Ex-CSU players Avila, Kidd sign with Belgian teams

Former CSU basketball players J.J. Avila and Stanton Kidd both signed one-year contracts Monday to play professionally in Belgium.

Avila, a 6-foot-8, 250-pound forward from McAllen, Texas, will play for the Leuven Bears.

Kidd, a 6-8, 225-pound forward from Baltimore, will be playing for Limburg United in Hasselt, Belgium. Leuven is about a 30-minute drive east from Belgium’s capital city, Brussels, and Hasselt is 30 minutes east of Leuven.

Both players said Monday that they’ll leave for Belgium in about two weeks to get situated and start practicing with their new teammates before the season starts in October. Neither player has ever been to Europe before.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Avila said. “I’m just so excited to go over there. It’s my first year out of college, and I’m in a good spot. I just like to play ball.”

Avila worked out for a half-dozen or so NBA teams before the draft and played in two games for the Houston Rockets in the Las Vegas Summer League, scoring two points and pulling down two rebounds.

Kidd was one of the top players in a three-day showcase event two weeks ago in Las Vegas for college players hoping to play overseas, scoring in double figures in all four of his team’s games. He averaged 12.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.0 assists.

Avila was a first-team All-Mountain West selection this past season after averaging a team-leading 16.7 points and 7.5 rebounds a game for a Colorado State University team that won a school-record 27 games. Kidd was the second-leading scorer, averaging 11.6 points and 5.1 rebounds a game.

Both players said they hope to use this league as a stepping stone to bigger and better things, either higher European leagues or the NBA.

“I try to make the most out of everything that I was able to do,” Avila said. “Hopefully, come next year or whenever, my name will still be fresh in (NBA coaches’ and executives’) minds, and we’ll see what happens. I don’t like to lose, so anywhere I go, I’m going to work my hardest and make sure my team has the best chance of winning, and hopefully this team knew that, and that’s why they wanted me.”

Kidd said he had a couple of opportunities to play for other teams overseas, but the Belgian League appeared to him and his agent to be the best fit for him this season. Limburg United coach Brian Lynch played professionally in Europe for 10 years after starring at Villanova in college.

“I’m super excited,” Kidd said. “This is a chance to go play professional basketball in a great country. Limburg is going to be outstanding; I hear a lot of great things about it.”

Avila and Kidd haven’t seen the league schedule yet but figure they’ll play each other a couple times during the season. Limburg went 12-8 last season, winning three games in overtime, while Leuven was 3-17 and finished last in the 11-team league.

There’s a good chance, Kidd said, they’ll wind up guarding each other when their teams meet, much like they did in practice every day for the past two seasons.

“He made me better; I made him better,” Kidd said. “Now, it’s playing for wins and losses. It’ll be competitive, but he’ll still be my brother. It’ll be all business on the court, but once we get off the court, we’re still friends.”

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