How Melbourne United landed Cole Anthony’s signature

Melbourne United Head Coach Jacob Chance has shed some insight into how the club landed one of the biggest signings in NBL history.

367-game NBA guard Cole Anthony is set to suit up for United across the NBL27 season, rounding out a lineup featuring NBA talent such as Josh Oduro, Luke Travers and Joe Ingles, as well as proven NBL stars Chris Goulding, Shea Ili and Sam Waardenburg.

A little over one month removed from taking the job back at United, Chance has assembled one of the strongest collections of talent in recent memory, and is excited for what is to come.

Speaking following Anthony’s signing, Chance provided some insight into how the club secured the 26-year-old’s signature. 

“I’m really lucky here at Melbourne, we’ve got a great recruiting committee and we spend a lot of time in the offseason (on recruiting), the coaches and the front office,” he explained speaking to Andrew Gaze and Josh Jenkins on SEN Radio.

“As you know, you have a lot of names come across your desk and certainly since I’ve had the job, there’s all these different scenarios and things that play out, and then you sign Luke Travers and that changes things a bit.

“The name (Cole Anthony) kind of arose and I was interested, I thought it was a bit far-fetched.

“It was really when we got an opportunity to speak with him… You could just sense the enthusiasm and the appetite to be involved in a program such as ours that values winning.

“He’s been in the NBA system for a little bit, he had a rough 12 months over there. It’s big business, you get traded, you get moved, the situation and timing is a really important thing.

“He found himself on the outside looking in, and credit to him and his agency for looking at an alternate pathway to get back to the NBA one day, and they saw our program as the best situation outside of the NBA to come and develop; he’s only 26 years old, but more importantly a situation that really needed his skillset and he’s going to help us win a lot of games.

“Hopefully that helps him and many others on our team achieve their individual goals.”

United has acted as a springboard for a number of players to play in the NBA, such as Jock Landale, Jack White, Luke Travers and Ariel Hukporti.

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