Jeremy Tyler, the San Diego high-schooler baller who decided to take his talents to Israel as a 17-year-old, now hopes to reemerge as a viable high pick in the NBA draft by way of Japan.
Now 19, Tyler will be playing the 2010-11 season with the oddly named Tokyo Apache and former NBA coach Bob Hill in Japan’s first division.
Quoted as saying he was “bored” with San Diego-area basketball and gaining the assistance of Brandon Jennings’ agent Sonny Vaccaro, Tyler managed to score a one-year, $140,000 deal from Israeli club Maccabi Haifa for 2009-10.
Despite a few good individual showings in October and November, by February the playing time given to Tyler had evaporated to almost nil thanks to a poor attitude. After a string of DNPs, Maccabi Haifa officials reportedly “asked Jeremy to find another team” in March.
Draft Express later reported Tyler’s representatives stating that Tyler would be staying in Europe for 2010-11 rather than jump to the NBA D-League because his agent “prefer[s] the European development model over the D-League in terms of practice time, support system, nutrition, etc.,” but apparently the claimed Euroleague offer was a bit of an agent’s bluff.
