28/06/2002
Mims finally lands Faulkner

Six years after he first tried to recruit Jamal Faulkner, Nurishment Leicester Riders Head Coach Billy Mims has finally landed his man. The 6'7" American is the latest addition to the Riders roster for the forthcoming season.

Mims first tried to sign Faulkner in the summer of 1996, but was unable to prevent him from moving to France.

"I first saw Jamal when he was playing on the same USBL team as John White," recalled Mims. "I spoke to them after the game and tried to get both to sign for me, but unfortunately Jamal chose to go to France.

"John won three titles in two years with me at the Leopards and I'm sure all Riders fans will be pleased to know that Jamal was the team's top scorer and John was second top scorer."

After being named as a McDonald's All-American at High School, Faulkner went to Arizona State University where he was named PAC-10 Conference Freshman of the Year. After college, he played for Torun of Poland where he averaged over 26 points per game.

From Poland and France, Faulkner joined Portuguese giants Benfica, where he remained for two seasons. In 1999/2000 he joined Portugal Telecom where he was a Portuguese All Star for the third consecutive season.

"Getting a big time scorer who's played for Benfica is similar to Leicester City signing a striker from Benfica," Mims said. "Jamal is a quality player with European experience so we are delighted to bring him to Leicester.

"At 6'7" he can play either the guard or forward position so with him and Malcolm Leak on the two wings it will give us more height than we had last season. Also he is the sort of player who has a history of averaging over 20 points per game and what we are trying to do is get five guys who can all average 20 a game.

"Billy Mims basketball is all about putting 100 points on the board every night and it doesn't take a mathematician to work out if we get five guys averaging twenty we'll achieve that and win a lot of games. After all the Riders are out to run, gun and have fun."

The 31-year-old spent last season in Israel where again his scoring average topped 20 points per game.

Faulkner joins compatriot Malcolm Leak and Englishman Guy Renton on the roster with more signings expected over the next few weeks.