Darius Bazley Joins Chinese Team

Free agent forward/center Darius Bazley has signed a contract with the Ningbo Rockets of the Chinese Basketball Association, according to Dario Skerletic of Sportando.

Bazley is a five-year NBA veteran. His last stint in the league came with Utah at the end of the 2023/24 campaign.

Bazley spent most of his career with Oklahoma City, which traded him to Phoenix in February 2023, ahead of the deadline. The 25-year-old signed a training camp deal with Brooklyn that offseason, was waived in the fall, and spent most of ’23/24 in the G League prior to signing a 10-day deal with Philadelphia and then a rest-of-season contract with the Jazz.

The 23rd overall pick in the 2019 draft, Bazley opened last season with the Guangdong Southern Tigers. He left the Chinese team in November 2024, finishing out the ’24/25 campaign with the Delaware Blue Coats (Philadelphia’s affiliate) and Leones de Ponce in Puerto Rico.

Bazley was trying to “revamp” his career last offseason by playing for the Lakers’ Summer League team, but he suffered a significant right leg injury in their third game in Las Vegas and had to be taken to the locker room in a wheelchair. As far as we can tell, this is the first contract Bazley has signed since he sustained that injury last July.