While the NBA has finally tipped off in the United States, another professional basketball league is underway overseas in France, with a familiar face taking part.
Shippensburg University men’s basketball all-time leading scorer, Dustin Sleva, signed with Paris Basketball over the summer, and has appeared in all three of the team’s opening games of the regular season.
Sleva, who has taken on the role of the team’s starting power forward, has averaged 25 minutes in the three games, producing 10 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists. The former Raider has remained just as efficient overseas, shooting 53.1 percent from the floor and a respectable 38.5 percent from three.
His most recent match against Poitiers Basket saw Sleva complete his best game of the regular season for Paris, scoring a team-high 15 points on 15 shots. The power forward also grabbed 4 rebounds in the contest, but Paris fell to Poitiers 70-68, dropping the team to 0-3 on the young Pro B season, according to the Ligue Nationale de Basket.
Sleva also received major playing time during the team’s games in the ongoing LNB Pro B Founders Cup, a tournament composed of all of the teams in the league that is played during the course of the regular season. In the five Founders Cup games in which he played, Sleva averaged 10 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks, and shot an efficient 53.1 percent from the floor, the league's website said.
His play was a huge part of Paris Basketball’s strong showing in the group stage, highlighted by a 20-point game on 8 of 11 shooting in Sleva’s professional debut with the team. Paris Basketball finished the group stage with a record of three wins and one loss, earning the seventh seed, but sadly fell in the quarterfinal round to the second-ranked Lille team.
The team Sleva is playing for, Paris Basketball, is a brand-new team playing in the LNB Pro B League, the second-tier men’s professional basketball league in France.
The team is headed by former NBA GM David Kahn, who gained notoriety during his tenure as the president of basketball operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves when he drafted three point guards in the first round of the 2009 NBA Draft, while passing on Steph Curry.
Paris Basketball will play 31 more games in their debut season.
Game highlights can be found on the league’s website: https://www.lnb.fr/fr/.
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