Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) team Guangzhou Long-Lions has reportedly signed the former NBA big man Alex Stepheson to play for the ballclub in the ongoing 22nd season of the premiere professional basketball league of China.

According to Asia-Basket, the 29-year-old native of Los Angeles, California, most recently played for the Memphis Grizzlies in the last season of the NBA. Stepheson, who will be setting his foot on China and be part of the Andrea Mazzon-headed professional basketball outfit for the first time, played four official games with the Grizzlies while posting averages of 5.0 points and 6.5 rebounds in 15.2 minutes of playing time.

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Stepheson is listed 6-foot-10-inches (2.08 meters) tall and weighs 249 pounds (113 kilograms). He played college basketball for the University of North Carolina Tar Heels from 2006 to 2008 before joining the University of Southern California Trojans in 2009.

In the 2011 NBA Draft, Stepheson was not so fortunate to be selected by any of the NBA clubs. He went to Greece and began his professional basketball career playing for the Greek basket League team Panionios and spent two seasons with the squad.

He was a 2016 NBA D-League All-Star and has been named to the Developmental league's First Team on the same season.

He also played in Slovenia fitting in for the team of Union Olimpija, which competes in the Premier A Slovenian League. Stepheson played 20 official matches and averaging 6.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per contest in the 20 matches he played with the professional Slovenian club.

According to the official website of the NBA, Stepheson also played for the Los Angeles Clippers in the league's 2015-16 season. He appeared in four games while playing for a limited 2.9 minutes of playing time averaging 0.5 point and 0.5 rebound per outing.

Guangzhou currently sits on the bottom-low of the Chinese league losing all of its six matches played this season and with the entry of Stepheson with the team, the Long-Lions are hoping for the best as the competition gets deeper.

TagsLos Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, NBA, chinese basketball association, alex stepheson