Trevor Booker joined China’s Shanxi Brave Dragons back in August, but recently left the team. Now we know why. According to Booker’s agency, Tandem Sports and Entertainment, the veteran power forward is returning to America to undergo a surgical procedure on a foot injury he suffered in China.
“Trevor is extremely disappointed to miss this season with Shanxi,” Booker’s agent Jim Tanner said in a statement. “He is determined to devote all of the rehab and recovery time necessary in order to be in the best shape possible.”
While the announcement doesn’t offer many specifics on Booker’s injury, his agency suggests he’s expected to make a full recovery in time to join an NBA team in the new year. As such, Booker likely won’t be on teams’ radars for the first couple months of the season, but it’s possible we’ll see him on the roster by around the All-Star break. When the veteran first signed with Shanxi, he vowed that he’d be “back on a NBA floor terrorizing people again soon enough.”
Booker, who will turn 31 next month, began the 2017/18 campaign with the Nets but was traded to Philadelphia in the deal that send Jahlil Okafor and Nik Stauskas to Brooklyn. When the Sixers signed Ersan Ilyasova later in the season, Booker became expendable and was released. After clearing waivers, he signed with Indiana and finished the season with the Pacers. For the year, he averaged 6.3 PPG, 4.7 RPG, and 1.2 APG in 68 total games (17.0 MPG) for three teams.
Worth mentioning that Chris McCullough has signed with Shanxi and taken Bookers international spot on Shanxi
We did have a separate post on it on Monday (linked in the first graf here).