Former NBA center DeMarcus Cousins has joined the T1 League’s Taiwan Beer Leopards and is expected to make his on-court debut on Jan. 20, the Taoyuan-based team said yesterday.
The addition of the four-time NBA All-Star was a major boost, not only for the Leopards’ competitiveness, but for Taiwanese basketball as a whole, the team said in a statement.
“We’re confident that with [Cousins’] all-around skills, he will bring a totally new chemistry to the Leopards,” Leopards chief executive Johnny Chang (張建偉) said.
Photo: Cary Edmondson-USA Today
Cousins is expected to arrive in Taiwan in the middle of next month — about midway through the T1 League’s 2023-2024 season — and would be on the court for the team’s Jan. 20, 21, 27 and 28 home games, the Leopards said.
In a video message on Facebook, 33-year-old Cousins greeted his fans in Taiwan, saying he was “excited to come over and put on a show for you.”
Cousins, a 208cm center, was selected by the Sacramento Kings as the fifth overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft.
In a decade-plus career in the NBA spent mostly with the Kings, the New Orleans Pelicans and the Golden State Warriors, Cousins averaged 19.6 points, 10.2 rebounds and three assists per game over 654 games played.
He was also an NBA All-Star four times and won gold medals for the US at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
He played his last games in the NBA in the 2021-2022 season.
The Leopards are second in the five-team T1 League with a 5-4 record, behind reigning champions New Taipei CTBC DEA at 7-3.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
NATURAL INTERRUPTION: As cables deteriorate, core wires snap in progression along the cable, which does not happen if they are hit by an anchor, an official said Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) immediately switched to a microwave backup system to maintain communications between Taiwan proper and Lienchiang County (Matsu) after two undersea cables malfunctioned due to natural deterioration, the Ministry of Digital Affairs told an emergency news conference yesterday morning. Two submarine cables connecting Taiwan proper and the outlying county — the No. 2 and No. 3 Taiwan-Matsu cables — were disconnected early yesterday morning and on Wednesday last week respectively, the nation’s largest telecom said. “After receiving the report that the No. 2 cable had failed, the ministry asked Chunghwa Telecom to immediately activate a microwave backup system, with
RSS