After striking a deal last week with former No. 2 overall pick D’Angelo Russellthe Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association have had a busy few days, finalizing agreements with two more NBA veterans.
Center JaVale McGeewho played in the CBA with the Beijing Ducks last season, has signed with the Sharks, according to a social media post from the league (Instagram link). McGee appeared in 909 NBA regular season games from 2008-24 but has been out of the league since his contract with Sacramento expired in June 2024. The 38-year-old, a three-time NBA champion with the Warriors and Lakers, has also played in Puerto Rico and Australia during the past couple years.
Besides adding Russell and McGee, the Sharks have also re-signed guard Brandon Goodwin (Instagram link). Goodwin, who made 133 regular season appearances for Denver, Atlanta, and Cleveland from 2018-22, has played in the G League, Puerto Rico, and China since being waived by the Knicks in 2023. The 31-year-old had a big year with Shanghai in 2025/26, leading the CBA in assists and earning Finals MVP honors as the Sharks won the title.
Teams in the Chinese Basketball Association are permitted to have up to three “import” players on their roster. It appears Russell, McGee, and Goodwin will be the Sharks’ import trio in 2026/27.
We have more miscellaneous items from around the basketball world:
- Canadian point guard Kevin Pangos has retired from basketball, publishing an Instagram post announcing his decision. Pangos played 24 games with the Cavaliers during the 2021/22 season, but he spent most of his career overseas, winning domestic championships in Italy and Lithuania and making the All-EuroLeague first team in 2021 as a member of Zenit St. Petersburg. The 33-year-old also represented Canada in several international competitions and had a memorable college career at Gonzaga from 2011-15, making the All-WCC first team in four consecutive seasons and earning conference Player of the Year honors as a senior.
- Expanding the EuroLeague to 24 teams is expected to be the focus of this week’s meeting of team owners, writes Aris Barkas of Eurohoops. As Barkas explains, the EuroLeague team owners in attendance figure to discuss the NBA’s joint project offer, but that offer was just made last week, and no one from the NBA or FIBA is expected to attend the meeting, so it doesn’t sound as if a decision will be made one way or the other on a potential collaboration with NBA Europe.
- Passing along some highlights from Adam Silver’s appearance at Puck’s In The Arena conference, Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic (Twitter links) says the NBA commissioner expressed concern about how geopolitics might affect the league going forward and admitted he was surprised that Mark Walter agreed to sell the Lakers so soon after taking over majority control of the franchise.