BRISBANE has officially cut ties with misfiring import Alonzo Gee just four games into the 2018-19 NBL season.

The Bullets were expected to release the veteran of 417 NBA games before the end of the weekend after he withdrew from Saturday night’s clash with Illawarra in Wollongong for personal reasons.

Brisbane immediately released him from his contract this morning after Gee requested to go home to the US.

He did not fly to Sydney with the Brisbane squad on Friday after a lacklustre four points and four rebounds in the Bullets’ 100-96 win over Perth on Thursday night.

Gee, 31, came to Australia with an impressive resume after 213 starts in the NBA across stints with Washington, Cleveland, San Antonio, Denver, New Orleans and Portland.

But his output in the NBL never matched his paypacket as the marquee import.

He averaged just over seven points per game with the highest tally of 13 points coming in the season-opener against New Zealand.

But it was all downhill after that for the small forward whose rebounding numbers also went backwards.

For the Bullets to be competitive, they need their imports to deliver far more than what Gee was producing.

Brisbane was already searching for a player to fill their vacant third import spot.

That search is continuing with the new player to take Gee’s spot on the roster. The club is likely to keep the third import spot open.

“Alonzo advised the club about his reasons to return home and we respect those reasons and agreed to grant him an immediate release from his contract” Bullets General Manager Richard Clarke said.

“We had already commenced recruitment for an additional import with Nnanna Egwu’s departure to take up his pre-existing contract in Malaysia, we have now stepped up that recruitment to be a direct replacement for Alonzo.

“We hope to have a player in Brisbane next week and cleared to play for at least the away leg of this week’s double header against Adelaide.”