After about two years off the scene, Whaley re-appeared on it again in March…..but in a bad way. For a longer breakdown of the life and times of the Fail Whale, click here.
Former Cal-State Northridge guard White was once signed by the Suns, which is why his progress continues to be monitored. He spent much of this year on the shelf, but at the start of last month he signed with Mexican team Mineros de Cananea (with whom White also played in 2006 and 2008). Cananea play in the CIBACOPA, the “other” Mexican league that starts upon the completion of the superior LNBP. Nonetheless, even though the league is not of a high standard, White made up for it by starring quite nicely, averaging 22.6 points and 4.8 assists per game before getting injured.
Former teammates White and Whitney are both now retired, and have gone into business together. They have started an employment agency called Staffing Across America, which aims to staff across America, and the duo are trying to take their staffing business global, with the aim of staffing around the world. Whitney has also done some TV work Comcast Sportsnet, and bizarrely, White has done some acting, playing the role of an alien in a made-for-TV move called “Showdown At Area 51”. White is listed as playing a character called “Kronan” – a quick Google search reveals that Kronan is an alien character within the 3.6/10 rated film. There follows a screen cap of an alien character in the movie.
Is that really Jahidi White? God, I hope so.
IMDB carries a trailer of said film; if you pause it at the 12 second mark, you will clearly see through the grippingly realistic costume that whoever is playing the masked alien freak is black. And if you pause it at the 11 second mark, you can see whoever it is is roughly the same height as the 80-inch Land Rover Defender that is approaching them. [Editor’s note: yes, I have put way too much time into this.] With all this in mind, therefore, is it still possible for two 6’9 foot black men called Jahidi White to exist, and that it’s the non-NBA 6’9 Jahidi White that featured in this low-budget alien movie?
God, I hope not.
(Additionally, I don’t think the actual Area 51 was based in a junkyard.)
Two bonus Jahidi White facts: Jahidi White worked as a coach at the recent Portsmouth Invitational tournament, and he also worked at AOL as a “research assistant” during the 1999 NBA lockout. If you come away from this post either indifferent or dismissive towards Jahidi White, then there’s something wrong with you.
White was under contract to the Rockets to start this season after being signed through 2010 at the end of last year. However, with no chance of making the Rockets roster, he was traded to Denver for the draft rights to Axel Hervelle – essentially, nothing at all, since it’s unlikely Hervelle ever comes over. White didn’t make the team there either, though, and moved to Russia to play for Spartak St. Petersburg. He averaged 16.0 ppg in the EuroCup and 14.8 ppg in the Russian Superleague, and was also a participant in the Russian Slam Dunk Contest. (Obviously. I mean, he’s James White.) He went up against Gerald Green, another renowned dunker, and here’s the video of their little tête-a-tête.
Needs a little Damon Jones, maybe, but it was much better than the NBA’s one.
Happily, Rodney White has spent three straight seasons doing the China-in-the-winter/Puerto Rico-in-the-summer combination. In his third season with the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions, White averaged 27.5 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game, and for the Leones de Ponce he’s at 21.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game.
Former Wisconsin forward Mike Wilkinson joined his fellow Macedonian international Darius Washington at Galatasaray this offseason. (Not making that up, by the way – both have played for the Macedonian national team. In some parts of Europe, a few grand can hook you up with a variety of passports. Not saying that’s specifically what happened here, but it’s been known to happen in the past. In theory, it’s a win-win.) After being a role player for Khimky last season, Wilkinson got the chance to be one of Galatasaray’s focal points this season, and responded well. He averaged 17.5 points and 6.5 points per game in the EuroCup, and 13.8/6.8 in the Turkish TBL. Galatasaray weren’t very good this year, but it wasn’t Wilkinson’s fault.
After playing four games for Oklahoma City this season – totalling 16 points and 4 assists in 59 minutes – Mike Wilks can now rightfully claim to have nine years of NBA experience. Better still, he’s played only 233 games in that time for nine different franchises (Atlanta, Houston, Minnesota, Denver, Washington, San Antonio, Seattle, Oklahoma City, Cleveland), and has been on the rosters of five more (Chicago, Milwaukee, Orlando, Memphis, Sacramento). So, apart from one season in the D-League (2001-02), and one fortnight with Montepaschi Siena (March 2008), Wilks has spent his entire career in the NBA….where he’s barely played and signed about 46 different contracts.
One of the best journeyman careers of a generation. And that is said with appreciation. When people keep coming back this much, you’re doing something right.
The Clippers waived A-Train back in March 2008 so that they could sign his namesake, Marcus E. Williams. This moment marked the end of Aaron’s basketball career.
Williams was cut by the Hawks in 2005 preseason, which was his last basketball activity. He retired aged 28 and became the President of the Jamaican Basketball Association. Ajani recently made news by announcing Samardo Samuels’s declaration for the draft, which no one was expecting him to. And if it wasn’t for an impending lockout, Samardo probably wouldn’t have done it either. But such is the environment right now.
Alvin Williams was assumed to be retired in early 2004, when his troublesome ankle finally gave up the ghost and prevented him from playing any more. But as it turns out, that wasn’t quite it; Williams missed the whole 2004-05 season, but managed to get 10 minutes of one game in November 2005 with the Raptors (who then bought him out, unable to get an injury exemption), and Williams also played two games on a 10-day contract with the Clippers the following season. That really was it after that, though, and Williams never played again. He is now an assistant coach with the Raptors.
Virginia’s Chris Williams has spent his Korea in Australia, Germany, South Korea, Turkey, the Philippines and China, albeit not necessarily in that order. Those are all decent places to play, but by not being elite, they give Williams a chance to put up huge numbers. And this year he did just that when he averaged 23.9 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 3.8 steals per game for Qingdao Double Star in China’s CBA.
Of all the people covered in this list – which is not far short of 800 in total – Williams is the only one to have recorded a quadruple-double this year. He did this on Christmas Day, putting up 15 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists and 11 steals in a Qingdao win over DongGuan. Regular readers will know that things are a little bit different, but regardless, a quadruple-double is a quadruple-double.
Corey “Homicide” Williams – so named because he murders people on the court – spent a third consecutive season with the Townsville Crocodiles in Australia. He averaged 18.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game, ranking second in the league in scoring only to Kirk Penney’s 23.2 ppg, and winning the NBL MVP award. However, Townsville have already announced that they won’t be asking Corey back for next season, giving no real explanation as to why they are allowing an MVP to leave. They’ve already brought in former St Mary’s big man Ben Allen for next season, but it’s just not the same.
– 
– 