Dallas Basketball

Mavs Ex Fan Favorite Signs with Shanghai Sharks

Yogi Ferrell, who dazzled Dallas Mavericks fans with his burst onto the NBA scene in 2017, will continue his basketball career in China next season.

Dalton Trigg

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According to Dario Skerletic of Sportando, former Dallas Mavericks fan favorite Yogi Ferrell is continuing his professional basketball career in China next season, as he recently signed a contract with the Shanghai Sharks.

Ferrell, who took the NBA by storm in 2017 when he dropped 32 points on the Portland Trail Blazers in what was just his fourth game with the Mavs, hasn't been in the league since the 2020-21 season. He played only eight games with the Los Angeles Clippers that year.

Since then, Ferrell has played for a few European squads, including Panathinaikos and, most recently from last season, Cedevita Olimpija, where he ended up winning the Most Valuable Player award in the Slovenian Basketball League Finals.

Although Ferrell will be fondly remembered for his short stretch of play with the Mavs that made him seems like a lightning-in-a-bottle star, his departure from Dallas was odd, to say the least. In the summer of 2018, it was initially reported that the Mavs and Ferrell had agreed to a two-year, $5.3 million deal. However, Ferrell and his agent "changed course" and ultimately ended up taking a deal with the Sacramento Kings instead.

In 118 career games played for the Mavs, Ferrell averaged 10.6 points and 3.0 assists – his best marks in any of his NBA stops – while shooting 42.1 percent from the field and 38.2 percent from deep.

The Mavs were in the final years of Dirk Nowitzki's career during Yogi-Mania, but it was also before the arrival of Luka Doncic. Dallas lacked a clear sense of direction with its roster building back then, but it appears to be back on track in a big way heading into the 2023-24 season with added defense and depth around Doncic and Kyrie Irving.

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Dalton Trigg
DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.

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