For players with NBA experience, the CEBL is becoming a viable option

Byron Mullens, the five-year NBA veteran, needs to stay sharp. 

After all, his eldest son, 11-year-old Baron Mullens, is rapidly improving. And he’s starting to get some ideas.

“My son is getting older and he wants to play basketball. And there's days where he thinks he can beat me, but now I gotta compete against him. So I still gotta stay young and stay ready because now he's gonna come up and start talking,” Mullens said.

“It's a game within a game. And I think that's what's really keeping me going.”

Mullens, 35, signed with the Winnipeg Sea Bears in the off-season for his first CEBL campaign. The Ohio native has played everywhere from England to Taiwan, but he’s perhaps best known for his time with the Charlotte Bobcats, for whom he played 108 games across two seasons.

The big man is also one of 10 players with NBA experience in the CEBL this season, a record for a league that continues to attract talent.

Perhaps the greatest success story is Xavier Moon, the Edmonton Stingers’ two-time MVP who parlayed his play into a two-way contract with the Los Angeles Clippers, where he’s spent parts of the last three seasons.

Moon’s path is one that the likes of 2023 MVP Teddy Allen hope to follow.

Others, like the Ottawa BlackJacks’ Brandon Sampson, view the CEBL as a way to get back to the NBA. Sampson played 14 games for the Chicago Bulls in 2018-2019.

“CEBL is a league that guys play really hard in, so the competition’s getting bumping. … I’m not gonna say it’s a crazy league like everywhere else, but it’s building towards being that … in aspects of more players and a lot more guys hearing about it and the competitiveness level,” Sampson said. 

“So this league is definitely good for me and my career.”

Sampson, the 27-year-old from Baton Rouge, La., played for the Newfoundland Growlers in 2022, skipped last season, then returned to the league after his season in Israel was disrupted due to the war.

He said the CEBL, as a summer league, provides a good spot for players who want to stay on the court after their overseas campaigns are done. And it doesn’t hurt that being so close to the U.S., there’s a higher likelihood of an NBA scout finding you, too.

“I feel like this is the perfect thing for guys that want to keep that ball rolling, that wheel rolling with the competition level getting better every year.”

Mullens, though, is a slightly different case.

In his mid-30s and with six NBA seasons under his belt, he is by far the most experienced player to come to the CEBL. His goals, then, are not solely rooted in a return.

Mullens took a two-year retirement from basketball recently, but he says his inner competitiveness wouldn’t let him continue to sit out. In his first year back, he won MVP of the Taiwanese league.

“Being older, it was a perfect opportunity to show that I can still play basketball with the younger guys and I still got a little bit left in the tank,” he said.

In three games with Winnipeg, Mullens has averaged 10.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game.

He said he’s still adjusting to the league and regaining his footing after spending the winter season with Taiwan’s New Taipei Kings, while adding that the biggest change is the basketball itself – going from a Molten ball to the CEBL’s Spalding.

But it’s all worth it to get the chance to show Baron the rigors of everyday life in professional basketball. The plan is for Baron to travel with the team, spend time with his dad and maybe even get on the floor for a practice here and there.

“This would be the first time that he can come in and actually work out with me, lift weights with me, wake up in the morning, see what it takes, from diet to workouts to just the mental side of things,” Mullens said. 

“So this is a perfect way to show him that, if this is what he wants to do, then this is what it's going to have to take.”

Mullens also said part of the CEBL’s appeal was in the professional way it’s run.

“It's ran like the NBA and it's a good league so far. It's been a really good league to play in and it's close to home so I enjoy being here. … It's crazy because it's only a two-month league and the way that it's all set up and everything is, I'm surprised so far with it,” he said.

On the court, Mullens is looking forward to facing more teams.

“It seems like these kids in this league can really get out and go. So I'm excited to see what else the rest of the season brings and see what other talent level there is.”