The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN pro basketball players continue an eventful free agency period with recent transactions featuring national team players on the move to new leagues in new countries.

David Nesbitt and Tavario Miller swapped clubs for the upcoming 2021-22 season.

Nesbitt is headed to Boca Juniors in Argentina’s Liga Nacional de Básquet after a four-year tenure in Brazil’s Novo Basquete Brasil (NBB).

The veteran 6’6” forward spent last season with Minas Belo Horizonte.

In 31 games, he averaged 10.4 points and 5.5 points per game en route to being named an NBB All-Star.

Minas finished with the second best record in the league, reached the semifinals and finished third in FIBAs Basketball Champions League Americas Final.

Last month, Miller announced his signing to Minas Belo Horizonte after he spent a pair of seasons in Argentina, most recently with Boca Juniors.

In 40 games he averaged 13.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game and helped the team advance to the semifinals.

Last season with Minas marked Nesbitt’s third club in as many years in the NBB. He has also won two league championships during his tenure. He spent the previous season with Sport Club Corinthians Paulista and in 26 games he averaged 12.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists and one steal per game. He was voted to Latinbasket.com’s Brazilian League All-Imports Team and League Player of the Week on two separate occasions.

In the 2018-19 season, he played 37 games for Flamengo Basketball.

Nesbitt averaged 7.4 points and 4.1 rebounds in just over 17 minutes per game en route to the team’s championship season.

In 2017-18, Nesbitt won his first NBB title with Paulistano Sao Paulo. In 39 NBB games, he averaged 8.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game. He was voted to the Brazilian All-Star Game and All-Imports Team.

Most recently on the national team level, Nesbitt was a member of The Bahamas’ FIBA 2022 AmeriCup team that saw the qualification bid come to an end with a loss to Puerto Rico.

Nesbitt said it was an all too familiar position for Team Bahamas, who had several opportunities to qualify but ultimately came up short.

“It’s tough always being here, I feel like we have a lot of games in our hands and we just let them slip away at the end.”

Dwight Coleby is headed to Poland and will join Anwil Wloclawek of the Polish Basketball League (PLK). Anwil Wloclawek has won the PLK championship three times - in 2003, 2018 and 2019. The club has also won four Polish Cup titles and three Polish Supercup titles.

The 6’ 10” Coleby spent last season with Merkezefendi Belediyesi Denizli of the Turkish Basketball First League (TBL), his second stint in the country..

In a history-making milestone season for the club, Coleby averaged 12.8 points, 10.1 rebounds per game and was named Eurobasket.com all TBL Honourable Mention and Player of the Week twice. Denzeli was also granted promotion to the ING Turkish Basketball Super League, the top division in the country.

In his first stint in Turkey in 2018, Coleby averaged 11.5 points and a team leading 8.5 rebounds for Sigortam.net ITU in the BSL League. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Coleby spent approximately a month of the previous season in Italy’s Lega Basket Serie A with perennial league contender Dinamo Banco di Sardegna Sassari. He appeared in just three regular season games and five Champions League games where he averaged 4.8 points and 4.2 rebounds per game.

Coleby spent a portion of the 2019-20 season alongside his brother Kadeem Coleby with the Akita Northern Happinets in the Japanese B-League following a short stint in Belgium with Liege Basket in Belgium’s Pro Basketball League (PBL). He also spent time with Kalev/Cramo (KML) in the Estonian league.

Veteran forward Jaraun Kino Burrows will remain in France but will make the move to the Nationale Masculine 1 (NM1) League.

Burrows signed with St. Thomas Basket Le Havre for the upcoming campaign.

Last season, he completed his second stint with the FOS Provence-Basket Byers of the LNB Pro B League.

In 11 games, Burrows averaged 6.1 points and 3.5 rebounds per game en route to the Byers claiming the league championship and receiving a promotion to JEEP Elite Pro A for the second time in club history.

Prior to his time with the Byers, Burrows was with another LNB Pro B club, Aix-Maurienne Savoie. In 22 games with the club, he averaged 13.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.3 steals per game. He was also named League Player of the Week twice.

Burrows first signed with the Byers in April 2017 for a late-season playoff run. In 12 games, he averaged 10.7 points, four rebounds and three assists in just over 25 minutes per game and the team reached the Pro B semifinals. In 2018, in his first full season with the club, Burrows averaged 13.9 points on 61.5 percent shooting from the field and 5.1 rebounds in just over 25 minutes per game. He helped the club to a French LNB Pro B title and was granted promotion to Pro A for the first time in club history.

The 6’8”, 220-pound veteran forward’s career has also included stops in Sweden, Finland, Eastern Europe and South America.