MANILA, Philippines – It's official.
Fil-Am Bobby Ray Parks, Jr. has made the final 10-man roster of the Texas Legends for their opening game against the Austin Toros Saturday in the NBA Development League at the Cedar Park Center in Texas.
Parks, left undrafted in the NBA rookie draft this year but still made it to the NBA pre-season team of the Dallas Mavericks, was taken in by the Legends as their 25th overall pick in last week's D-League draft and immediately joined the 17-man training camp team.
After seeing the former two-time UAAP MVP play, the Legends were impressed and took him in alongside nine others including Indian seven-footer Satnam Singh, drafted by the Mavs but sent to Texas, and former NBA player Toure' Murry.
Brandon Ashley, Thomas Bropleh, Sherron Collins, Allen Durham, Tu Holloway, Justin Reynolds and Jamil Wilson were the other members of the Legends, an affiliate team by the Mavs.
Parks, son of former many-time PBA Best Import Bobby, Sr., actually became the second Filipino to be drafted in the NBA farm league since Japeth Aguilar was picked in the seventh round by the Santa Cruz Warriors three years ago.
He will be the first though to ever play in the D-League as Aguilar, now with Brgy. Ginebra, didn’t make Santa Cruz’s main roster in the NBA D-League regular season.
The D-League is the farm team of the NBA and could be a stepping stone for players like Parks to enter the best league in the planet via the backdoor.
Some who played in the D-League and now a regular in the NBA are Hassan Whiteside of the Miami Heat, Danny Green of the San Antonio Spurs and Jeremy Lin of the Charlotte Hornets.