ABL: Warriors sign John Smith
Defending ASEAN Basketball League champions the Indonesia Warriors have signed veteran John Smith ahead of Friday's season opener.
Smith was formally unveiled to the media this afternoon and it is understood that the former Saigon Heat player has been brought into the squad to help the Warriors cope with the loss of injured star point guard Stanley Pringle.
"We still hope the that Stanley healing process will be fast, but right now we had to anticipate every aspect that we can and signing John Smith is one of it," Rudolf Tulus, Warriors vice managing director, said on the team's website.
Pringle has been ruled out of action for the next 12 weeks after undergoing surgery on a meniscus injury on January 4th while the Warriors begin their defence of the ABL crown on Friday in Jakarta against the San Miguel Beermen.
"We need some additional ball handling and I think John brings that right away. We will spend today [Wednesday], tomorrow [Thursday] and Friday morning going over some of our sets offensively and defensively," Warriors' head coach John Todd Purves said.
"John is a veteran player so nothing is going to be particularly new to him. I expect him to play on Friday but there is no pressure on him to do anything special. I'm excited to have John join us."
Smith averaged 9.14 points and 5.14 rebounds per game last season with the Heat.
ESPN STAR Sports' coverage of the 2013 ABL season will include more than 30 regular and post-season games with dedicated coverage every Friday night from 11th January to 19th May 2013 on its new "Friday Night Basketball" time slot (8pm in the Hong Kong time zone).