Kings sign biggest import to hit NBL

Former NBA player Josh Childress will play for Sydney in the 2014/15 NBL season, following in the footsteps of Sam Young who joined the Kings last season.

The experienced Childress was a first-round NBA Draft pick in 2004 for the Atlanta Hawks. Only Dwight Howard, Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon, Shaun Livingston and Devin Harris went before him in a draft that also featured NBA stars Luol Deng, Andre Iguadola, Al Jefferson, Anderson Varejao and fellow Hawk, Josh Smith.

Childress excelled in his opening season and was rewarded with selection to the NBA All-Rookie second team, but his best season came in 2006-07 with Atlanta when he averaged 13 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.

Childress went on to star in the Greek League for Olympiacos Piraeus before his return to the NBA with Phoenix in 2010 failed to yield anything like his scoring returns from his first stint in the league.

In signing with the Kings, he becomes the highest-profile NBA player to join the NBL.

Kings coach Damian Cotter was understandably excited at what Childress could bring to the team as they tried to improve towards making the NBL finals.

“We’ve gone through an extremely thorough process with Josh and we have done a lot of research on him,” said Cotter.

“He wants to come into the team and contribute, and he wants to be put in the best position to thrive and succeed.

“His skills, his ability and his experience in the NBA speak for themselves. He’s 6’8″ and incredibly long, and he’ll be very disruptive at the defensive end of the floor. But it’s his character, his attitude and his intelligence that are really impressive.”

The Kings start their NBL season on October 11 against local rivals Wollongong Wolves.