– Lukasz Obrzut was an insignificant player in the D-League last year, averaging 3.1 ppg and 2.4 rpg over 38 games with both the Bakersfield Jam and the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. Before that, he spent four insignificant years with Kentucky, never averaging more than 2.0 ppg and 1.8 rpg. Now, he’s in Poland, averaging 5.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.9 fouls per game for the powerhouse that is ISS Sportino Inowroclaw (and by “powerhouse”, I mean “team in third-last place”). How very insignificant. But he won fans at all stops.
– It was only a few short years ago that Michael Olowokandi was a starting centre in the Western Conference Finals. Things have changed wildly since then – the contracts dried up, as did the few skills, and a season of playing for the Celtics on the minimum salary (Kandi didn’t need the money, and did it just to prove to himself that he could, apparently) was the last she wrote. Kandi is about to turn 34 with a lengthy history, and I assume him to be unofficially retired.
– In lieu of any Greg Ostertag news, here is a video of him diplomatically losing at table tennis to a sharply dressed pre-teen.
– Andre Owens is with Red Star Belgrade (Crvena Zvezda), averaging 11.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists a game in the Adriatic League, and 10.6/2.7/2.3 in the EuroCup. Owens was also recently the victim of an attack by a fan – or at least, a really bad attempt at one – and you can read about that here.
– Olumide Oyedeji is in China, which is good news for us all. Playing for Shanxi Zhongyu, Oyedeji averages 20.4 points and a slightly staggering 19.4 rebounds per game. The assists, steals and blocks numbers aren’t bad either; 2.8, 2.2, 1.6. Oyedeji has had 37 double-doubles in his 39 games, and has not had less than 10 rebounds in any game; in the two games where he missed a double-double, his stat lines read:
That’s prime Ben Wallace territory, that. They should have known that it was going to go well when Oyedeji put up 23 points, 24 rebounds and 9 assists on his debut. Do you love reading these numbers? Me too. They constantly crap on all these “faceless player averages 7 points and 3 rebounds in some obscure European league” entries that I have to write. They pale in comparison to this. 19.4 rebounds a game! 7 offensive! Averaging 45 minutes a game! Good times. Very good times.
– Robert Pack hasn’t been heard from since his unexpected stint with the Toronto Raptors in 2005 preseason. That was three and a half years ago now. He is now a travel agent (apparently), and was an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs’s entry at the 2008 Rocky Mountain Revue.
– David Padgett went to training camp with the Miami Heat, signed a contract immediately after it (essentially this meant just signing for training camp really early), didn’t make the team, and was waived. He has not signed elsewhere since, presumably living it up on his $35,000 guarantee.
– After Scott Padgett’s NBA career ended abruptly after a trade to the Memphis Grizzlies and a subsequent waiving, he signed in Spain for about two weeks with CB Granada. This was back in April 2007. He has not been heard from since. He’s not a missing person or dead or anything. I just can’t find any news on him. He probably does real estate now, though. Most do.
– Milt Palacio is the starting point guard for Khimki in Russia, averaging 6.4 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game in the Russian league, alongside 5.2 points, 1.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game in the EuroCup. I watched Milton play the other day, and if any Jazz fans out there are wondering if Palacio still hits the underside of the backboard with his lay-ups….yep! More good times.
– Adam Parada’s last five basketball destinations are as follows – Mexico, Philippines, Sacramento Kings, Jordan, the ABA. One of those is not like the others. Parada currently finds himself in Japan, playing for the Mitsubishi Melco Dolphins. The Japanese league is not like the Chinese league, for not only are the team names intelligible, but there’s also not the wealth of fringe NBA talent in it. However, this doesn’t mean that Adam Parada can’t still be brilliant, and he doesn’t let us down, delivering a scintillating 13.9 points and 7.8 rebounds a game.
– Finally, Jannero Pargo left the NBA for Dynamo Moscow to great fanfare, and then left Dynamo Moscow to slightly less fanfare after the team fell behind on their payments to him. (This hasn’t stopped them from signing Brian Chase as a replacement, though.) Pargo has since signed with Olympiacos, where his sole aim is to have a slightly more successful stint than Olympiacos’s other former Hornet guard, Arvydas Macijauskas. Pargo has delivered on that (albeit only slightly), averaging 4.7 points and 2.7 assists in his three EuroLeague games so far, after averaging roughly 13/4/5 for Dynamo.
