Former New York Knicks player reports incident abroad

Former New York Knick Noah Vonleh described on Instagram a disturbing experience abroad that ended with team management attempting to forcibly remove him from his hotel room.

Vonleh, the ninth overall pick in the 2014 draft, spent last year with the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association. Despite having a successful year on the court (11.6 points, 5.9 rebounds in 14 appearances), Vonleh was anything but an All-Star, especially when it came to finances. For example, Vonleh claimed that the Sharks did not pay out his playoff bonus for the 2021-22 season.

“The Shanghai Sharks are by far the worst organization I have ever been a part of in my career,” said Vonleh, who played for the Knicks in the 2018-19 season.

Vonleh says it all started when an injury kept him out of action longer than expected, leading to the team pushing doctors inside and outside the organization to convince him he was ready. Even after Vonleh sought second opinions from American-based doctors, the Sharks looked for a way to terminate his fully guaranteed contract and did so in late February.

Since the injury allegations were baseless, the Sharks claimed Vonleh failed to show up for practice. Vonleh was vindicated again when CBA officials obtained security footage of him at the Shanghai facilities. Although his contract was still terminated, he went to the CBA All-Star Game in Xiamen in hopes of speaking with team management.

“I decided it was a good idea to go,” Vonleh said. “The general manager of the Sharks was informed I was going to attend and was nervous and afraid of what might happen. He called a meeting at the All Star Hotel to try to get me back on the team, but the terms he proposed were not in my best interest. He wanted to fly back to Shanghai together and come back with this kumbaya thing like everything was fine but I wasn’t going to be there.”

As the Sharks’ season drew to a close, Vonleh continued to seek an audience with management, even planning to take less than he was entitled to in order to get a quicker resolution. When Shanghai management continued to avoid him, Vonleh attended games with fans in the stands. After one such incident, Vonleh said, the general manager sent men to his team-paid hotel room to get him to leave. He showed one of the weapons the intruders forced through the room’s peephole, an apparently upside-down coat hanger attempting to turn the doorknob.

“The manager ordered the hotel to send people to my room to drag me out. Six people came to my room and tried to break in and drag me out of the room,” the 28-year-old wrote on Instagram. “They are trying to break in with weapons and are threatening me with all kinds of words. (sic)”

Considering his effort, Vonleh appears to be safe following his ordeal. The Indiana alumnus played his best NBA minutes with the Knicks, posting career-highs of 8.4 points and 7.8 rebounds during his only trip to Manhattan. Vonleh’s final NBA minutes came in 2023 with the Boston Celtics, and he has also played for Charlotte, Portland and Brooklyn.

The Sharks are probably best known among American basketball fans as the team that produced Chinese basketball sensation Yao Ming, the first pick in the 2002 draft.

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