How the hell did that happen? Martin Benton-Evans, aka the hyphen, or as his fans like to call him MBE has been signed in what management are calling an opportunity too good to be missed. Sources close to the club have indicated that MBE’s management had reached out to the club due to MBE wanting to move back to local shores.
In his welcome press conference MBE spoke to the attending media: ‘This is a team on the way up. I want to be playing in the Div II All Star game again. Who knows, maybe this team is good enough to reach the ABBL. Besides, I was sick of speaking Portuguese all the time - the locals were not liking much of my Aussie slang either. I will miss the Brazilian women though’
The language barrier had not slowed down MBE’s gameplay, likely leading the MVP voting MBE was #1 for both FG% and rating in the Brazilian league season, and towards the top in several other categories. It turns out ‘Pass it to the big bloke under the basket’ is easy enough to understand in any language.
The clubs salary cap has been blown out with this move. Media reports were critical of the move describing it as throwing the previous prudent spending strategy out the window. Potential disharmony in the squad due to one player taking most of the cap was also raised as an issue. The media identified current all star Zeb Mahout as being unhappy with the signing. Clearly upset with the change Zeb approached the waiting press to complain: ‘I’ve been important to this team all season, now my minutes drop? I’m an All Star, and top 10 big in this division, what the hell man?’
These problems have been laughed off by management. The GM was quoted for the fans as saying ‘This is a big move for our club. We are assembling a group of winners who are chasing success. The club is confident the players professionalism will keep potential team harmony issues controlled.’