Story by Koh Yizhe and Jan Lin/Red Sports. Photo by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports.
Michael LeBlanc (Slingers, #9) takes a shot. (Photo 1 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
Singapore Indoor Stadium, Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - Michael LeBlanc made his debut with the Singapore Slingers in their third pre-season Challenge Series match and turned in a commendable score card of 19 points and 12 rebounds for a double-double.
Despite concluding the evening as the second highest scorer trailing Kyle Jeffers by just a point, the 2.02m American was far from impressed by his performance.
"Yes, I am very disappointed with the result,” LeBlanc said without hesitation. “But we can take a lot from the match. We didn't do the little things that the coach preached about like handling the ball well and, as a result, these little things killed the match for us.”
Leblanc is one of the four foreign imports playing for the Slingers. The other three foreign imports are Kyle Jeffers, Al Vergara and Marcus Ng.
The Slingers crashed to the Ginebra Kings 72-77 in this Challenge Series match and the Slingers' head coach, Frank Arsego, attributed the defeat to a lack of team cohesion and extremely poor possession.
Resonating with Arsego’s analysis, Leblanc said, “We gave the ball away too easily so they could score easy buckets. It is also the first time the whole team is playing together but of course, there can be no excuses."
"I don't look at stats – I’ve played badly if the team loses,” said LeBlanc like a true team player. “I could have made a few easy shots and rebounds while my defense could have been better as well. There is definitely room for improvement, and we can only improve from now."
LebBlanc will again feature in the Slingers’ final Challenge Series match against the defending Philipine Basketball Association Fiesta Conference champions San Miguel Beermen this Sunday, October 4 at 4pm.
@ballerswife – Well-argued! I think its just great to see no airs of any sort from the Slingers’ imports and instead they’ve always emphasised the importance of “the team”. I don’t see the locals deliberately passing the ball to the imports so that they can score, LeBlanc creates his chances and takes them well, as simple as that. In fact, the presence of good shooters in the team like LeBlanc creates vicarious experiences for the locals that they can leverage on that and improved on their self-belief.
@Slingerrock Leblanc is a GREAT scorer BUT “IF” the Slingers loose A game/games they will be blaming the IMPORTS NOOOT the local players. When its CRUNCH time a team should rely on their VETERANS because in practice these are the same players they are learning from ON and OFF the court so DONT pick and CHOOSE when you want to go to them. After all THE TEAM is made up of PLAYERS whether they are IMPORTS or LOCALS its a TEAM not INDIVIDUALS OUT THERE!!!
@someone I agree with your statement but for LeBlanc’s case, it’s not really a story of whether a star player is taking a shot or not. He turned the ball over 6 times, a team high and was driving straight at double teams sometimes. I’m pretty sure he can still be the top scorer/star player on our team is he moves more off the ball movements rather than on the ball (which Vergara should do more). I think he’s still getting use to the team and once he has adapted, he’ll be a vital player for us. He just needs to move the ball better, no denying his scoring capabilities
Basketball is not the fairest sport in terms of scoring. Would you rather have the star player taking the crunch shot or the reserve?
Fyi, before you say i’m biased, I’m a reserve player on my school’s basketball team.
@Slingerrocks – Its a team game though, everyone has to rise up to take their chances, which was why Arsego wasn’t please with how some players didn’t show up in the last game. Though I guess they were just slightly overwhelmed by the occasion, so I’m staying positive : )
I think LeBlanc is a good scorer. But I do think he takes away the scoring from the rest of the local players