Creighton talks FIBA Asia Cup 2013 run, Jeremy Lin, and future of Chinese Taipei

TAIPEI (Chinese Taipei) - Doug Creighton might be busy practicing with his club team and taking care of his son, but he wasn’t too busy to sit down and talk with FIBA Asia Cup live on Instagram. The Chinese Taipei national team sharpshooter talked about many topics from memorable moments in the Asia Cup to his perspective of the national team’s future.

The entire talk with Doug Creighton is available for viewing on @FIBAAsiaCup IGTV.

Creighton started off by talking about his recent trip to the Super Basketball League (SBL) Finals with the Yulon Luxgen Dinos, describing the experience as "surreal".

"We played in a closed gym and we didn’t have any fans, so every game kind of felt like a scrimmage, a friendly match. There wasn’t that exciting, so I think the energy had to come from within and from our teammates which usually we get from our fans when we make a three-pointer or a dunk. [Usually] the fans cheer and that hypes you up a little bit but everything had to come from our own teammates and our own bench."

From there, Creighton started to stroll deep down memory lane. He talked about playing multiple sports growing up with the encouragement of his father, who played basketball at the University of Florida. The 1.98M (6'6") forward said that it was his father who had urged him to study Ray Allen’s style of play when he was a kid, which helped out in his development into deadeye shooter himself.

"A lot of the basketball I watched was [Ray Allen] with the Milwaukee bucks, running off screens and all that kind of stuff," Creighton said. "That was really fun to watch growing up."

It was also brought up that Allen was a high-flying dunker as well during that time.

"I didn’t get that part in my genes, my dad didn’t give me that," he added with a chuckle.

Even without "that part in his genes", Creighton wasn’t exactly a rimgrazer. He certainly had his moments throughout his career above the rim, including slam dunk contest participations and in-game jams - one of which he mentioned happened during his first time playing for the national team back in 2011 at the William Jones Cup.

"I think we were playing against Japan, we had a double-team and they just happened to turn the ball over. I think I might have cherrypicked a bit, but [the dunk] was for the excited fans."

Then 26-year-old in his national team debut, Creighton admitted that he was nervous, but it was undoubtedly a valuable experience for him and his career moving forward. He mentioned having to adjust his game when he first came back to play professionally in Asia and getting the chance to play with legends and veterans with the national team helped him both on and off the court.

"We had a lot of veterans on the team. We had Sean Chen [Chen Hsin-An] who is obviously a legend in Chinese Taipei. He was leading the team and you just had listened to everything that he said. I’m glad that I was on the team because it molded myself as a leader to where I am today and how I communicate with my teammates."

"Just reading everything they do on the court and how they practice, how they carry themselves. I think the biggest thing for me was the honor that comes with the national team and how to hold yourself as a player."

Two years later, Creighton got an even bigger opportunity with the national team at the FIBA Asia Cup 2013 in Manila.

 

"That was probably the most exciting time playing on the national team because we obviously we did really well," Creighton expressed. "We had a great team that was probably one of our best teams that we have ever had."

"Anytime we play in the Philippines, it’s great because there are so much passion and they just love their basketball their regardless of what team you’re on. Obviously they’re going to cheer for the Philippines national team but we had a lot of fans show up and cheer us on. Just a very great experience to have and, for us, beating China was the icing on the cake."

This is, of course, in reference to Chinese Taipei’s monumental upset win over China in the Quarter-Finals. Creighton and co. were down by double-digits before a charge in the second half resulted in a resounding 18-point win. For Creighton, the halftime buzzer-beating shot by Hung Chih-Shan was a turning moment in the game that people might have overlooked.

"[Hung] had a halfcourt shot right before halftime," he detailed. "That was a huge shot because I think the momentum going into the second half was that we walked into the locker room and was like ‘we can do this’ and ‘we can pull off a comeback’. We just took it one step at a time."

"It wasn’t like they were really blowing us out. They had a double-digit lead but it wasn’t like they weren’t beating us by 30-40 points and that the shot didn’t mean anything. That shot just gave us a little bit of an edge and let us think that we might be able to do this. We just took it slowly, made our adjustments at halftime, and we pulled it out."

 

There was plenty of confidence in the air for Chinese Taipei during that entire tournament. They had done well in other competitions leading up to Asia Cup 2013, they had a lot of veterans on the squad, and they had stayed clear of injuries. Most importantly, there were high expectations for the team with Quincy Davis set to make his national team debut.

Despite Asia Cup 2013 being "a stacked tournament" where "each team came with their A-team" as per Creighton, Chinese Taipei completed their most successful Asia Cup campaign since 1989 by going to the Semi-Finals. Creighton credited the balance and chemistry of the entire roster for their successful run. From his roommate and club teammate Quincy Davis to respected legends Lin Chih-Chieh and Tien Lei among others, this was one solid unit.

"We had our role players, everyone did their part because we had one goal in mind."

More than the success on the court, Creighton just cherished having a good time in Manila, especially with his best friend Quincy.

"I think one of the biggest things was that we got Krispy Kreme every single day because we didn’t have that back at home. We do now, but at the time we were like ‘oh we’re at a mall, we have to go get some Krispy Kreme."

As for on-court encounters, Creighton listed three players as his favorites to have gone up against.

"Gabe Norwood, he’d definitely be the one on the court [I liked to go up against] because he’s a fierce competitor. He’s just super athletic, but he’s also such a nice guy and down to earth. You just tell him to come in and he does his job. He’s the consummate professional."

"I played against [Hamed] Haddadi and you just see the level [of play]. There’s a reason why he was in the NBA; he and Yi Jianlian. I mean those two guys, you can just tell. They’re big, they’re athletic, they’re smart and skilled players."

Creighton then proceeds to list Norwood, Yi, and Haddadi on his All-Time Asia Cup Starting Five along with two other superstars that we’ve yet to see any other player put on their teams so far in Lin Chih-Chieh at shooting guard and Korea’s Kim SunHyung at point guard.

"I think they could win the tournament," Creighton boasts.

Creighton also talked about the next generation of Chinese Taipei basketball, whether it was Chou Yi-Hsiang and the just the mere presence of Jeremy Lin.

"His style is very I would like to say American," Creighton said of Chou. "he’s very physical and athletic. He has a motor. He just goes and doesn’t get tired, which is crazy. But I think, watching him in college and high school, you could tell that he had a little bit of an edge towards him and now that he’s developed a three-point game and an outside shot, a more consistent jumper, his game is more well rounded. I think now that he’s playing with the Beijing Ducks, hopefully, he can learn a little bit something with Jeremy Lin which might be helpful towards his game on the national team."

"I think just his presence being the first from Chinese Taipei player to play in the NBA," Creighton then said about Jeremy Lin, who is currently playing in the CBA. "Anytime that he steps off the plane, the airport is just packed full of people. He holds his camps here and he’s always very committed to helping out Chinese Taipei basketball and we appreciate it."

Additionally, Creighton highlighted the potentially dangerous backcourt of the future for Chinese Taipei in Liu Cheng and Ray Chen. However, he also emphasized the need for the national team to search for a proper replacement for Quincy Davis as a naturalized player down the road.

"Q was not a seven-foot guy but he was long, athletic, and super smart. He knew how to use his body and he knew how to communicate with the players. So we need to find a guy who is similar to Quincy in that he knows how to play with us and that he’s willing to play the Chinese Taipei style of basketball. I think that's the biggest key right now for our federation to find what kind of player we can get."

The selection of a naturalized player was also a criterion of why Creighton considered Japan to be one of the most improved national teams ever since he last played in the Asia Cup back in 2013.

"I think [the Japan basketball] federation has done a really good job of transforming their league itself, really finding a good coach that’s fitting for their players, and implementing a system that was successful," said Creighton. "Obviously, Rui Hachimura is a great talent to have but they also have naturalized a player that's very fitting for their style of play in Nick Fazekas. And they have Ira Brown who can step in and I’m sure they have other guys too as well. They had Ryan Rossiter this past [window in the Asia Cup Qualifiers]."

"These guys are all very talented but they also know that in order to succeed, it doesn't mean they have to score 40 points. It means that they can bring their players up around them and they can do that."

Don’t forget to check out the full talk with Doug Creighton, available on IGTV at @FIBAAsiaCup!

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