REGGIO EMILIA – A new piece is added to the roster of big men Reggiana Basketball: the club has in fact reached an agreement until the end of the season with the 35-year-old centre Kenneth Faried.
Pivot of 203 centimeters, he was chosen with the 22nd call in the 2011 draft and played a total of eight seasons in the NBA with the jerseys of Denver (along with Gallinari), Brooklyn and Houston, collecting almost 500 appearances between the regular season and the playoffs and dressing the Team USA shirt for the 2014 World Championships in Spain where the Americans won the gold medal.
After some experiences in China and Puerto Rico, as well as a brief period at CSKA Mosca, Faried played last season in the G-League at the Mexico City Capitanes, finishing with 12.7 points and 11.3 rebounds on average, before moving until a few weeks ago ago in the Mexican championship with the Soles de Mexicali, reaching the championship semi-finals and averaging 10.6 points and 8.6 rebounds in 27 games.
This is how Coach introduced him Dimitris Priftis: “Kenneth is a player with a great NBA career behind him. He is a big man from whom we expect physicality, efficiency under the basket, personality and experience. He is a competitive athlete, who will bring energy and intensity. Obviously, he is not very familiar with European basketball, having only had a brief career move to CSKA a few years ago, but I believe that, thanks to his qualities, his character and his experience, he will quickly adapt to our team.”
These are Faried’s first words: “I’m really excited to be able to continue my career in Italy and have the opportunity to show all my skills with the Reggio Emilia shirt. This team has a great culture and its fans, from what I understand, participate with enormous energy in the matches. Even more so, given these premises, I want to make all my determination and hardness on the parquet available to the club, so that the Reggio Emilia community can immediately welcome me as one of their own.”
Faried will wear the number 35 shirt, which has accompanied him throughout his career, and will arrive in the city in the next few days once the procedures related to obtaining the face have been completed. The French center will make room for him Gombauldwith whom an agreement is being reached.
