Tien Lei, whose name listed as Garrett Tien in Sacramento Kings summer league team roster, got his first taste of American basketball when he only got one rebound in his first game wearing an NBA uniform. Tien played two minutes in a Kings’ 71-60 win over the New Jersey Nets in the Las Vegas Summer League.
Obviously Tien spent most of the game sitting on the end of the bench to watch and learn. He had a DNP-CD in the first game, which Sacramento lost to Phoenix Suns 81-75.
Tien was measured at 204cm without shoes, about an inch taller than what he was listed (202cm) in Taiwan. Playing mostly at power forward and center in Taiwan, Tien has to learn to transform himself as a shooting guard or small forward in America.
Sacramento has three games left (Bulls, Clippers and Mavericks) in the Vegas Summer League.
There are a couple of Asian players in the Vegas Summer League. 5-11 guard Shuji Takei from Waseda University plays for THE TICKET. Bang Sung Yoon, a 605 shooter from South Korea who spent last season in the NBDL, plays for Dallas Mavericks. 6-11 Menk Bateer from China plays for the Chicago Bulls. Jun Iwasa from Japan plays for P. MILLER team.