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Nick Fazekas, Jelani McCoy, DerMarr Johnson, Jake Voskuhl and Dwayne Jones To Sign In Philippines

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via <a href="http://www.nba.com/media/dleague/fazekas_300_101119.jpg">www.nba.com</a>
via www.nba.com

Next stop on the Nick Fazekas basketball tour: the Philippines.

Fazekas is one of five NBA free agents with D-League connections who are signing deals in the Philippine Basketball Association this week as teams there ramp up their rosters for the Commissioner's Cup according to multiple reports.

Fazekas is said to have traveled to the Philippines two weeks ago with NBA Hall of Famer Alex English (prior to English being hired as an assistant with the Sacramento Kings on Keith Smart's staff) and now is set to sign with Blaze Boosters in the PBA Fiesta Conference starting Feb. 10. The 6-foot-11 center last split time between the Dallas Mavericks and Reno Bighorns of the D-League.

Other notable players thayt will sign in the Phillipines include Jelani McCoy, DerMarr Johnson, Jake Voskuhl and Dwayne Jones.

Now 34, McCoy was drafted 33rd overall in 1998 by the Seattle SuperSonics and played with the Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks and Denver Nuggets.

The sixth overall pick by the Hawks in 2000, Johnson's career was sidelined by a car accident. He missed the entire 2002-03 season and it was any wonder if he would play basketball again. Although he returned for stints with Denver, New York and San Antonio, the 6-foot-9 forward has bounced around internationally with teams in China, Puerto Rico, Lebanon and Columbia.

Both Voskuhl and Jones are two PBA vets who have certainly made the rounds: Voskuhl with Chicago, Phoenix, Charlotte, Milwaukee, Dallas and Toronto, and Jones getting run for Boston, Cleveland, Phoenix and D-League stops with Austin, Iowa and Idaho.

Jones spent last season in the Chinese Basketball Association with the Zhejiang Lions.

Denzel Bowles (James Madison Univeristy, Siaulai, Lithuania), Matt Haryasz (Stanford University, Grolingen, Holland), Omar Samhan (St. Mary's, Zalgiris, Kaunas), Chris Alexander (PBA) round out the additions.

Call them hired guns if you will -- Fazekas, McCoy, Johnson, Voskuhl and Jones -- but don't call them out of work or out of the game just yet. It just goes to show if you can defend, knock down a jumper or hold down the paint, you can always find a job playing ball somewhere.

This "somewhere" just happens to be the PBA for these players.