And-Ones: Felicio, Howard, Silver, Eubanks

Former Bulls center Cristiano Felicio is re-upping with Spanish club Covirán Granada for a second straight season, reports Dario Skerletic of Sportando.

After going undrafted in 2014, the Brazilian big man eventually made enough of an impression on Chicago with his performance on the club’s 2015 Summer League team. He joined the Bulls on a two-year minimum deal in 2015.

Prior to the existence of the Bulls’ own NBAGL affiliate club, the 6’11” vet logged developmental time with Cavaliers’ then-D League affiliate, the Canton Charge, on assignment from Chicago. He would also go on to get some run with the Bulls’ G League team, the Windy City Bulls, throughout the rest of his Chicago tenure.

Felicio inked a generous four-season, $32MM contract to stick with the team in 2017, but fitness and health issues prevented him from ever becoming a major part of the Bulls’ rotation. Across his six seasons in the NBA, all with the Bulls, Felicio averaged 4.3 PPG, 3.9 RPG, and 0.7 APG in 252 total contests.

He went on to continue his career internationally. Felicio first latched on with German club Ratiopharm Ulm in 2021/22, before joining Covirán Granada last year. During his first season with Granada, Felicio averaged 12.8 PPG and 5.0 RPG across 22 MPG.

There’s more from around the basketball world:

• During an interview with TVBS News Taiwan (YouTube video link), 18-year NBA pro and future Hall of Fame center Dwight Howard has claimed he may need to take a significant pay cut to stick with the Taoyuan Leopards in 2023/24. “I was offered a contract which was 65% less than what they gave me the first time to come to Taiwan,” Howard said. “I felt like that was very disrespectful.” Per Emiliano Carchia of Sportando, Leopards CEO Chang Chien-wei revealed that there would be a new calculus for determining Howard’s salary in the ensuing season. Across his 20 healthy games last year, Howard averaged 23.2 PPG, 16.2 RPG and 5.0 APG.
• During a recent conversation on The Dan Patrick Show (YouTube video link), NBA commissioner Adam Silver touched on the controversial involvement of the Saudi Arabian government in international sports, including how he felt it could impact basketball (h/t to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic for the transcription). “When the Saudis invest in sports, it gets outsized attention,” Silver said. “We allow funds to invest in teams but not control teams, not to have influence over teams… So to own an NBA team there has to be an individual with a certain percent of the team to control it.” The NBA changed its rules last season to allow sovereign wealth funds to invest in up to 20% of an NBA team, meaning the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund could theoretically purchase a portion of a club in the future.
• Trail Blazers big man Drew Eubanks may be able to play for Italy’s national team in international team competition. Per Orazio Cauchi of Basket News, the Italian federation has been looking to potentially naturalize Eubanks. The 6’9″ center/power forward, a free agent this summer, has Italian familial ties, though sources inform Cauchi that it remains unclear whether or not that will be enough for him to earn a passport and be able to play for the club. The 26-year-old averaged 6.6 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 1.3 SPG and 1.3 BPG across 78 games last season.