The former NBA champ apparently wants to play in the PBA. Unfortunately, there might be obstacles beyond his control.
It appears the PBA has earned the fancy of an ex-NBA champion: Nick Young.
Young recently tweeted his apparent interest to play in Asia's oldest pay-for-play league.
If anything, Young would give any PBA team a proven scorer. After all, he did score 11.4 points a game for his career. He even averaged over 16 points for a full season three times.
He would also bring an element of intrigue, that cult of personality forged from the Swaggy P persona.
Put simply, Young in the PBA makes sense for both parties.
Author and writer Rafe Bartholomew, who himself has established a unique connection to the Philippines, tweeted that the prospect of Young playing in the PBA is legit. Even Myles Powell and Quincy Miller, imports in the ongoing PBA Commissioner’s Cup, believe Young will ball in the PBA soon enough.
Despite Swaggy P’s interest in taking his talents to the Philippines, he faces a few hurdles.
The first is the height requirement. The upcoming Governor’s Cup caps the height limit at 6-foot-6, and most accounts list Young at 6-foot-7. It is possible he is actually 6-6 without shoes, so a PBA team will have to do its homework to make sure he does not overshoot the height limit.
But then again, there’s also his age and game shape. The former USC Trojan is already 37 and has largely been away from the game since 2018.
The financial ramification of signing Young is another obstacle. Getting him on-board won’t be cheap, and that may eliminate a few teams from the Swaggy P sweepstakes. Some other teams, on the other hand, have already signed up their own imports. San Miguel, Ginebra, and Meralco already have Marcus Weathers, Justin Brownlee, and KJ McDaniels, respectively.
Talk ‘n Text seems to be the likeliest potential destination of Young because of his friendship with Mikey Williams. But it’s also not a sure thing. All signs point to the Tropang Giga wanting to go all out next conference, and they might have found a gem in Matt Mobley, who replaced the injured Cam Oliver.
Besides, if this Young-to-the-PBA thing does have legs, it would be all over the news already. But it isn’t, and that’s likely because there is nothing to it—at least not yet.
Maybe it’s best to not get your hopes up just yet. Then again, crazier things have happened in local hoops.