Where is Dinh Thanh Tam and the Cantho Catfish "hegemonic" team of VBA 2018 at that time?

With DeAngelo Hamilton just sharing on his personal page that he is leaving Cantho Catfish, VBA's "national team" has said goodbye to another piece of the puzzle that has stuck with much of the club's history.

Hamilton is a foreign soldier born in 1990 with US citizenship. He arrived in Vietnam in 2017 and wore only one color Cantho Catfish at VBA.

During the time of DeAngelo's service, the Western team had a series of 3 consecutive seasons of participation in the final series (2017, 2018, 2019), including the "heavy season" in 2018 that brought Catfish to the championship.

Up to the ongoing VBA 2023 season, Cantho Catfish collective at VBA 2018 is the team with the highest win rate in the Regular Season. For the whole season, they won by an average of more than 9 points per game.

The army led by coach Kevin Yurkus won 13 out of 15 matches, achieving a win rate of up to 86%. Catfish then went completely undefeated in the Playoffs, ending both the semi-finals and finals of the VBA without losing a single game.

In terms of personnel, Cantho Catfish is like an All-Star squad with many outstanding members. Nguyen Phu Hoang after the historic trade became the Local Player of The Year in Can Tho.

Vietnamese-born player Dinh Thanh Tam played one of the most productive seasons of his career with 17.8 points per game. Many times he made the fans say "oh, ah" with a series of 3 beautiful entry points.

The culmination of perhaps two exceptional performances. One is a series of 5 consecutive 3-pointers made by Tam Dinh before Ho Chi Minh City Wings. The second is a 36-point career-high match (6-13 3PT) in the Playoffs he created against Saigon Heat.

But no matter how powerful the empire is, it will eventually collapse. Catfish started going down from the VBA 2020 season and plummeted in the 2022 season, not being able to participate in the Playoffs for the first time.

Looking back at Cantho Catfish's 2018 championship squad with 11 members, there are currently only 2 internal soldiers still playing for the Western team. Three players are currently playing for another team. The rest have retired or are temporarily absent from VBA 2023. Details are as follows:

Nguyen Huynh Phu Vinh: Saigon Heat (departed in 2019)

Le Hieu Thanh: Thang Long Warriors (departed in 2022)

Tam Dinh: Hanoi Buffaloes (departed in 2021)

Sang Dinh: Not playing (1 season break)

Nguyen Phu Hoang: Not playing (1 season break)

Tang Minh Tri: Still at Cantho Catfish

Nguyen Hoang Tu: Still at Cantho Catfish

DeAngelo Hamilton: Just broke up with the team

Tran Nguyen Dai Duong: No information available

Pham Duy Hau: Retired

Du Quoc Tai: Retired

Coach Kevin Yurikus: Retired

According to the rules of the tournament, teams will be free to replace foreign players before the 2/3 Regular Season milestone.

This means that despite having just replaced Brachon Griffin in phase 1, Cantho Catfish still has the right to recruit new foreign players to replace DeAngelo Hamilton for the rest of VBA 2023.

The latest information on the position of foreign soldiers of the "national team" will be updated as soon as possible in the Webthethao basketball section.