Home|Sports|‘EJ’ brings veteran leadership to Team BahamasSports
Simba FrenchSend an emailAugust 9, 2023 31 3 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email
The Bahamas woke up to some good news over the weekend as it revealed that National Basketball Association (NBA) veteran guard Eric ‘EJ’ Gordon, currently teammates with DeAndre Ayton on the Phoenix Suns, was released by USA Basketball and became eligible to play for The Bahamas at the upcoming FIBA (International Basketball Federation) Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournaments.
The tournaments will be held from August 12-20 for 40 teams from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe. They will all battle for spots for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.
The Bahamas Basketball Federation (BBF) finally got word that USA Basketball released Gordon on Monday which FIBA approved. Gordon was allowed to change his country of representation based on Article 22 of the FIBA Internal Regulations. USA Basketball had to release Gordon because he represented them at the 2010 FIBA World Cup.
The team already features three other NBA players – forward/center Ayton, Indiana Pacers’ guard Chavano ‘Buddy’ Hield and the Charlotte Hornets’ Kai Jones.
The news comes just in time as the deadline for the 24-man roster for the tournaments was Monday. President of the BBF Eugene Horton said he is elated to have Gordon on the national team, a move the BBF was trying to accommodate from as early as 2006.
“It feels great to finally welcome Eric (Gordon). It has been years in the making and to see it come to fruition, [it] takes Bahamas Basketball to a whole other level,” Horton said.
Horton added that Gordon brings veteran depth and leadership to the team.
“I think the addition of Gordon, along with Buddy and Ayton as well as the supporting members of the team – the other players, coaches, trainers and admin staff – we have the best chance we’ve had in years to make a great impact and qualify,” Horton said.
Gordon, who was drafted seventh overall in the NBA Draft in 2008, split his season a year ago with the Los Angeles Clippers who drafted him and the Houston Rockets. He averaged 12.4 points, 2.7 assists and 1.9 rebounds per game. He averaged 1.9 three-pointers per game and shot 44.6 percent from the field. Over 15 years in the league, he is averaging 16 points, 2.8 assists and 2.4 rebounds per game, and is shooting at a 37.1 percent clip from deep.
The tournaments will feature 28 nations that competed in the second round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers but failed to qualify for this year’s world cup, as well as the highest-ranked national teams that did not qualify for the second round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers.
For this region, The Bahamas will battle against seven other nations, with just the winner of the tournament joining 19 FIBA Basketball World Cup teams to compete in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments that will take place from July 2-7, 2024. The others from this region are Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Panama, Uruguay and the US Virgin Islands. Argentina is the cream of the crop, ranked number two in the Americas behind the United States and number four in the world according to the latest FIBA World Rankings presented by Nike.
The Bahamas is in Group A with Argentina, Cuba and Panama, and they will play at the Ciudad de Santiago del Estero Stadium in Santiago del Estero, Argentina. The Bahamas’ first game will be against Cuba on Monday, August 14 at 6:10 p.m. On Wednesday, August 16 at 8:10 p.m., they will face Argentina.
In preparation for the tournament, The Bahamas played two scrimmage games against the University of Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball team. They lost the first game, 92-87, on Saturday and won the second, 87-81, on Monday.
Chile, Colombia, the US Virgin Islands and Uruguay will compete in Group B at the Vicente Rosales de La Banda Stadium in La Banda, Argentina. The top two teams in each group will advance to the semifinals and the winners of the semifinal games will advance to the final, set for Sunday, August 20 at 8:10 p.m. at the Ciudad de Santiago del Estero Stadium.
The other players in the training camp in Puerto Rico for The Bahamas ahead of the Olympic pre-qualifying tournament are Dominick Bridgewater, Jaraun ‘Kino’ Burrows, Garvin Clarke, Kadeem Coleby, Radshad Davis, Sammy Hunter, Danrad Knowles, Lourawls ‘Tum Tum’ Nairn, Willis Mackey Jr., Franco Miller, Travis Munnings, Kentwan Smith, David Nesbitt, AJ Storr and Mychel Thompson.