Ray-Ray Parks joins Nagoya Diamond Dolphins ahead of B.League season

Ray-Ray Parks is set to soar in Nagoya. PBA Images (file photo)

By Ivan Saldajeno

MANILA--Another Filipino basketball sensation has booked his place in the Japan B.League.

Ray-Ray Parks is the latest player to be part of the league's Philippine invasion, joining the Nagoya Diamond Dolphins for the upcoming season.

"His contract will become official as soon as he gets his medical clearance," the Dolphins said in a statement on Tuesday.

But while waiting for the needed clearance, Parks expressed excitement about his new professional basketball journey.

"It is my honor and privilege to represent our team and I can't wait to get out there and compete and do our best to bring home a championship to the city of Nagoya. I'm excited to meet my teammates, management, and most especially all the fans," he said.

Parks last played for TNT during the previous PBA bubble season, helping the team make the finals before bowing to Ginebra.

However, he made an unceremonious exit from the Tropang Giga last March, and the real reason for it became the talk of the town almost throughout the month.

Parks claimed that he had to go back to the United States to take care of his mother, but team owner Manny Pangilinan denied it even as social media posts of the six-foot-four swingman hanging around in San Juan, La Union over the offseason surfaced.

The free agency drama led to a new PBA ruling which has made Parks an unrestricted free agent, and Nagoya, which missed last season's playoffs despite a 32-24 record at the end of the regular season, took the chance by signing him up.

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