Longtime NBA Guard Re-Signs with Chinese Club

Ricardo Klein | Nov 20, 2024

La Familia's Eric Bledsoe (12) goes for a layup during their game against the 305 Ballers on Friday, July 19, 2024 in Lexington, Ky. at Rupp Arena during the first round of The Basketball Tournament. / Clare Grant/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

Long-time NBA veteran guard and former defensive standout Eric Bledsoe will continue his career overseas.

Bledsoe is signing back with the Chinese Basketball Association club, the Shanghai Sharks. Bledsoe has been with the Sharks for the last two seasons. In the 2023-24 season, he averaged 16.8 points with 5.6 assists in 22 minutes per game.

The Sharks also added Javontae Hawkins, a guard/forward who has spent most of his time playing overseas and last played for a Russian professional basketball team based in Samara.

Hawkins is a native of Michigan, stands at 6-foot-5, and weighs 211 pounds. He attended South Florida, Eastern Kentucky, and Fordham.

As for Blesdoe, his recent stint playing overseas is his first time doing so after a successful career in the NBA.

The 34-year-old from Birmingham, Alabama, was a first-round draft pick from the University of Kentucky. The Oklahoma City Thunder selected him with the No. 18 overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, but he was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers. In his first season, he averaged 6.7 points and 3.6 assists and started 25 games. As a result, he was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team.

In three seasons as a Clipper, Bledsoe averaged 6.7 points per game, 2.6 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 1.2 steals, shooting 43 percent from the field and 30 percent from three in 197 games and 38 starts.

However, Bledsoe was traded during the 2013 offseason to the Phoenix Suns alongside teammate Caron Butler in a three-way trade with the L.A. Clippers and the Milwaukee Bucks. The Suns' Jared Dudley and the Bucks' JJ Redick were sent to the Clippers, and two different second-round picks went to the Bucks.

Nonetheless, the trade did not affect Bledsode. In fact, his numbers soared with the Suns. He averaged 18.8 points per game in four seasons with the Suns, along with 4.8 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and 1.6 steals while shooting 45 percent from the field and 34 percent from three in 221 games and 218 starts.

After his stint with the Suns, he was later traded to the Bucks in exchange for Greg Monroe and a protected first and second-round draft pick.

Bledsoe didn't miss a beat in Milwaukee as he was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team in 2019 and NBA All-Defensive Second Team in 2020.

His last season in the NBA was with the Clippers in 2021-22, during which he played in 54 games and averaged 9.9 points.

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