{"id":872068,"date":"2026-08-29T00:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T00:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/872068\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T00:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T00:44:09","slug":"international-notes-jones-nba-europe-niang-pasecniks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/872068\/","title":{"rendered":"International Notes: Jones, NBA Europe, Niang, Pasecniks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n By Rory Maher<\/a> |
\n at August 28, 2026 6:03 pm <\/p>\n

Former NBA big man Damian Jones<\/a> has signed a one-year contract with Real Madrid, the Spanish EuroLeague team announced in a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 30th overall pick in the 2016 draft, Jones played eight seasons in the NBA, having won a pair of championships in his first two seasons with Golden State. He last suited up for Cleveland during the 2023\/24 campaign.<\/p>\n

Jones, 31, has spent most of the past two years in China with the Zhejiang Golden Bulls, though he recently won a title in Puerto Rico with Vaqueros de Bayamon.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more from overseas:<\/p>\n

Rytas Vilnius CEO Martynas Giga recently revealed the qualification process for the non-permanent members of NBA Europe, which is expected to launch next year, per BasketNews<\/a>. \u201cThe two [FIBA Basketball Champions League] finalists will get direct spots for NBA Europe. [The qualifying tournament] will consist of the two teams that lose in the [BCL] semifinals, and six teams from the highest-ranked domestic leagues,\u201d Giga said. \u201c\u2026 The qualifying tournament is expected to take place after the end of the season. Therefore, our contracts have been extended for a longer term, taking into account the possibility of playing in that tournament. \u2026 The expectation is that eight teams will be participating in it, with two clubs receiving a place in NBA Europe.\u201d Rytas won the BCL championship last year, which has become a running joke within the team, according to BasketNews. \u201cWe joked 100 times already that we won it too early,\u201d Giga said. \u201cThat said, if we did it last year, maybe there\u2019s a chance to repeat it this season.\u201c
\nForward Saliou Niang<\/a>, who was born in Senegal but moved to Italy at age two and competes for the Italian national team, said he eventually wants to join the Cavaliers in the NBA, as Alessandro Maggi of Sportando<\/a> relays. \u201cMy relationship with Cleveland is close. I could have gone there this summer, but we are working on a path that will prepare me for the big leap,\u201d said Niang, whom Cleveland drafted 58th overall last year. The 22-year-old reportedly made the comments in an interview with Matteo De Santis of La Stampa<\/a>.
\nLatvian center Anzejs Pasecniks<\/a>, the 25th pick in the 2017 draft, has signed with the Turkish team Alia\u011fa Petkimspor (Twitter link<\/a>). Pasecniks spent parts of two seasons with the Wizards and signed a two-way deal with Milwaukee in the 2024 offseason prior to being waived before the 2024\/25 campaign began. The 30-year-old big man spent last season in Taiwan with the Hsinchu JKO Lioneers.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Rory Maher | at August 28, 2026 6:03 pm Former NBA big man Damian Jones has signed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[440644,64,63,726,375562,219958,85],"class_list":["post-872068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-anzejs-pasecniks","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-damian-jones","tag-saliou-niang","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}