In a recent online
article, it was revealed that the PBA was mulling the possibility of
having, among other proposals, Asian imports in one of the reinforced
conferences.
I, for one, am all for this.
At the onset, Asian imports will
definitely add a different flavor to the PBA. The league’s millions and millions
of fans are already used to imports who ply their trade in the States and in
Europe (usual suspects like Gabe Freeman, Denzel Bowles, Marqus Blakely,
Arizona Reid, Rob Dozier, Evan Brock, and Paul Harris come to mind), but it
would be quite interesting to see if our Asian neighbors can also hack it in
our pro circuit.
It definitely wouldn’t be the first
time that Asians would be playing as imports in other Asian leagues. This
phenomenon has, in fact, been happening for a long time, especially in countries
like Lebanon, Jordan, and China. In the PBA, the only Asian import who was
recently employed, as far as I can remember, was naturalized Lebanese Jackson
Vroman, who donned the Ginebra jersey in the 2012 Commish Cup (rumors have it
that other former imports like Jarrid Famous, Nick Fazekas, and even Freeman
almost became naturalized players for other Asian countries, but things fell
through). In eleven games, Vroman normed 16.6 points, 12.0 rebounds, 4.1
assists, 2.4 blocks, and 1.4 steals per game.