Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 1
January 29th, 2008
It’s nearly the new year, so that makes it time to do something that’s nearly interesting. The “Where Are They Now?” series of posts – which last year landed me at least two job offers – are hereby making a spectacular return right here, in exactly the place that I said they wouldn’t be. Good times.
As ever, these posts will feature players on this website’s horizon, but not in the NBA. Bring the noise.
– In an anti-climactic opening entry, former Mavericks et cetera swingman Tariq Abdul-Wahad is doing exactly the same thing that he was last time we checked in on him – nothing that can be traced. Wikipedia suggests that he isn’t dead, though, so that’s got to be a positive. No news is good news, after all.
– Shareef Abdur-Rahim is now a Sacramento Kings assistant coach. His wife has also done something about the flu, while simultaneously rocking the greatest name this side of Cornelius McFadgon.
– San Diego State legend Mohammed Abukar’s career has taken a turn for the better, as he was unsigned until about 24 hours ago, when he was picked up by the Austin Toros of the D-League. Quietly, the San Antonio Spurs have managed to stash basically every one of their training camp signings on their D-League affiliate (which they own), as well as their former draft pick Marcus E. Williams. Owning your own affiliate seems to have some merit when the allocation players are handed out.
– Kenny Adeleke was playing with Bulgarian powerhouse Lukoil Akademik up until last week, when Lukoil decided to release he, Nenad Canak and Kevin Kruger, their three best players. This is because they got knocked out of the EuroCup (which is what the ULEB Cup is called now; it’s the second tier of European basketball after the EuroLeague) and wanted to save money. This is particularly unfair for Adeleke, who led the competition in rebounding, averaging 13 a game. From this, we can conclude that Kenny Adeleke is a good rebounder.
– Blake Ahearn is back in the D-League with the Dakota Wizards, and not signed by an NBA team. Ahearn is averaging 24.5 points and 7.5 assists in four games with the Wizards, including a game-winner, although we won’t talk about his turnover numbers.
– Deji Akindele is playing for Scavolini Pesaro in Italy. He is averaging 11.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game. I still don’t know if his name is actually Ayodeji or Jeleel, but on that subject, here’s an interesting piece of trivia – Cinderella’s real name was Ella. You can see what they did there.
– Akin Akingbala was signed a couple of weeks ago by Nancy of the French league, as a replacement for the little-used Rod Benson, of whom they had clearly had too much. Akin Akingbala also remains the most perfectly named basketball player in the world, apart from the largely unheralded Tommy Brilliantdunker.
– Cenk Akyol’s rights are still owned by the Atlanta Hawks, but they probably don’t want them much any more. Akyol can’t get off of the bench of Turkish team Efes Pilsen behind the starting guard pairing of Milos Vujanic and Charles “Spider” Smith. Akyol averages 4.3 points and 1.5 assists in the few minutes that he does get, perhaps still baffled by the positional identity crises that affects all 6’5 European point guards. (See also: Renaldas Seibutis, who we’ll come to in like five years.)
– Finally, the whereabouts of some players whose names are easier to spell (albeit just as good for your Scrabble score). Guards Cory and Courtney Alexander are both still out of basketball and haven’t played since their last NBA stints. For Cory Alexander, this was with the Charlotte Bobcats back in their inaugural season of 2005, and for Courtney Alexander, this was his short stint in the Denver Nuggets training camp back in 2006. I am perfectly willing to believe that both have abandoned the dream of professional basketball by now, although this is only a supposition.
Speaking of giving up, this post ends here.
