Within 2 years in office, coach Erik Olson has brought Ho Chi Minh City Wings back as one of the teams worth watching at VBA. The new reign of Ho Chi Minh City Wings opened from the 2021 VBA experimental matches. Here, coach Erik Olson and his team first “caused a storm” when knocking down the defending runner-up Thang Long Warriors and Hanoi Buffaloes.
Coach Erik Olson is the catalyst to help Ho Chi Minh City Wings Club make a transformation in VBA
Entering the 2022 VBA season, Ho Chi Minh City Wings affirmed that the achievement at VBA 2021 is not due to luck. In the group stage, Ho Chi Minh City Wings was always in the top 4 strongest teams and even competed for the top spot with Saigon Heat for weeks. The 7th season of VBA is also the first time since VBA 2019, Ho Chi Minh City Wings return to the semi-final series. Although they could not overcome Saigon Heat in this knockout round, Ho Chi Minh City Wings still scored in the hearts of fans thanks to two dramatic and eye-catching matches. Saigon Heat, the team that later became the VBA 2022 champion, even had to score over 100 points to knock down the spirit of coach Erik Olson’s students.
Vincent Nguyen won the title of Vietnamese-born athlete of VBA 2022
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Closing VBA 2022, a series of individuals of Ho Chi Minh City Wings also won important titles and nominations. The most prominent is the title of Vietnamese-born athlete of the year belonging to Nguyen Quang Vinh (Vincent Nguyen). This is the second time that a Vietnamese-Dutch player has received this title. At the same time, in turn, young players Bui Anh Khoa and Tran Van Trung also received the nomination for progressive athlete of the year. Two foreign soldiers of Ho Chi Minh City Wings, Richard Thomas and Desean Parsons, also received nominations as the best athlete of the year and best defensive athlete of the year, respectively.
Richard Thomas also holds the record for the most points in a match at VBA 2022 with 46 points
Besides being nominated for the most important title of the season, defender Richard Thomas also holds the record for most points in a single match at VBA 2022 with 46 points. From the positive changes brought to Ho Chi Minh City Wings, coach Erik Olson also received a nomination for the title of Coach of the Year. This is the premise for the talented coach to continue to bring breakthroughs to the Saigon team in the next VBA seasons.
