Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

LOS ANGELES—The NBA season may be over but there’s plenty of action in the basketball hardwood.

More than 200 prospects gathered at a pre-draft for the NBA Development league in Hawthorne last weekend including Aguilar, a 22-year-old from Pampanga, Philippines.

"This is really an opportunity for the players to come to one location in front of all our coaches, a lot of our scouts, league office people who’ll eventually sign the players to contracts, and an opportunity for them to showcase their skills to show what they can possibly do in the NBA D-League level," said Chris Alpert, vice president of Basketball Operations and player personnel for the NBA Development League.

The NBA D-League has produced a number of players to the NBA. Most notably, Shannon Brown of the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers was a member of three D-League teams before being called up. Former LA Clippers Bobby Simmons went from D-League player to winning the NBA’s Most Improved Player award in 2005.

Aguilar said that going through the D-League is a great way to get into the NBA.

"This experience is really good," added Aguilar to the Asian Journal. "You get a chance to compete with other people trying to make it to the next level too. You know they are going to give it their best. You can see how you compare yourself with them."

At 6’10", Aguilar has a big chance on making it to the NBA. The former Ateneo basketball star became the first Philippine born player to sign a Division I scholarship when he accepted a basketball scholarship to Western Kentucky University (WKU) two years ago.

Now, he’s hoping to be the first Philippine born player to make in the league.

Coming out of the Philippines, a lot of hype followed him to the US. However, nagging injuries while at WKU prevented him from fulfilling his potential.

Comments

Add New Search RSS

Write comment

Name: Email:  do not notifynotify Title: UBBCode:         -color-aquablackbluefuchsiagraygreenlimemaroonnavyolivepurpleredsilvertealwhiteyellow -size-tinysmallmediumlargehuge     Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by AJPress

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."