Saigon Heat signs American basketball player again for new season

After parting ways with Thai player Kevin Dasom, Saigon Heat brought back Keyes for the new season of national basketball league VBA.

Dasom left Saigon Heat after just a short time although he didn’t have any difficulty adapting. However, with a height of only 1.88 meters and a defensive style of play, Dasom was not an ideal option to enhance Saigon’s firepower, especially in a league featuring foreign players of over two meters tall.

Keyes returned to Saigon after a successful last season with the club. He was the most valuable player in the finals, contributing greatly to Saigon’s second consecutive VBA title.

In the group stage last season, Keyes scored an average of 21.2 points, had 4.8 assists and a 47.4 percent successful three-point shot conversion rate.

With a height of 2.01 meters, Keyes’s favorite finishes are dunks, which provided plenty of excitement last season.

Saigon Heat have reshuffled their foreign players ahead of the new season. First they recruited two American players, DaQuan Bracey and Quincy Hawkin Cole, then replaced a heavily injured Cole with Dasom before bringing back Keyes.

VBA 2021 will be played exclusively at the Nha Trang University gymnasium in Khanh Hoa Province instead of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City as initially planned and without spectators, due to the ongoing Covid-19 wave. It’s set to take place between August and September.