A day after Oliver Lafayette failed a team medical test, Beşiktaş Cola Turka officials have announced the transfer of Marcelus Kemp from Virtus Bologna to occupy the roster spot left vacant by the injured Allen Iverson.
Kemp has played professional basketball in Italy since playing four years with the University of Nevada Wolf Pack and ultimately receiving all-WAC conference honors, coming over to Legadue squad Basket Livorno for the 2008-09 season. In 2009-10, Kemp moved to Dinamo Sassari, where enjoyed a season which culminated in a championship title and Sassari’s promotion into Serie A.
To this point in the 2010-11 season, Kemp is averaging 13.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game for Bologna in nine games with the fourth-place club.
Beşiktaş Cola Turka is currently tied for fifth place on the TBL table at 10-7, with the Eagles’ last match a loss to second-place Banvit (14-3) last Saturday. Kemp will presumably be suiting up for the club when play resumes after the league’s all-star break; the next game for Beşiktaş has them hosting Aliaga Petkim (5-12) on February 20.
As for Iverson, the latest news has Mr. Answer on light exercise this week and nice before beginning more extensive rehab. Though surgery won’t be required on what is being called “a calcium deposit with additional secondary bleeding” (yeesh), Iverson’s doctor has stated that the player won’t be returning “for six to eight weeks or more.”
A bit more hopefully, A.I. tweeted last Monday in a series of messages that “Dr. James Andrews will perform a procedure tomorrow that should correct a problem in my leg that has been bothering me for some time now. I understand that this procedure is quite complicated because of where the lesion is located in my leg. I feel like I am in the hands of the very best in Dr. Andrews and with the help of the Good Lord, this problem will be corrected at I can go back to Turkey and help my team just in time for the playoffs.”
Let’s see, that would put a return at perhaps early May…
