SUMMARY
This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.
MANILA, Philippines – Jack Animam, the country’s top female basketball player, will finally make her long-awaited comeback from a knee injury that sidelined her for a year.
Animam’s return, though, will not be in the local basketball scene. Instead, she is taking her talents to one of the elite women’s professional basketball leagues in Europe, the Ligue Féminine de Basketball (LFB), after she was signed by the French ballclub Toulouse Metropole Basket, the national team star confirmed on Friday, January 27.
The LFB or the Women’s Basketball League is the premier division of the women’s professional basketball league in France.
Animam hopes to make it in time for Toulouse’s game on Sunday, January 29, against Flammes Carolo. Toulouse is currently 11th in the standings in the 12-team LFB. Her entry might just be the shot in the arm the squad needs this season where they have struggled with just two wins against eight losses.
“To be honest I don’t know what to feel. Halo-halong emosyon (mixed emotions). I’m nervous, anxious but I’m just so excited,” Animam told Rappler.
“This is what I’ve been working for a year and a month now. As I said, all I need is an opportunity. And this is it! This is the cultivation of my hard work and sacrifices all throughout my rehab journey. And right now I’m already very thankful to my new team for taking a chance on me. I can’t wait to play with and for them.”
The 6-foot-3 Animam has proven that at her best, she can dominate even against foreign competition. In 2020, she led the Shin Hsin University to an 18-0 record en route to winning Taiwan’s University Basketball Association (UBA).
In 2021, Animam made history by becoming the first Philippine-born player to be signed by a European professional basketball club when she joined Radnicki Kragujevac in the First Women’s Basketball League of Serbia.
The former National University standout was a double-double machine for Radnicki and posted averages of 20 points, 14.3 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game. Her stint with Radnicki, unfortunately, was cut short after seven games when she suffered a season-ending knee injury.
Toulouse has a number of solid players that Animam will be teaming up with like Kalis Lloyd, the six-foot forward and member of Sweden’s national team who leads the French squad in scoring at 15.6 points per outing; and starting point guard Kyra Lambert, an American who was a former captain of Duke University in the US NCAA and norms 9 points and 5 assists.
Veteran guard Isabelle Strunc, who has played in the Women’s National Basketball League in Australia, power forward Noemie Brochant, and 6-foot-4 starting center Aminata Gueye are also averaging in double figures for Toulouse. Strunc, Brochant, and Gueye have all played for the French national under-20 team.
Animam will be expected to shore up the Toulouse frontline and help out Gueye and Brochant. Former WNBA center, 6-foot-3 Megan Huff, has put up underwhelming numbers for Toulouse with her averages of just 6.3 points and 3 rebounds. – Rappler.com
Add a comment
How does this make you feel?
There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.