FORT WORTH, Texas — Bingo Merriex took about 20 years between college classes.
He finished his TCU basketball career in the spring of 2003, and over the next 20 years he lived a life that took him all over the world and filled his memory with experiences most people cannot imagine.
His basketball career took him to Lebanon, Germany, Belgium, France, China, Philippines, Japan and Ukraine.
The odds of making it in the NBA are terrible, and the percentages of having a successful career as a pro basketball player overseas aren’t much better.
On Saturday, at 42, the former four-year basketball player at TCU earned his college diploma.
“I’m excited to see what’s next,” he said.
Whatever is next will have hard time topping what he just did.
Turning Pro
In the fall of 1999, Merriex was a kid from Wichita Falls who came to TCU to play for coach Billy Tubbs.
At the time Merriex stood out because of his name, and because of his game. He was the rare tall player who could shoot 3-pointers.
Merriex was a solid college player who didn’t have much of a chance to make the NBA.
He tried out for the United States Basketball League when an aspiring agent reached out to Merriex to represent him.
“I knew nothing about agents,” he said.
His agent found Bingo a team. In Lebanon. The team paid him $7,000 a month, in cash, and provided housing and food.
“I had never seen that much money in my life,” he said. “The people are down to earth and energetic. I stuck out like a sore thumb but they were welcoming. It felt like every other day was a holiday.”
It was late in the fall of 2003 when Merriex started to learn the particulars of what playing overseas can mean. Players are highly disposable; what a team says and what a team does are often the opposites; the coaches can be worse than Marine drill sergeants.
It’s why so many American players don’t make it too long overseas. That and the culture adjustment can be too much.
In early January of 2004, Merriex was permitted to return to the United States for a break. He heard rumors the team was going to cut a player, but he figured he was safe. He was cheap.
He was back home in Texas and emailing a fellow American player who was also playing in Lebanon, former Arkansas star guard Scotty Thurman.
Thurman emailed him: “I hate to be the bearer of bad news but someone got your spot. He’s living in your apartment.”
Bingo had been cut. The team flew Merriex back to Lebanon so he could retrieve his personal items, and gave him three months of his salary.
Around the world
“I had a job lined up in the Philippines, and I’m ready to leave Lebanon and I find out my papers aren’t in order,” he said. “Then that team doesn’t want me. So I go to America for three days, and then I found another team in the Philippines.”
He was there for 3 1/2 months. He made $12,000 a month. Again, in cash.
“That was crazy,” he said. “It was 2004, and it really changed my career. I averaged 18 points and 14 rebounds, but the coach was saying I wasn’t flashy enough.”
Another lesson learned: If you’re an American playing overseas, the basket constantly moves. It depends on the team and the coach.
2004 to 2005: Imola, Italy.
Summer 2006: Summer league in China.
“The owner of the team told me not to go anywhere without my translator,” he said. “Now, I don’t mind exploring. I’d go out without him and try to talk to people.”
The food, however ...
“That was a problem. I’m thinking it’s going to be like Panda Express, and I’ll get some shrimp fried rice. Negative,” he said. “It’s authentic and it’s slimy. I ate eggs and rice, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. I would have the occasional McDonald’s burger.”
2005 to 2006: Tübingen, Germany.
2006 to 2007: Mons, Belgium.
“I had a Yugoslavian coach. If you can avoid playing for a Yugoslavian coach, avoid him,” he said. “I was ahead of the game as far as being a big man who could shoot, but he didn’t want that. I’d get a rebound, dribble it up the floor and score and he’d put me on the bench.”
2007 to 2008: Back to Tübingen, Germany.
“I tried to date in Germany and that’s where I met my ex-fiance, who was from Iran,” he said. “It’s tough. When you live this way, it’s difficult (on relationships).”
2008 to 2009: Le Havre, France.
“I loved it there,” he said. “It’s by the water. I could walk downtown, and the city was really nice.”
2009 to 2010: Aalst, Belgium.
2011: Ludwigsburg, Germany.
“I played there for half of the season and I was getting to the age of 30, and ‘Can he still play?’ ” he said.
2011: Kamianske, Ukraine.
“That was the coldest I’ve ever been in my life. I went there right after Christmas,” he said. “When you think about Rocky training in (Rocky IV), that’s what it was like.
“You can get a very racy feeling there. People there were not used to seeing Black people. You get a routine and people see you every day and once they do that they can’t help but open up. They’d see me in the newspaper and then they’d want to talk to you. It was the same way in China.”
2011 to 2012: Pepinster, Belgium.
“I was playing for my old coach from Germany, and he was thinking I’d be too expensive to play,” he said. “I told him ‘I’m just trying to play if someone will give me a chance.’ ”
2012 to 2013: Nancy, France.
2013 to 2014: Nuremberg, Germany.
2014 to 2019: Japan.
One of the reasons Merriex lasted so long in Japan is that he learned early the most valuable lesson for an American player.
“Make the Japanese players look good,” he said. “That’s what they want, so give them that.”
One of the teams he played for was in Fukushima, the city made famous for the nuclear power plant disaster caused by a tsunami in 2011.
“You couldn’t tell anything about the reactor or anything like it,” he said. “It was actually a really nice place to live. We got a lot of snow there, but it was an hour train ride to Tokyo.”
Late in his career in Japan he heard from Shawn Worthen, TCU associate athletics director of athletic academic services, who implored Merriex to finish his degree.
Merriex planned to play another year or so in Japan, mostly as the end-of-the-bench guy waving the towel and as veteran cheerleader.
Because of COVID policies in early 2020, Merriex was unable to return to Japan to resume playing.
In the spring of 2022, he was ready to go back to college.
Back to School
Merriex’s return to college had one tiny catch. There was no online option.
He would have to sit in a class room surrounded by people half his age.
“My first class was in June of 2022, and it was funny at first,” he said. “I know I’m the oldest person here, and I do wonder how they will perceive me. It helped I don’t look my age, and maybe because of (my outfit) they thought I was a player.
“Beards are in, too, and I don’t have any gray.”
He took a job working at Amazon to keep a check coming in. He learned how to be a good student.
“When I was younger and I’d open a book, if I didn’t like it, I’d close it,” he said. “Now I stick with it, and that was the fun part. Getting it.”
Last week, he took his last final. For the graduation, his sister came in from Arkansas as well as a friend from Austin and his family from Wichita Falls.
He still plays basketball, and he looks like he could play for another five years at a high level.
He is doing some part-time work as an analyst for the TCU men’s basketball radio broadcasts, as well as working with the new “Frogs Today.”
He’d like to write, and he and friends have talked about forming an agency to help young players whose only path to continue playing is overseas.
“I’d like to help these guys in the way we didn’t get the same help when we were starting out,” he said. “A lot of guys go overseas and they think they’re going to be Udonis Haslem.”
Haslem finished his college career at the University of Florida in 2002, and then played one season in France. He signed with the Miami Heat in 2003, and is still on their roster.
“Guys go overseas and think, ‘I’m going to get outta here,’ ” Merriex said. “A lot of guys don’t want to be receptive to staying.”
It’s not easy.
It’s also not for everyone.
Because of his talent, and his willingness to learn and adapt to a variety of cultures, Bingo Merriex made playing basketball his career for 20 years.
Now he’s a college graduate, too.
