After making a deal last week with the former No. 2 overall pick D’Angelo RussellThe Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association have had a busy few days finalizing deals with two NBA veterans.
Center JaVale McGeewho played in the CBA with the Beijing Ducks last season, has signed with the Sharks, according to a social media post from the league (Link to Instagram). McGee played in 909 regular season NBA games from 2008 to 2024, but was out of the league after his contract with Sacramento expired in June 2024. The 38-year-old, a three-time NBA champion with the Warriors and Lakers, has also played in Puerto Rico and Australia over the past couple of years.
In addition to adding Russell and McGee, the Sharks also changed the guard’s contract Brandon Goodwin (Link to Instagram). Goodwin, who played 133 regular-season games with Denver, Atlanta and Cleveland from 2018-22, played in the G League, Puerto Rico and China after being waived by the Knicks in 2023. won the title.
Chinese Basketball Association teams are allowed to have up to three “imported” players on their roster. Russell, McGee and Goodwin look set to be the Sharks’ import trio for the 2026/27 season.
We have more different items from around the world of basketball:
- Canadian point guard Kevin Pangas retired from basketball posting a post on Instagram announcing his decision. Pangas played 24 games for the Cavaliers in 2021/22, but has spent the majority of his career overseas, winning domestic championships in Italy and Lithuania and making the All-Euroleague First Team in 2021 with Zenit St. Petersburg. The 33-year-old also represented Canada at several international events and had a memorable college career at Gonzaga from 2011-15, making the All-WCC first team for four straight seasons and earning conference Player of the Year honors as a senior.
- The expansion of the EuroLeague to 24 teams is expected to be the focus of this week’s team owners’ meeting. Aris Barkas of Eurohoops. As Barkas explains, Euroleague team owners are present at NBA discussions joint project proposalbut that offer was made just last week, and no one from the NBA or FIBA is expected to attend the meeting, so it doesn’t look like a decision on a potential partnership with NBA Europe will be made one way or the other.
- Conveying some points from Adam Silverspeaking at the Puck’s In The Arena conference, The Athletic’s Mike Varkunow (Twitter references) says the NBA commissioner expressed concern about how geopolitics could affect the league in the future and admitted he was surprised that Mark Walter agreed to sell the Lakers so soon after gaining control of the franchise.
