Arsalan Kazemi has been dumped by the Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers basketball team, and suddenly signed this week with the Atlanta Hawks.
Philadelphia drafted him in 2013, but hasn’t done anything with him since then.
Kazemi announced he had a 76ers’ offer last week, but didn’t say if he would accept—although everyone seemed to expect him to do so. But he didn’t. Instead, he gamed the contract rules to leverage an opportunity with another National Basketball Association team, which turned out to be the Hawks.
Sean O’Connor, writing for Liberty Ballers, said Kazemi has hustle, but is undersized at 6’7” and unlikely to get much playing time in Atlanta.
Kazemi’s family sent him to the United States while he was still in high school so he could get seasoning and, hopefully, a chance in collegiate basketball. He played collegiately and very successfully at Rice and Oregon before being selected by the Sixers.
He then spent his first professional season playing back home in Iran with Petrochimi Bandar Imam, and most recently played for the Chongqing Fly Dragon in China’s top league.
The 25-year-old joined the Sixers in Las Vegas for the 2015 NBA Summer League, but didn’t do a ton to stand out, according to USA Today. He averaged 3.2 points and 7.6 rebounds over the course of five games.