NBA veteran Noah Vonleh on Thursday reflected on his uneasy first year with the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association.
Vonleh relayed a story about the team’s general manager trying to throw him out of his hotel room after attending a Sharks game shortly after the CBA All-Star game in March.
“The general manager has instructed the hotel to send someone to my room to forcibly remove me. Six men have broken into my room and are trying to remove me,” the 28-year-old wrote on Instagram. “They are trying to get in with weapons and are threatening me with all sorts of things.”
Fonle also provided photos of some kind of device that officials appeared to have used to gain access to the room’s peephole.
The 6-foot-10 forward said injuries and recovery are at the root of his troubles with the team.
“The Sharks tried to rush me back on multiple occasions and instructed team doctors and non-team doctors to lie and tell me I was OK to play,” Vonleh said. “I sent my MRI results to doctors in the U.S., but they had a different opinion and confirmed I was not ready to return to play.”
As a result, Fonle claims his fully guaranteed contract was voided on Feb. 26, but he continued to fight to get his full pay.
Vonleh added that the Sharks notified his agent that he had not participated in practice, but the league’s investigation did not match up with what the team had communicated.
“The league realized based on security camera footage that they were wrong. [have] “I was never out of contract. I was in practice every day,” Vonleh said.
The former Trail Blazers, Knicks and Raptors player Vonleh called Shanghai “by far the worst organization I’ve ever been part of…very unprofessional,” and apparently has yet to receive his exit salary or playoff bonus.
Vonleh played 12 seasons in the NBA, last playing with the Boston Celtics in the 2022-23 season.
His best year came in 2018-19 with New York, when he started 57 games and averaged 8.4 points and 7.8 assists, both career highs.
During the 2023-24 season, Vonleh appeared in just 14 games for the Sharks, averaging 11.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.
Shanghai, featuring former NBA guards Eric Bledsoe and Dwayne Bacon, went 32-20 before losing in the quarterfinals of the league’s postseason.
