big win, another loss would seriously dent their postseason prospects.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later