AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER
RIVER Hoopers have added American duo Chris Daniel, Taren Sullivan and National Basketball Association (NBA) Champion Festus Ezeli to their roster ahead of the upcoming Basketball Africa League (BAL). The Nigerian outfit has set about assembling a powerhouse squad for the first installment of the competition.
Ezeli won the NBA Championship in 2015 with the Golden State Warriors. Unfortunately injuries limited Ezeli’s time in the NBA in 2015-16 – He was planning a comeback before signing with the River Hoopers. In his final season with the Warriors, Ezeli averaged 7.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks in 16.7 minutes.
Daniel was recently was a part of the United States of America Basketball Men’s AmeriCup Qualifying Team in February 2021. Daniel played in both games for the USA helping them to wins over Bahamas (93-77) and Mexico (95-76). In the two games, he averaged 3.0 minutes, 2.5 points per game (ppg) and 1.5 rebounds per game (rpg).
The River Hoopers, Nigeria’s BAL representatives’ new signing Daniel last suited up for the Alaska Aces of the Philippine Basketball Association in 2019. He has also played for Santa Cruz Warriors and Erie Bayhawks in the National Basketball Association (NBA) G-League, the NBA development league.
Sullivan is a 6’6” small forward who most recently played for Stockton Kings and Erie BayHawks in NBA G-League. He averaged 7.7ppg, 4rpg in 30 games played in the 2019/2020 season.
Hoopers have also added Nigeria national team weapon Ben Uzoh, who currently plies his trade for Paris Basketball in France’s second division. Uzoh is another signing brought in to strengthen Rivers Hoopers ahead of the inaugural BAL season.
Uzoh went undrafted in the 2010 NBA Draft, after a collegiate career at The University of Tulsa, but was signed by the New Jersey Nets. He played for a year in Russia with Lokomotiv Kuban before returning to the NBA with the Toronto Raptors. Uzoh previously impressed for Nigeria at the 2015 African Basketball Championship (AfroBasket) – where Nigeria were gold medalists- and 2016 Rio Olympics.
They join Nigerian international Uchenna Iroegbu. Iroegbu competed in the national team where he represented Nigeria at the 2020-2021 AfroBasket qualifiers in Monastir, Tunisia and 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
The BAL season is set to tip-off on May 16.
