Another Aussie team seeks stint in Invitational

The Cairns Taipans squad is another Australian professional club team which has expressed intention to compete in the PBA Asian Invitational Cup set to start July 20.

Cairns chief executive officer Steve Paxton, through US-based player agent Mike Gonzalez, asked the PBA on Tuesday information about the Invitationals, hoping to join fellow National Basketball League (NBL) team the Adelaide 36ers in the fight for the $20,000 cash pot in the tourney.

PBA operations officer Rickie Santos said they have admitted two foreign teams in the Adelaide 36ers and the Yugoslavian youth team. Only one slot for a guest team is open and the PBA is awaiting words from club teams in the Asian region.

Santos said they would entertain the applications of the Taipans and a college team from Canada if no Asian club teams accept invitation to play in the brief tourney.

The PBA board of governors was to discuss last Tuesday whether to tap imports for the PBA teams while facing formidable foreign squads in the Invitationals. The meeting was postponed because of the bad weather.

Cairns, founded only in 1999, ranked three rungs below Adelaide at No. 8 in the most recent NBL campaign topped by the Sydney Kings.

Coached by Molloy Guy, the Taipans feature two American imports in Mee Darrell and Wells Jayson and New Zealand behemoth Tony Rampton. Paxton, however, said they’re willing to compete in the PBA minus Darrell and Jayson. Darrell, a 6-foot-5 guard from West Kentucky, was picked 34th overall by the Golden State Warriors in the 1993 NBA draft and had a two-year stint with the Denver Nuggets.

If ever, the seven-foot Rampton, 32, is to spearhead Cairns’ campaign in the Invitationals. The other members of the team are Anthony Stewart, Brad Davidson, Rupert Sapwell, Kane Oakley, Aaron Grabau, Rowan Gray, Andrew Clarke and Ben Arkell.

Rampton, who suited up for Iowa State in the US NCAA from 1995-1999, was a member of the New Zealand national team from 1999-2001. He won the MVP honors in the 2000 Jones Cup in Taiwan before bannering the New Zealand squad in the Sydney Olympics in the same year.

The three guest teams compete with six PBA teams and the Philippine national squad in the Invitationals. The PBA teams which have gained outright entry into the tourney are Red Bull, Talk N Text, Coca-Cola, FedEx and San Miguel Beer. Alaska, Sta. Lucia Realty, Ginebra, Purefoods and Shell dispute the last slot in a round-robin affair serving as appetizer in the All-Filipino finals.