Former Thunder player Josh Hall signed with South African team Cape Town Tigers for the 2023 BAL season.
South Africa Rumors
Former Pistons player Michael Gbinije signed with South African team Cape Town Tigers for the 2022-23 season.
Pack joins Al Harrington, who is an assistant coach with the South Africa Cape Town Tigers, as the only two former NBA players coaching in the 12-team league. “I’m always in the mode of teaching, especially people that really want to learn the game and then at the same time compete,” Pack said. “So, I thought it was a chance for me to grow as a coach and get an opportunity to be a head coach.”
Time will tell if Gentry is still the head coach of the Kings by the time he turns 68 on Nov. 5, 2022. Regardless of whether the Shelby, North Carolina, native is with Sacramento or elsewhere, he will always be appreciative of his time in the NBA that began in 1989 as an assistant coach under Larry Brown with the San Antonio Spurs. “Look at how the league in general has grown and what [former NBA commissioner] David Stern did to this league and how he made it so globally,” Gentry said. “I remember taking a trip to Africa [with] me, Wes Unseld and Alex English, and David Stern went. And we went to South Africa. We had dinner with Nelson Mandela. We did things like that that you could only dream of as a kid from Shelby, North Carolina.
Boris Diaw: I did eight safaris in a row when I was playing because we didn’t have much time. And so for like eight years, I went every year. Where would you go? Diaw: South Africa is like a good place to start because it’s everything. It’s easier. Everything is close. You got small planes that take you to all these places. Then I think Tanzania was pretty cool, but my favorite was Botswana. There’s a place called Okavango Delta, which is like flooded in some seasons and then it gets dry sometime, and then you got all the in between so it’s pretty cool you got all the animals all the life the predators also coming because of all the life and so it’s just a great place to go. Any close calls on safari? Diaw: A few, a few [laughs].
So Biyombo and Walker were essentially basketball ambassadors. “I remember we were in South Africa,” Biyombo said. “We were supposed to play the game, and we were going to dinner, and then they said we’ve got to change. So we all went to change, and then we all come out — we literally had the same clothes on. It was literally the funniest shit. Everybody was like, ‘Man, what are you guys doing?’ So we go way back. We don’t have to force it, we are just down. We go beyond basketball. “I call him my brother from another mother. His mom always made sure we were good. But we are family — we’re family. He’s always going to be family, no matter if we are wearing a different jersey or not. Family is always going to be family.”
