Ace guard expects war against RP

TIANJIN – Jordan star guard Rasheim Wright opted to downplay his team’s chances against Powerade Team Pilipinas in their quarterfinal showdown in the 25th FIBA Asia Championship today at the Tianjin Gym.

The naturalized Jordanian said the result of their Jones Cup meeting, where they beat the Filipinos by 31 points, can’t be used as a gauge of their rematch here, pointing out Powerade-RP has improved a lot since the Taiwan tourney last month.

“I know that this is not your Tokushima team and that the new team started training only before the Jones Cup. We beat them in the Jones Cup but it didn’t mean a thing,” said Wright.

“They have improved a lot since then, specially here playing nip-and-tuck basketball. I expect war tomorrow (today), and may the best team win,” Wright said.

The 6-foot-3 do-it-all guard said he knows a lot about Philippine basketball since Gabe Norwood is his friend in the United States.

He said he used to play football with Gabe’s older brother.

Massively-built, Wright was a quarterback in high school before shifting to basketball in college, playing for District Columbia University.

He was recruited to play for Jordan just before the Tokushima meet, playing a key role as they knocked out the Philippines in preliminary play.

Wright leads the current Asian tourney with 20.0 points a game, going with his other norms of 3.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists.

He had 28 points against China, 29 against Kazakhstan and 23 points against Lebanon in Group D of the preliminaries.

Coming off the bench in Taipei, Wright scored 12 points and had three rebounds and three assists as Jordan routed the Philippines, 90-59, at the start of the Jones Cup tournament. – Nelson Beltran