Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 24
February 25th, 2010
– Alex Garcia
Brazilian guard Garcia has toured the world over the years, including a couple of stints in the NBA. He is now back in his native Brazil, playing for Universo/BRB Brasilia, a team seemingly sponsored by a l33t speak manufacturer. Brazilian league statistics are hard to come by, but Garcia must be doing well, as he was an All-Star this season. As far as I can tell from the NBB website, Garcia averages 18 layettes (presumed to be points) and 3.6 assistances (presumed to not be rebounds) per game. A layette would be a great name for a hooker.
– Thomas Gardner
Gardner spent his third consecutive October in his NBA training camp when he signed with the Memphis Grizzlies, but he was an early and quiet cut. He then moved to Belgium in January where he is playing for the Antwerp Giants. Gardner hasn’t shot well in his first three Belgian league games, averaging 9.7 points on 35% shooting, but in five EuroChallenge games he is averaging a much healthier 14.2 points on 46% shooting.
I did not mention any other statistics of his because, true to form, there are very few of them. The guy is a shooting specialist.
– Pat Garrity
Garrity retired from basketball after the 2007-08 season. Now in retirement, he is pursuing a business MBA at Duke’s Fuqua Business School. He also worked for Credit Suisse during the summer, a financial services company.
– Alonzo Gee
Gee went undrafted out of Alabama, and made his way to the Spurs summer league roster. From there he made his way to the Timberwolves training camp roster, and after being waived he was the sixth overall pick in the D-League Draft by the Austin Toros. This cheers me up because in July, I wrote:
“The chances of him playing for the Austin Toros next season are about one jillion percent.”
So that’s nice.
On the season, Gee is averaging 20.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, and one of the D-League’s best players. He still does not have strong three-point range – Gee is shooting 38% from down there, but on about 1.5 attempts per game – yet he’s scoring well anyway. And he certainly has the size for the role. So another training camp placement seems inevitable.
– Mickael Gelabale
Gelabale was another training camper this year, although he wasn’t supposed to be. He missed most of last season recovering from his March 2008 knee surgery, returning only for the last six games of the D-League season. He played fairly well there and went to the Mavericks summer league roster, but did not make the team, and instead went to Spain.
Once there, Gelabale found himself in a Johnny Kerr-style bruhaha when he agreed to sign for Lucentum Alicante in Spain’s ACB, only to find that the agreed salary had been changed without his knowledge when he turned up to sign the contract. He left without signing the deal and fired his agent. And then came the trip to the Lakers’ training camp.
A few weeks later, Gelabale joined Cholet, the French team he started his professional career with. In five EuroCup games for them, Gelabale averaged 7.6 points and 4.2 rebounds, alongside 9.6 points and 3.9 rebounds per game in the French league.
– Otis George
Former Louisville big man Otis George’s career was highlighted by a training camp contract with the Knicks in 2005. Since then he’s spent one year with the Tulsa 66ers in the D-League, and then three straight years in the Italian second division. Last year he averaged 12.5 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.5 fouls and 2.0 steals per game for Umana Reyer, taking an unusual three three-pointers a game and making 35% of them. This season, however, he is is unsigned.
– Trey Gilder
Gilder signed with the Grizzlies in training camp to a $25,000 guaranteed contract, and stuck around for a couple of weeks before being waived. He appeared in two games, and as a result he is now tied for the league lead in true shooting percentage (1.000%, along with Ryan Bowen) and is fourth in PER (31.2; behind Paul Davis, Bowen and LeBron James, in that order). It’s not much of a boast in a five minute sample size, but I’d totally claim it.
Back in the D-League, Gilder is averaging 14.3 layettes and 5.6 rebounds for the Maine Red Claws, numbers almost identical to last year’s.
– C.J. Giles
Former Lakers camp invite Giles started this year as Smart Gilas’ import player. Smart Gilas are a Philippines team that aren’t like normal club teams; even though they play in the domestic Philippines league, they were founded to be the next Philippines national team. A selection of amateur and college standouts were chosen to form the basis for this new team, along with one import player, training religiously with a veteran Serbian coach (Rajko Toroman) in order to create a competitive team in time for the 2012 Olympics. It’s a unique plan, and the fact that Smart Gilas are competing in the Filipino PBA league makes it all rather strange, but the intent makes sense.
The initial import player – someone who would receive a Philippines passport as a part of the deal – was initially Jamal Sampson. He left in the summer, and Smart Gilas tabbed C.J. Giles as his replacement, perhaps on account of his surname. However, Giles was released by the team for disciplinary reasons, reasons which (allegedly) include an intense nightlife, unashamed marijuana consumption, an uncooperative attitude and a punch-up with his brother. Giles played in two PBA games with the team and totalled 27 minutes, 12 points, 8 rebounds and 6 fouls before his release.
(EDIT – it was actually the other way around. Sampson replaced Giles. Sorry about that.)
Giles has since moved to Lebanon, where he is averaging 16.4 points, 11.1 rebounds and 3.0 blocks in 26 minutes per game for Al Riyadi. In a previous entry, I said that Matt Freije also played for Al Riyadi, but this is not strictly true; Freije is under contract to Al Riyadi but will only play in certain tournaments; specifically, the Hariri Tournament, the Aleppo Tournament, the Dubai Tournament, the Waba Championship and the Asian Club Championships. He will only play Lebanese league games once the playoffs start. No, I don’t know why either.
– Eddie Gill
Eddie Gill was in the NBA last year, albeit briefly. He signed with the Nets for training camp and also later signed two ten-day contracts with the Bucks, spending the rest of his year in the D-League. Gill is now in Belgium, which is quite the departure from that, and he’s struggling a bit. His averages of 9.1 points, 4.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.7 steals per game are all pretty good, but Gill is shooting only 32% from the floor in 11 games. He’s getting to the foul line a lot (75 FGA to 49 FTA), and the 34% from three-point range is OK, but shooting 30% from two-point range isn’t getting it done.
– Kendall Gill
Kendall Gill is an analyst for Comcast SportsNet’s coverage of Bulls games. He hasn’t boxed since November 2005 – professionally, at least – and given that he turns 42 in a couple of months, I think we can rule out a playing return.
– Tony Gipson
Tony Gipson is a former LSU graduate that probably not even some LSU fans will have heard of. He totalled (not averaged; totalled) 2 points and 2 rebounds in his senior season with the team, and then went to Holland. He has also played in Austria, Iran, the PBL and Poland (for three days). None of these are especially relevant places. So why is he here? Well, he averaged 13/4 down the stretch of the 2007-08 D-League season with the Dakota Wizards. And I jumped the gun a bit.
Gipson is currently unsigned and no longer tweets.
– Gordan Giricek
Giricek is signed in Turkey with Fenerbahce Ulker. He is averaging 8.2 points and 2.9 rebounds in the EuroLeague, alongside 7.3 points and 2.2 rebounds in the Turkish league.
Fenerbahce are currently second in the Turkish league with a 16-3 record, just behind the 17-2 Efes Pilsen. However, Efes are imploding a bit, because their star signings haven’t really worked out. Bostjan Nachbar has made some rumblings about being dissatisfied there, and star guard acquisition Igor Rakocevic and the coach hate each other. So Fenerbahce are very much in the hunt.
Giricek was originally drafted by the Mavericks in 1999, but was traded twice before he arrived in America. First, his rights were traded to San Antonio along with those of Chris Carrawell for the rights to Leon Smith, and then three years later the Spurs traded them to the Grizzlies for a 2004 second-rounder (which the Spurs used on Romain Sato, who never played a game in the NBA, but definitely could have done.) I think Jerry West’s tenure in Memphis was a bit overrated, but this was a good under-the-radar move.
(By the way, the Memphis GM at the time of the trade that brought in Pau Gasol was Billy Knight, whose next job was in Atlanta where he was charged with the task of cleaning up the mess that Gasol trade had made. That must have been weird.)
Finally….
– James Gist
Spurs draft pick Gist is signed in Russia. Playing for Lokomotiv Kuban, he is averaging 10.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game in the Russian Superleague. We’ll have a more famous teammate of his in the next post.
