Former Raptors guard Javon Freeman-Liberty will continue his career overseas. Turkish club Manisa Basket announced on Wednesday (via Instagram) that Freeman-Liberty has joined the team (hat tip to Sportando).
Freeman-Liberty, who went undrafted in 2022 out of DePaul, spent his rookie season with the Windy City Bulls, Chicago’s G League affiliate.
The 6’4″ guard was on a two-way contract with the Raptors for most of the 2023/24 campaign before being promoted to the standard roster on March 1. Although his contract with Toronto covered two years, his salary for ’24/25 was partially guaranteed for just $100K, so he was waived in July before that partial guarantee increased.
Freeman-Liberty appeared in 22 games at the NBA level with Toronto, averaging 7.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.8 assists in 18.3 minutes per night. He put up much bigger numbers with the Raptors 905 in the NBAGL, including 24.0 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 4.2 APG, and a shooting line of .470/.360/.825 in 26 Showcase Cup and regular season outings.
Freeman-Liberty is the second player who spent the 2023/24 season in the NBA to join Manisa Basket this offseason. Saben Lee also signed with the club in August.
In addition to competing in the Basketball Super League in Turkey, Manisa will be part of Europe’s Basketball Champions League for the first time next season. Manisa Basket posted a 16-14 mark in domestic play last season, finishing sixth out of 16 Turkish teams. The club was eliminated in the first round of the postseason by Besiktas.
Raptors did him dirty