Rain or Shine taps Antoine Wright as replacement for injured Wayne Chism
Sports5/Pranz Kaeno Billones The Rain or Shine Elasto Painters had been preparing to play All-Filipino in their game against Barangay Ginebra San Miguel on Sunday when head coach Yeng Guiao received the call that former NBA player Antoine Wright was available and willing to play in the PBA. Listed 6-foot-7, Wright was the first round overall pick of the New Jersey Nets in the 2005 Rookie Draft and the 32-year-old veteran will be bringing in a wealth of experience from playing in different countries like the United States, Spain, Venezuela, China and Israel. Wright will be arriving from Los Angeles early Sunday morning, though, and Guiao isn’t planning on relying on him too much in his first game. “We won’t utilize him much. We will walk through him with our system and have him suit up. But there’s no guarantee we will play him more,” Guiao told InterAksyon.com in a telephone interview. “We’ve prepared to play All-Filipino and baka instead of makatulong, makasama pa. We’ll see in the first few minutes how he’s adjusted.” Guiao has studied the video on Wright and has noticed the difference between his playing style and that of injured import Wayne Chism, who Wright will be replacing. The coach is confident they can work around that, though. “Wright is more of a wing guy, but we can figure out a way on how we can play him at stretch four,” Guiao said. Aside from the Nets, Wright also played for three other NBA teams – the Dallas Mavericks, where he had his best scoring average of close to six points per game, the Toronto Raptors and the Sacramento Kings – before bringing his wares to China in 2010. He spent the last three seasons playing in Israel. http://j.mp/1oAXxgm
