Strong Group-Pilipinas has landed one of its biggest reinforcements yet, signing former NBA center Boban Marjanovi\u0107 for the 2026 William Jones Cup in Taiwan.<\/p>\n
The 7-foot-4 Serbian veteran will suit up for Strong Group as it looks to complete a historic three-peat in the tournament, which runs from August 8 to 23 at the New Taipei City Xinzhuang Gymnasium.<\/p>\n
A Proven Veteran Joins the Three-Peat Bid<\/p>\n
Marjanovi\u0107 spent nine seasons in the NBA from 2015 to 2024, playing for the San Antonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, Dallas Mavericks, and Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n
Before making the jump to the NBA, he established himself as one of Europe\u2019s top centers, winning three Serbian League MVP awards while becoming a mainstay of Serbia\u2019s national team in international competitions.<\/p>\n
Strong Group president Jacob
Lao believes adding a player of Marjanovi\u0107\u2019s caliber will be crucial with the level of competition expected in this year\u2019s Jones Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re building the best team possible because we know this will be the toughest William Jones Cup yet,\u201d Lao said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery participating country is expected to bring in quality lineups, so we want to make sure we\u2019re prepared for that challenge. Bringing in a player like Boban gives us a tremendous presence on both ends of the floor, and we\u2019re excited to have him represent Strong Group-Pilipinas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ready for the Challenge<\/p>\n
Head coach Charles Tiu said discussions with Marjanovi\u0107 had been ongoing and shared that the veteran center has already begun preparing for the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cExcited on getting Boban to agree to play for us. We\u2019ve been having some good talks, he\u2019s in shape and serious about this tournament. He\u2019s preparing back home even before he flies out here,\u201d Tiu said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve already talked a bit about basketball and our plans. Great and funny guy too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strong Group-Pilipinas has been drawn into Group A, where it will face Chinese Taipei Blue, Korea, and Japan in the preliminary round as it chases a third straight Jones Cup championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Strong Group-Pilipinas has landed one of its biggest reinforcements yet, signing former NBA center Boban Marjanovi\u0107 for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,34436,559,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6,95935,95936,95937],"class_list":["post-794598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-clippers","tag-basketball","tag-boban-marjanovic","tag-clippers","tag-la","tag-la-clippers","tag-laclippers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesclippers","tag-nba","tag-strong-group-athletics","tag-strong-group-pilipinas","tag-williams-jones-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116974552561101661","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}