Jonny Flynn when he was playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2010. He will be playing for the Tigers this weekend. Picture: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images. Source: Getty Images
ADELAIDE'S London Olympian Adam Gibson will have the job on Friday of curtailing superstar Melbourne Tigers import Jonny Flynn at Hisense Arena.
Flynn, 23 and 183cm, has replaced Kevin Braswell in the team the 36ers beat 84-61 here in the season opener and is the highest-credentialled NBA player to sign for an NBL club.
Flynn was taken by Minnesota Timberwolves as the No. 6 pick in 2009.
To put that in context, the NBL does not have a single MVP drafted in the top 10.
Sixers championship players Kevin Brooks and Darnell Mee, for example, were drafted at 18 and 34 respectively.
"I guess it's a little perplexing a guy drafted in the top six is out of the NBA in three years," 36ers coach Marty Clarke said. "Something is not quite right but he is obviously a very good player."
As coach of Australia's junior team at the 2007 world championship in Serbia, Clarke saw Flynn first-hand, representing the US.
"They had a very good group," Clarke said. "He ... was a good player then."
Flynn was an immediate star at Syracuse University, going early into the NBA in the same draft which saw Blake Griffin taken at No. 1.
He was in the NBA Rookie Second Team before hip surgery saw him bounce around the NBA, his last stop at Detroit Pistons, where he was cut on October 22.
"Jonny is possibly the highest-credentialled player in the prime of his career to ever play in the NBL," Tigers coach Chris Anstey said.
Melbourne on Sunday broke through for its first win this season, crushing Townsville 91-66, while Adelaide was in Sydney, beheading the Kings 88-81.
"He will be a handful, because he is so quick," Clarke said of the NBL's newest marquee signing.
"It will be a big assignment for Adam Gibson.
"But he (Flynn) will only have a couple of trainings (before Friday), so hopefully he's not quite ready and disrupts them a little bit."
The weekend looms as a super-tough one for Adelaide, which backs up at home on Sunday against a Perth, which had its pants pulled down for a 33-point spanking last round by Wollongong.
"They'll be feeling the pain of their last game and will come out super-aggressive," Clarke said of the Wildcats.
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