Matthew Wright will be moving on from the Philippine Basketball Association in the meantime.
The 6-foot-4 swingman out of Toronto, Ontario has signed with B.League Division I team Kyoto.
Wright, who signed with the world-renowned Octagon agency last year, joins Kiefer Ravena (Shiga), Bobby Ray Parks Jr. (Nagoya), and Greg Slaughter (Fukuoka) as former PBA pros playing in Japan.
The Filipino-Canadian product of St. Bonaventure played for France’s Quimper and Malaysia’s Westsports Dragons before entering the PBA Rookie Draft in 2016.
Selected in the Gilas round, Wright was seen as the cornerstone of Phoenix Super LPG.
In his first five years with the Fuel Masters, Wright averaged 18.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and 1.4 steals per game.
He led Phoenix to a semis finish in the 2020 PBA Philippine Cup.
In his sixth year with Phoenix, however, the Fuel Masters could only muster three wins.
In Kyoto, he joins a Hannaryz team that finished in ninth place in the West District with a 14-43 record.
Wright’s head coach is someone who he is familiar with in Roy Rana.
Rana is a former head coach of Canada’s youth team from 2006-19 and, as well as, Ryerson University from 2009-19.
