Mighty Sports begins campaign after landing in Dubai

“Support the squad. #GearUpForGreatness” (Photo: @mightysports_ph/Instagram)

Representing the Philippines, Team Mighty Sports has just landed in Dubai for the 30th Dubai International Basketball Championships, where they are to be led by coach Charles Tiu and enhanced by former National Basketball Association (NBA) Laker Lamar Odom.

When it comes to expectations on how the apparel and accessories team will result against the nine other teams in Group A of the tournament, Mighty Sports Team owner Alex Wongchuking shared, “We barely have any scouting report on who we will be facing right on the opening day but I am optimistic that we are more than ready to do well to make our Kababayans here proud.”

He added, “I am expecting nothing less than a tough grind. Every game here is important so we have to keep our collective focus on the task at hand. How we will perform in the first game will set the tone for our campaign.

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Besides Odom, the team is also beefed up with the presence of Ginebra import Justin Brownlee, Chinese league veteran Randolph Morris, Fil-Am recruits Jeremiah Gray and Roosevelt Adams, and former Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) players Joseph Yeo, TY Tang, and Jett Manuel.

Mighty Sports is looking to improve their run from their debut two years ago, where they only won one of eight games. Their first match for the 2019 edition of the tournament is on February 1 against American University.

Less than 24 hours after that game, they will then face the host United Arab Emirates national team, then go head-to-head against Homenetmen-Lebanon the next day. Tuesday is the fourth and final game for Mighty Sports during the preliminaries, with Al Wahda-Syria being their final opponent for that round. The semifinals will occur on February 8, while the finals close off on the ninth.

Group B of the tournament consists of Al Riyadi-Lebanon, Sports Club Beirut-Lebanon, Sala-Morocco, Al Nift-Iraq, and Jordan.