Playing professional basketball in China has proven to be perilous for former IU star Noah Vonleh.
After earning the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year honor, Vonleh played 12 seasons in the NBA, last suiting up for the Boston Celtics in 2022-23.
His best year came in New York in 2018-19, making 57 starts while averaging 8.4 points and 7.8 assists — all of which were career-bests.
But his hoops journey has taken him overseas the last few years, including a stint with the Shanghai Sharks.
The Sharks had to be saved from bankruptcy in 2009 by former player Yao Ming, so the organization has seen financial difficulty in the past. Based on the way Vonleh recounts his experience with the team, it appears they are working every angle to avoid a repeat of their near collapse.
During the 2023-24 season, Vonleh battled an injury and suited up in only 14 games for the Sharks, averaging 11.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per contest.
The injury played a central role in a contract dispute Vonleh had with the Sharks that led to him not getting paid and encountering threats.
Here’s the story Vonleh shared on his Instagram page.
“I was dealing with an injury during the season and it was taking longer than expected for my return. The Sharks tried to rush me back many times and told team doctors and doctors outside of the team to lie to me and tell me I’m OK to play. I sent my MRI results to doctors in the States and they had different options and confirmed I wasn’t ready to return to play. Because of the injury was taking too long the Sharks were trying to find ways to terminate my contract on a fully guaranteed deal. They wrongfully terminated the contract on February 26th, 2024,” said d Vonleh.
“They started sending out warnings to my Chinese agents saying I wasn’t showing up to practice. Chinese agents never responded to any of the warning when I told them to. After the third warning, the Sharks sent the agents a termination notice. The Sharks called board members from the CBA office to come in and investigate to see if their claims to terminate were valid. The league saw based off of security footage that they were wrong and should of never terminated the contract. I was present at practice everyday,” he explained.
“After my contract was wrongfully terminated, CBA All-Star weekend was a couple days away. I decided it was a good idea to go. The general manager of the Sharks was informed I was gonna be attending and was nervous and scared of what could happen. He called for a meeting at the All-Star Hotel to try and get me back to the team, but the terms he presented were not in my best interest. He wanted to fly back to Shanghai together and go back with this Kumbaya story like everything was all good but I wasn’t with it,” he continued.
“In March, the third and final stage of the season begins. I’m asking for meetings with the team to figure out how to get my remaining salary since I’m on a fully guaranteed deal and they no longer want me on the team. I want all my money since I’m on a fully guaranteed contract, but I know based off my previous experience they’re gonna be on some BS and not give everything, so I decide I’ll take a bit less. They declined the requests for meetings and always have excuses for why. I told them many times I want to handle it peacefully and we can go our separate ways but they didn’t want to. I go to a couple games and the fans and everyone is wondering what is going on because they don’t want to release a statement on the situation after the league told them they have no right to do what they are trying to do such as terminating the contract and issuing unnecessary fines,” concluded Vonleh.
Vonleh also posted the following picture on his Instagram.
“Weapon they used to break into my room while I was sleep…. Snatched it from them thru the peep hole smh,” he said.
“The general manager tells the hotel to send people to my room to force me out of there. There’s six people coming to my room trying to break in and grab me out the room. They using weapons to try and break in and threatening me saying all kind of things.”
