HONG KONG – There was no surprise when Hong Kong Eastern Basketball Team announced that they will be returning Marcus Elliott to their squad for the upcoming ASEAN Basketball League 2018-2019 season.
The 34-year-old has been a force for Eastern over the past two years, leading the team to a title in their debut 2016-2017 season and a semifinals finish in 2017-2018.
Elliott also won the World Import MVP award back in 2016-2017 after averaging 24.9 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 6.2 APG, and 1.3 SPG in the regular season. The 6’3″ guard barely slowed down in his follow up season putting in 22.1 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 8.3 APG, and 1.4 SPG last year. Eastern has relied on Elliott to do a little bit of everything for the team which he has done well by being a threat to put up a triple-double every time he takes the court.
Marcus Elliott is known among local fans as 戰神 (Zhàn-shén) or Mars, the God of War, which is a wordplay off his English name. He’s been the teams heart and soul throughout the past two ABL seasons heading into war and Eastern are comfortable enough with him to bring him back for another season. Though Eastern have brought in new talented recruits like Samuel Deguara, Trey Giler, Man Chun Lam, and Yik Lun Chan, their most important offseason signing might very well be them bringing back their God of War.
The team will use the Seri Mutiara Cup 2018 from 2-7 October in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as a pre-season tournament to get their team chemistry going. Elliott, Gilder, and Deguara will be playing together for the first time.
Hong Kong Eastern and Marcus Elliott will play in the season opener for the first time when they face the Zhuhai Wolf Warriors on November 16 in China. Don’t forget to check out the schedule for the ABL 2018-2019 season here!
