Ben Gordon finally commits to Great Britain national basketball team
May 8th, 2010
Excellent news. The only way you would not know that I am British is if you: a) have never been to this website before today, b) have been here before but understandably don’t read any of the words I write, or c) know so little about vexillology that you didn’t even realise that the site’s logo had a flag in it. Because of my nationality – English rather than British, but we’ll worry about that later – it is inevitable and sensible that the state of British basketball will get some coverage here. And with the news of Ben Gordon’s commitment to the national team still moist astride our lips, today is no different. There follows a lengthy breakdown. Basketball in Britain is still so fledgling that even the term ‘fledgling’ sells it short. The standard of the British Basketball League is so far below its European peers that almost any Division I NCAA starter could get a starting spot there. Worse still, the league damn nearly went bankrupt at the turn of the century, which isn’t something top tier leagues should be doing (although it has happened elsewhere on the lower rungs). Beyond the professional game, basketball itself is not fairing much better. While the sport is played in many schools these days, it’s not played in all of them; we didn’t play it in mine, for example, and as a result I’ve never played a game of basketball. To say that basketball trails behind many other sports in this country is an understatement on a par with calling the Vietnam conflict ‘feisty;’ it just doesn’t do it justice. (The local council did eventually install a hoop in my childhood village after much petitioning, but when I say they “installed a hoop,” I actually mean that they put a […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 63
April 29th, 2010
– Latrell Sprewell We’ll start by confirming the obvious; Sprewell has not played since his Timberwolves days. If he had done, that would be one of the transactions you’d have heard about without needing my input. Since that time, Sprewell has made the news for four reasons; a foreclosure on his yacht, a foreclosure on his home, an alleged assault on his girlfriend, and a foreclosure on his other home. The yacht’s gone, Spree paid the debt on the first home, and the assault charge was dropped 14 months later. But as for the second home foreclosure, on a $2.3 million home in the wonderfully named town of Purchase, Sprewell lost that in November. This was also the last time he made the news. It’s quite the depressing story of yet another athlete who burned it all away. Then again, as I sit here on my bed at 8.32am staring down the barrel of a long morning of essay writing, I find it slightly unfounded for me to be criticising a man for spending millions of dollars on twenty years of (presumably) wall-to-wall high living that I can only dream of. He may have lost all his money, but he probably had a load of fun doing it, so that’s something. – Ondrej Starosta Czech Republic big man Ondrej Starosta crept onto the NBA scene in 2004-05, when he averaged as-near-as-was a double-double for Chalons-en-Champagne in the French league. He was 26 years old at the time and had been a member of Real Madrid before that, so he wasn’t unheard of, but he also hadn’t done high-level stuff in his career before then except be 7’1 tall. After that season, Starosta went to summer league with the San Antonio Spurs, averaging 5.5 rebounds per game. The Spurs didn’t […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 64
April 29th, 2010
– Brad Stricker Stricker played his first two college years with Texas A&M back in 1995-97. He averaged 4.4 points and 2.5 rebounds before transferring to Arizona State, but had sat only one semester of his required three at ASU before transferring again, this time to Georgia State. There, in the 1998-99 season, Stricker averaged 3.9 points and 3.9 rebounds, before leaving with a year of eligibility left to go and join the real world. Stricker started a construction company, Stricker Construction, and made a couple of returns to basketball. Although one of them is hard to verify. His CV says that he played briefly in the SWBL in 2001, winning the championship that year with the San Antonio Bombers; however, a Google search for “SWBL basketball” reveals the only such league in existence to be the Strathcona Women’s Basketball League, and a search for “San Antonio Bombers” reveals only this. After that, Stricker played the 2001-02 season in Mexico, where he averaged 18 points, 12 rebounds, 4 blocks and 3 assists per game for Correcaminos Matamoros in the LNBP. But Stricker did not play for the next three years in order to run the construction company. In 2005, having sold the business, Stricker attended offseason workouts with the Denver Nuggets and the San Antonio Spurs. Teams frequently let players work out with them during the summer, and Stricker worked out with Denver again in 2006. He signed with the Great Falls Explorers of the CBA in November 2006, but did not seem to appear in any games. (I tried to find out, but the Explorer’s website is now pornography.) And then in 2007, after a third summer of working out with the Nuggets, Stricker signed a training camp deal with the team. The chances of Stricker making the team […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 62
April 26th, 2010
– Tommy Smith The last newsworthy thing that former Bulls forward Tommy Smith did was get arrested for kidnapping. Smith signed with Liaoning in China in November 2008, but played in only two games (totalling 2 points and 12 rebounds) before being released. A couple of months after he came back to America, Smith was arrested on multiple charges after allegedly punching his girlfriend when leaving a party, breaking her nose, driving her away, taking her phone off her and abandoning her at the roadside by a lake. He later came back for her and took her to hospital, but she pressed charges anyway. Smith’s basketball career has not existed since that time. In December, he pleaded guilty to the charge of aggravated assault and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, credited with 173 days of time already served. – Tyler Smith Former Penn State forward Tyler Smith spent his second season with the Hitachi Sunrockers of Japan’s JBL. He averaged 10.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, shooting 37% from three-point range. It is still not immediately obvious as to how he signed with the Jazz in 2006, although this is meant with endearment. – Tyler Smith Tennessee’s Tyler Smith – the other Tyler Smith – was kicked off the team in January. His professional career thus begun earlier than was intended. It’s off to a good start, though; playing for Bornova in Turkey, Smith averages 18.6 points, 7.4 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game, shooting 54% from the field and 45% from three-point range. Had he played enough games to qualify, those numbers would rank him third in the country in scoring, sixth in rebounding and fifth in assists. He remains a viable draft candidate, despite his acrimonious departure from the Vols. […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 61
April 25th, 2010
– Marcus Slaughter Slaughter is in France, playing for Nancy. France is a good place to go if you’re an athletic 6’8 power forward, and Slaughter is producing, averaging 13.3 points, 7.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.5 steals in only 23 minutes per game. He is shooting 64% from the field and 71% from the line, putting up a massive PER of 25.9. Nancy also have forward Louisville forward Ricardo Greer, who is one of the best players in the country. Greer is ninth in the league in points (15.9 ppg), fourth in rebounds (8.9 rpg), fourth in assists (6.1 apg) and fifth in steals (1.9 spg). Of all the people we’ve covered in this 61-instalment list – which is about 650 players in total so far – I can’t think of another that has ranked in any four of the big five categories. Ricardo’s brother Jeff also plays there, but he averages a comparatively paltry 12/4/2. – Tamar Slay Former NBA finalist Slay spent the two previous seasons in Italy, playing first for Pierrel Capo d’Orlando (who went bankrupt during Slay’s only season there) and then for Air Avellino. He got injured early last season and managed only a few games; to get new work in Italy this year, Slay had to drop down to Lega Due. But despite the lesser standard and the lesser money, it’s been a successful move. Slay has been healthy for most of the year and has averaged 19.4 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.0 steals in 26 games for Carmatic Pistoia. He has shot 50% from the field, 38% from three and 80% from the line, doing whatever it takes to help his team win. Gamer. – Uros Slokar Slokar started the season with Union Olimpia Ljubljana, a […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 60
April 24th, 2010
A previous post showed a tizzy featuring Charles Gaines and Du Feng in game two of this year’s CBA Finals. What looked initially to be Gaines dropping Feng cold with a swift and well-placed right hand later emerged to be a flop of the highest order; after a lame headbutt on Gaines, Feng then went down to the ground like he’d been knocked clean out, whereas pictures of the incident showed that Gaines actually open-handed Feng in the mandible. It was a shove more than a punch, and a valid retaliation to a headbutt. So far from being an inevitable suspension, Gaines was absconded from blame. And Feng looked like a big wuss. Both played in game three. Gaines was not suspended, and Feng (amazingly!) was not dead. Guangdong won the game and took a 3-0 lead in the first to four. – Josh Shipp Even though he spent quite a lot of his UCLA career deferring offensively to NBA-calibre scorers, Josh Shipp has plenty of offence of his own. He is currently second in the Turkish TBL in scoring, averaging 19.3 ppg for Bornova (along with 5.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.0 steals). The Turkish league is not the best in the world, and it’s not got a lot of parity in it, but it’s not a bad one, and scoring 19.3 ppg in it is no small achievement. Shipp is second only to Quincy Douby (23.6 ppg), and ranks just ahead of Mire Chatman (Besiktas, 18.4 ppg), Kedrick Brown (also Bornova, 18.1 ppg), Quinton Hosley (Aliaga, 17.9 ppg) and Lonny Baxter (Besiktas, 17.4 ppg). That list is made up of all Americans, which alludes to the self-fulfilling prophecy that the best Turkish players don’t play in Turkey. But Josh Shipp does, and he plays well. – […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 59
April 21st, 2010
– Sofoklis Schortsanitis Big Sofo has supposedly lost almost 150 pounds. This is good. The number is presumably exaggerated a bit, but whatever the amount he’s lost really is, it’s still good that he’s lost it. He needed to. Last year, he was simply too fat play; allegedly nearer to 500lbs than 400, and seemingly trying his best to undermine the team that continues to persist with him perhaps long after they shouldn’t, Sofo appeared in only 95 minutes all season, and fouled once in every four of them. How a man can get as big as he did is hard to fathom, and how a professional athlete (at least ostensibly) can get that big is simply mind-blowing. But it happened. Sofo has always had a huge frame, yet with all that fat on him, he was heeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEYYOOOOOOOOGE. You could feel your head being drawn closer to the screen, such was his gravitational pull. He was the biggest basketball player I have ever seen. And it was reflected in his play. This year, however, Sofoklis has turned up to play. Perhaps motivated by the impending expiration of his contract, Sofoklis has lost much weight and is an unstoppable force in the Greek league. He plays only 13.3 minutes in Greek league play, partly because Olympiacos keep winning in blowouts, partly because his stamina still isn’t great, partly because he offers so little defensively other than the foul, and partly of Olympiacos’s surfeit of big men. (When you have all of Sofo, Ioannis Bourousis, Nikola Vujcic, Linas Kleiza, Andreas Glyniadakis and Loukas Mavrokefalidis, you might as well use them). Yet in that short space of time, Sofo averages a whopping 9.4 points per game, shooting 69% from the field. He is unstoppably strong in the paint; there’s no else that big […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 58
April 19th, 2010
– Marc Salyers After years of being a huge scorer, Marc Salyers has come back to Earth this year. Playing for Le Mans, Salyers is averaging 11.9 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game in the French league, He’s still pretty good, but in relative terms he’s having a down year – his PER is down five points from last year to an average of 15.2, and his EuroCup statistics were an almost identical 12.7/4.5/2.3. Le Mans are tied for the lead in the French league with Cholet, but lost to Cholet in overtime yesterday. Salyers had only eight points in 34 minutes. – Cheikh Samb Samb’s only contract this year was a one-month deal with Real Madrid back in October. He played in only one game and played only two minutes. He went for a tryout in Latvia with VEF Riga in early February, but they couldn’t get him a work visa. Samb remains unsigned. – Jamal Sampson Sampson played in China last year, and was said to join up with the stacked L.A. Lightning IBL team last summer, but never played a game for the team. This season, he joined up with Philippines team Smart Gilas to act as C.J. Giles’s replacement (and not his predecessor as I mistakenly wrote earlier). Statistics are unavailable, but it’s not gone well. Also, in a summer league round-up for the Golden State Warriors back in July, I called him “a pretty terrible offensive player,” citing it as a reason for his offensive struggles in China. Sampson wants it known that the reason he averaged only 10.7 points per game in China was because he was playing injured all year. Correction noted. – Ricky Sanchez Former Nuggets draft pick Sanchez, whose rights are now owned by the Sixers, […]
Why Derrick Rose Isn’t Very Good At Drawing Fouls
April 19th, 2010
In game one of the 2010 NBA Playoff series between Chicago and Cleveland on Saturday night, Bulls point guard Derrick Rose shot 13-28 from the field, 0-2 from three-point range, and 2-2 from the foul line, for a total of 28 points on 28 shots. He added 10 rebounds and 7 assists, and generally played well; it was his scoring bursts in the second half that kept what could (and perhaps should) have been a blowout down to a single-figure game for much of the fourth quarter. He also didn’t run away from Mo Williams on defence as much as I thought he might, although this didn’t prevent the rest of the team from doing so. However, had Rose been the beneficiary of some foul calls, his stats would have looked even nicer, and the game would have been even closer. Shooting 28 field goals to only two free throw attempts is not easy to do, even if Rose has done it before, and for a man who takes only pull-up two-point jump shots, floaters and lay-ups, it’s very hard to do. But it happened. And the reasons as to why it may have happened are evident in the following video. (video removed by uploader) Derrick Rose honestly doesn’t get fouled a lot. He tries to avoid contact so as to maximize the percentage of making his shots, and, because of his great athleticism and body control, he is able to do this to great effect. This is the main reason why he doesn’t get to the line much, and also why he shoots such a high percentage. Only one play in this clip is shown from the first half of the game, and in that first half, Derrick Rose took 16 field goals and zero foul shots. This is […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 57
April 17th, 2010
My bracket: My NCAA tournament bracket had more than a dollop of fail about it, so hopefully this one will be better that. I have incredibly few upsets scheduled, as you can see. And sorry to Portland fans for being the only sweep victims pencilled in; it’s purely because of the Brandon Roy thing. With him, you might even take them. But without him, it’s problems. – Richard Roby Colorado graduate Roby has spent the first two years of his career in Israel. He spent his first year with Bnei Hasharon, averaging 9.8 points and 2.6 rebounds per game, and this year he moved to Maccabi Haifa. Roby is averaging a similar 8.7 points and 2.5 rebounds in 17.4 minutes per game there, but is shooting only 27% from three-point range and is turning it over 1.7 times per game (compared to only 1.3 assists). Here’s a little video about Richard Roby made by Bnei Hasharon, notable for its brief Cookie Belcher cameo. (He’s the other American in the clip.) Belcher is now into his fifth season with the team, and is averaging 12.1 points and 3.0 assists. – Leon Rodgers Rodgers has toured the world in recent years, scoring big wherever he’s gone. He averaged 21.3 ppg in his final college season for Northern Illinois in 2002. He averaged 19.4 ppg for Brandt Hagen in Germany in 2003. He averaged 20.8 ppg for Orleans in France in 2004. He averaged 19.9 ppg for Eiffel Towers Nijmegen in Holland in 2005, and 21.8 ppg for Eiffel Towers Den Bosch in 2006. (Not the same team. It’s a long story.) He averaged 22.6 ppg in 2007, again with Den Bosch. He averaged 13.1 ppg for Quakenbrueck in Germany in 2008, and then 2009 was his crowning glory, averaging 35.0 […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 55
April 16th, 2010
– Jason Richards Davidson guard Richards’ first professional season was a washout. He joined the Miami Heat for training camp, but blew his knee out in practice and missed the entire year. In doing so, his contract became guaranteed. While there are no rules against a team releasing an injured player, players with unguaranteed contracts are paid by the team until they are healthy. Therefore, because Richards missed the whole year, the Heat had to pay his whole year’s salary. This is the risk teams take when they sign players for training camp, and Richards’ unwanted presence of $442,114 on their cap figure actually put the Heat into tax territory, which is why they had to salary-dump Shaun Livingston. Tough break. This year, Richards started in Poland on a tryout with Turow, but failed to make the team. He was then acquired by the Utah Flash in November, but did not play a great deal. Richards averaged only 2.9 points and 2.3 assists in 17 minutes of 18 games in two months with the team, scoring in double figures only once. He was then released by the team due to injury in late January and has not played since. It’s not uncommon for torn ACLs to take the best part of two years to heal, and Richards looks to still be suffering from his 18 months on. – Anthony Richardson Former Florida State forward and one time Hornet Anthony Richardson is playing in Holland. In his second season with the Eiffel Towers Den Bosch, Richardson is averaging 12.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists in Dutch league play, with basically identical 12.9/4.8/1.8 numbers in the EuroChallenge. For an explanation of why a Dutch team is named after the most famous of all French landmarks, read this comment on a very […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part Robinson
April 16th, 2010
– Antywane Robinson Former Temple forward Antywane Robinson was in the NBA as recently as eighteen-ish months ago when he signed with the Sixers for training camp. He did not make the team – obviously, or else you would have heard about it – and moved to France to play for Cholet. He’s been there ever since, and this year A-Rob is averaging 13.5 points and 6.0 rebounds in the French league. – Bernard Robinson A few short years ago, Bernard Robinson was receiving clutch minutes in Bobcats games over Adam Morrison. At the very least, it happened once. Yet in 2010, Morrison is almost out of the league, and Robinson very much is. B-Rob has not played since the 2006-07 season, when he appeared in only 21 games for the Bobcats. Charlotte traded him to New Jersey in exchange for Jeff McInnis, where he played ten more regular season games (and one playoff game) down the stretch of the season. That marks the current end of his career; Robinson tore his ACL that summer, and was salary dumped onto the Hornets along with Mile Ilic in exchange for the unguaranteed contract of David Wesley. The Hornets immediately waived him and he has not signed anywhere since. – Brandon Robinson Brandon Robinson spent much of the year in China, trying to keep the wolf from the door. If you want to know what I’m referring to, then click here. – Cliff Robinson Uncle Cliffy last played in the NBA in the 2006-07 season with the Nets, on the same team as Bernard. He put up a PER of 5.9 in 57 games, worse than any other season in his career, and realised it was time to stop. What he does professionally now is not clear, but he […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 54
April 15th, 2010
Shavlik Randolph was initially going to be in this post, but he got signed by the Heat, and players currently in the NBA don’t go on the list. So we’ll replace him with a Spaniard. – Rafa Martinez 6’3 Spanish scoring guard Martinez is averaging 11.7 points per game for Valencia in the EuroCup, alongside 13.8 points per game in the ACB. He has already agreed to sign for Barcelona next season, presumably to back up Juan Carlos Navarro. It is not immediately obvious who he will replace, but it looks like that it will be Gianluca Basile, the Italian three-point specialist who’s on the wrong side of 34. Let me tell you that Navarro, Martinez, Ricky Rubio and Jaka Lakovic is one hell of a backcourt, even if Rubio is the tallest person in it. And now back to the alphabet. – Allan Ray Villanova guard Allan Ray has not played this season. That’ll do, won’t it? – Zeljko Rebraca You had probably assumed that, when the Clippers quietly waived Zeljko Rebraca in April 2007, that that was it for him. Struggling with chronic back injuries, Rebraca hadn’t played the entire 2006/07 season, and had managed only 29 unspectacular games the season before. But if you did think that, like I did, then you’d’ve been wrong. Rebraca gave it one more go. He signed with Pamesa Valencia in Spain in the 2007 offseason, to give himself a chance to go out on his terms. And not long afterwards, in December 2007, he did. Six not-especially-effective-but-reasonable games later, Rebraca announced his retirement, this time at his discretion rather than it being forced upon him. It’s a better story this way. Zeljko Rebraca fact: after leaving the US for Spain, Rebraca stopped making payments on his $2.7 million […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 53
April 14th, 2010
– Pablo Prigioni Prigoni left Tau Vitoria this summer after six years there, and moved to Real Madrid as a part of Ettore Messina’s complete makeover of the place. He averages 6.9 points and 3.4 assists per game in the ACB, alongside 7.0 points and 4.5 assists in their now-ended EuroLeague campaign. However, his defence, which was always a calling card of his, has started to slip. This is to be expected from a man who turns 33 next month. – Georgios Printezis The next great Raptors European hope, Gorgeous Georgios left Olympiacos in the summer for a big money deal with Unicaja Malaga. He averaged 11.7 points and 4.3 rebounds per game in their EuroLeague campaign, alongside 9.8 points and 3.4 rebounds per game in the ACB. Despite this being a website with a focus on player salaries, I tend not to comment upon the salaries of European players, for they are highly speculative and basically impossible to verify. However, Printezis signed with Malaga to a deal that pays seven-figures and then some; therefore, even with Toronto’s favourable tax rates (that I don’t particularly understand but am aware they exist) for the Raptors to compete with that means using at least a BAE. So a move to the NBA is perhaps not imminent. – Laron Profit Cult hero Profit was a member of the Grizzlies training camp roster in 2007, but did not make the team. Since that time, he has spent three consecutive seasons with an Argentinian team called Libertad Sunchales. There, playing alongside the mighty Ruben Wolkowyski, Profit averages 16.8 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. Libertad finished fourth in the Argentinian Liga A regular season standings, received a bye for the first round of the playoffs, and begin their quarter final matchup versus Boca […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 51
April 13th, 2010
– Wesley Person Person’s last NBA gig came with the Nuggets in 2005. He later became an assistant women’s coach at Enterprise-Ozark Community College, before being moved to the role of men’s head coach back in July. – Marijonas Petravicius Lithuanian big man Marijonas Petravicius left his homeland this summer after winning the EuroCup last year with Lietuvos Rytas. He moved to Italy to play for A.J. Milano, and is averaging 11.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.2 fouls in 19 minutes per game in Serie A play, alongside 9.1 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.8 fouls in 18 minutes per game in Milano’s short EuroLeague campaign. Elbows and post play forever. – Brent Petway D-League veteran Brent Petway went to Greece this year, and hated it. In six games with Ilysiakos, he averaged 29 mpg, 10.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 2.2 bpg, 1.7 bpg and about half a pay check per month, and left the team in December after getting injured. He reappeared in late February when he signed in France with Vichy (or, to give them their full name, JA Vichy Val d’Allier Auvergne Basket), whereupon he has averaged 24 mpg, 9.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg and 1.7 bpg in 6 French league games. The blocks per game would be tied for third in the league had he played enough games to qualify. – Eric Piatkowski Pike spent his last two years playing for the Suns on a minimum salary contract, but that ran out in summer 2008, and another one was not forthcoming. He is now retired and a stay-at-home dad. Pike was recently interviewed during the second quarter of a dull Knicks vs Clippers game, as he was in town taking his children to Disneyland and decided to watch the Clippers lose for old time’s sake. (They […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 50
April 13th, 2010
– Cherokee Parks It was six years and five months ago that Cherokee Parks was last on the roster of a professional basketball team. The Warriors waived him in December 2003, and yet Parks, aged only 31, never played again. He now owns a music club in his hometown of Huntingdon Beach called “The Brigg.” Unbelievably, the NBA’s Cherokee Parks is not the only man in the world with that name. – Marlon Parmer Since 2005, Marlon Parmer has played in the NBA, the CBA, Saudi Arabia, Poland, the ABA, Qatar, Venezuela, Estonia, Qatar again, the D-League, and Saudi Arabia again. It’s been a well travelled few years, and were it not for the American and European stints in there, we’d have to change the name of the Dan Langhi tour. This year he has been in Lebanon, playing for Sagesse, but unfortunately no statistics are available. Parmer quit New Mexico in January 2002 after an argument with then-head coach, Fran Frascilla. He then transferred to Division II Kentucky Wesleyan for his senior season, and averaged 20/6/8, but it wasn’t enough to get drafted. Parmer was a training camp signing of the Timberwolves in 2005 after averaging 22/9 in China the previous season, showing once again that China can do wonders for a guy’s NBA prospects. – Drago Pasalic Two-time Bulls summer leaguer and Croatian national team member Drago Pasalic is in Spain playing for Obradoiro, an ACB team looking pretty doomed. He is averaging only 14.8 minutes, 5.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.8 fouls per game. The jump shot is still there; the rest of the game is not. Obradoiro are second-last in the ACB with an 8-21 record, and lost by a hefty 26 points to fellow relegation strugglers Meridiano only today. Ex-NBA forward Paul Davis, […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 52
April 13th, 2010
– Pavel Podkolzin After his NBA career set new records in failure, Podkolzin returned to his native Russia to play for Lokomotiv Novosybirsk, the team he began his career with. Podkolzin is into his fourth season with the team, and has stuck with them even after they were relegated out of the Russian Superleague down to the second division. Statistics are hard to come across, because they’re all in Russian, and Russians use the wrong alphabet. However, as far as I can tell, Pavel averages 12.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.9 fouls per game. On the Novosybirsk website, three players are listed as playing the position of “центровой.” Pavel is one of them, and a quick internet search reveals the obvious; that word translates as “center”. But curiously, if you run that word through Google Translate, it comes out with the result “Washington Bullets.” I’m not making that up, either. – Scot Pollard Pollard last played in the NBA with the championship-winning 2007-08 Celtics. He didn’t play in the postseason and barely played during the regular season, but he got a ring and a million for sitting around and putting up with a year of ankle pain, so it’s not all bad. He now works for NBA TV, where he’s already created one of the more awkward moments in television history. – Olden Polynice Polynice was last in the NBA in February 2004, when the Clippers waived the then-39-year-old before the playoff deadline so that he could catch on with another NBA team. He didn’t. But Polynice did squeeze out bit parts of two more years in the world of professional basketball, playing 18 games in 2004/05 with the Michigan Mayhem of the CBA, and briefly being the player/coach for the Los Angeles Aftershock of the ABA in […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 49
April 12th, 2010
– Bo Outlaw Outlaw last played in the 2007-08 season, when he played two games at the start of the year with the Magic before being waived in November. He now works for the team as a community ambassador. – Andre Owens NBA veteran and Bulgarian national team member Andre Owens (true story about the Bulgaria thing by the way) started the year in Turkey, playing for Turk Telekom. In four EuroCup games, Owens averaged 20 minutes, but only 5 ppg, and his averages in the Turkish league were a similar 21 mpg/7.1 ppg. Owens’s minutes were hardly consistent, and in one game, Turk Telekom coach Meric Cakiroglu turned to him down the stretch of a game in which Telekom were losing a big lead and Owens had not yet played, leading to the awkward spectacle of seeing Owens stretching on the court as an offensive possession unfolded. Not good. Turk Telekom released Owens after being knocked out of the EuroCup, and he moved to Russia. In six Russian league contests for Lokomotiv Kuban, Owens is averaging 9.3 points per game. – Larry Owens Oral Roberts graduate Larry Owens was a member of the Hornets summer league roster in 2008. He must have done something right, because he earned a repeat viewing in 2009. And he must have done something right there, because he earned a training camp contract with the team this year. After not making the regular season roster, Owens went to the D-League, where he averaged 15.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists in all 50 regular season games for the Tulsa 66ers. The 66ers just swept the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the first round of the D-League playoffs, and Owens averaged a further 16/7 in the process. Not bad for a former Belgian leaguer. […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 48
April 11th, 2010
– Brad Newley The Rockets seem to have an untoward number of draft picks who never play in the NBA, as well as an uncanny knack for accumulating unwanted draft rights from other teams. They currently have nine unsigned draft picks, most in the NBA, and while quite a few of them weren’t their own picks, Newley was. The Australian guard spent his first two years after being drafted in Greece, but moved to Turkey this summer to play for Besiktas. He has averaged 16.1 points and 4.4 rebounds in Turkish league play, while upping his three-point percentage from 32% last year to 43% this year. Newley missed two months of the year due to injury, but it didn’t take him long to pick up from where he left off. In fact, his only single digit outing of the year was in the season opener. – Jared Newson Jared Newson is a kind of small but very athletic swingman out of Tennessee Martin (perhaps more famous for Lester Hudson), who made the Mavericks’ training camp roster in 2007 after a strong summer league performance for them. This is his fourth professional season; he spent two of his first three in Germany, and one in Australia. Martin spent this year in the D-League, split between the Sioux Falls Skyforce and the Bakersfield Jam. Between the two of them, Newson has averaged 23 minutes, 9.2 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, shooting 47% from the field and 30% from three. – Drew Nicholas Maryland alum Drew Nicholas is playing his second season with Panathinaikos, last year’s EuroLeague champions. Functioning as a shooting specialist, Nicholas is averaging 10.0 points in 19 minutes per game in the Greek league, alongside 10.9 ppg in 27.0 mpg in the EuroLeague. He is shooting 42% […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 47
April 11th, 2010
– Mamadou N’Diaye Mamadou N’Diaye missed last season with a serious knee injury. This year, he started the season by going for a tryout in Lebanon with Al-Riyadi Beirut, but failed the physical as his knee had not yet recovered. Then in February, the comeback began when Mamadou signed with Maccabi Haifa in Israel. In 72 minutes of six games, he has totalled 23 points, 20 rebounds and 4 blocks. – Boniface N’Dong Former Clipper big man N’Dong is with Barcelona. Splitting time at the centre position with Fran Vazquez, N’Dong is averaging 6.3 points and 3.5 rebounds in 15 minutes per game in the ACB, alongside 8.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in 16.1 minutes per game in the EuroLeague. You may never have heard of Boniface N’Dong, and the fact that he spent a whole season on an NBA roster as recently as four years ago may have completely passed you by. This is fair enough, because nothing much really happened. But it happened. N’Dong signed a minimum salary deal with the Clippers in time for training camp 2005, made his NBA debut aged 28, and appeared in 22 games with the team. He even started one. Boniface totalled 50 points, 37 rebounds and 23 fouls for the Clippers, and put up a PER of 11.0, before returning to Europe to continue his strong career there. Boneyface has NBA talent, particularly on the offensive end and on the roll, which isn’t usually the case with fringe NBA-calibre Senegalese big men. And he has a great name. There’s nothing here not to like. – Bostjan Nachbar Bostjan Nachbar has not had a very good season. He moved from Dynamo Moscow to Efes Pilsen in the summer, signing a big fat contract and becoming one of Efes’s key targets […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 46
April 10th, 2010
The following lists mostly features people who aren’t playing right now. – Mikki Moore Mikki Moore isn’t playing right now. He was signed by the Golden State Warriors this offseason to a one-year minimum salary contract, in the same summer that saw them acquire Speedy Claxton and Devean George, which is some inactive list right there. Claxton and Moore have since been waived, and while Denver and Utah both expressed an interest in signing Moore, neither one did. Denver instead decided to sign Brian Butch (in a move that still hasn’t happened yet), and Utah figured they would rather have two open roster spots. – Paccelis Morlende Former Sonics draft pick Patch Morlende isn’t playing right now either, having been out of basketball for the best part of two years. He signed in Russia with Ural Great Perm for the 2008/09 season, but left in preseason without playing a game, and has not been signed since. Morlende has been injured, and his comeback only started to get somewhere in January when he began training with French club Dijon, the club with whom he began his career. Morlende wasn’t under contract with the team, and he never did sign there, but he asked to be allowed to train there to help with his rehab, and the team agreed. Patch is still unsigned, but Lyon were said to be considering signing him as an injury replacement for Ralph Mims, who has broken his finger. However, they signed Mamoutou Diarra this week instead, which probably ends that. – Terence Morris Former Rockets and Magic forward Terence Morris IS playing, and playing a sweet gig at that. Morris is signed with Barcelona, the best team in Europe, after moving there from CSKA Moscow in the summer. He is averaging 6.3 points […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 44
April 9th, 2010
– Aaron McKie Since his surprising and ultimately irrelevant “comeback” with the Grizzlies in 2007, McKie went back to where he already was; on the Philadelphia 76ers bench as an assistant coach. He did not play for the Grizzlies at any point. Probably best. – Keith McLeod Looking to get back into the NBA, Keith McLeod has spent a second season with the Albuquerque Thunderbirds of the D-League. His numbers this year were up across the board from last year; McLeod averaged 21.8 points, 5.6 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game, and even shot 39% from three-point range. However, McLeod shot only 40.0% from the field overall, which suggests he hasn’t mended his lay-ups problem, and also turned it over three times a game. The points per game were nice, but I don’t think 30-year-old 6’2 jump shooters are getting it done. – Gerry McNamara Despite being on the Utah Jazz roster as recently as 18 months ago, Gerry McNamara has retired from basketball. He did so about a year ago, actually. After leaving the Jazz, McNamara went to the D-League for a bit with the Reno Bighorns, but professional basketball in front of sparse crowds didn’t hold the same lustre that his Syracuse days did. So he retired last April to return to Syracuse as an graduate assistant coach, where he remains today. And that’s fair enough. If he doesn’t want to do it, then why should he? – Jerel McNeal Marquette star McNeal joined the Kings for summer league after going undrafted, joining up with his former team mate Wesley Matthews. He got to play quite a few minutes with the team, but they were mostly at point guard, and McNeal still isn’t one. He didn’t get a contract offer from the Kings, […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 45
April 9th, 2010
The Bulls just waived Jerome James and signed Rob Kurz (or, as Vinny Del Negro will no doubt call him, Rob Kirk.) Goodbye, Jerome. Chicago traded Larry Hughes to the Knicks last trade deadline in exchange for James, Tim Thomas and Anthony Roberson. Roberson is long gone, and Thomas and James played a combined 0 minutes for the Bulls this season while being paid $11.2 million. So, would they rather have had Larry Hughes instead? (Probably not.) – Chris Mihm Mihm was a member of both the Lakers and Grizzlies last year, but played only 105 minutes. He played only 279 minutes the year before that, and missed the whole 2006-07 season, all because of his chronic ankle problems. What started out as a sprain turned into four years of torture, a breakdown of which can be found here. And check the date that that was written; despite the feel-good nature of the final stanza, it was nearer to the beginning of the ordeal than the end. Mihm has not played anywhere this year. – Aaron Miles Miles is signed with Aris in Greece, winding up there after failing to make the Hawks’ regular season roster out of training camp. He is averaging 8.4 points and 3.5 assists per game in the EuroCup, alongside 6.8/3.0 in the Greek league. He still can’t shoot from outside, but Aris have enough of that from elsewhere. Just being in the Aris backcourt for the whole year has been quite an achievement in itself, for Aris have turned over quite a bit of their backcourt this year (Matt Walsh in, Juan Dixon out, Ivan Paunic in, Quinton Day out), and have been linked to about 400 other players (Rob Kurz and Vuk Radivojevic being the only two I can remember at the moment, […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 42
April 8th, 2010
– Chet Mason Former Miami Ohio guard and Cavs signee Chester “Chet” Mason is spending his second season with Siroki Eronet in Bosnia. Most teams from the former Yugoslavia that we cover – Crveza Zvezda, Hemofarm, Cibona Zagreb, etc – are usually in either the EuroCup or the EuroLeague, and also play in the Adriatic League. The Adriatic League is one of the strongest in the world for this reason. Yet Siroki are in none of them, nor are they in the EuroChallenge. It’s pure Bosnian league for them. Mason is averaging 13.5 points, 8.1 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.4 steals per game, and three weeks ago he posted the David Lee-like stat line of 27 points, 18 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 steals. Not bad for 6’5. – Desmond Mason Mason started the year with the Kings. Despite already having Kevin Martin, Francisco Garcia (neither of whom were injured at the time), Tyreke Evans, Donte Greene, Andres Nocioni and Omri Casspi all available to play at the two and/or three spots, the Kings felt they needed another wing option and brought in Mason for training camp. Even though he didn’t really show much in preseason, Mason made the team, and he then bizarrely started five games to begin the year. The experiment quickly ended after Mason put up a 6.2 PER, and Mason was waived. He has remained unsigned since; proposed links to a couple of different ACB teams never came off. – Tony Massenburg Tony Massenburg is 42 years old and has not played since summer 2008, but this does not necessarily mean he is retired. He is Tony Massenburg, after all, the man who signed with the Washington Wizards aged 40 in an unashamed pursuit of the “most NBA teams ever played for” record that […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 43
April 8th, 2010
– Amal McCaskill A-Mac has been doing the D-Lang tour for a while now, and this year’s installment of it saw him wind up in South Korea to play for Inchon Black Slamer. (If that’s not a sex toy, I’ll be shocked.) In 27 minutes of 48 games, the 36-year-old McCaskill has averaged 11.9 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, shooting 57% from the field and 73% from the line. – Ben McCauley NC State graduate B-Mac went to summer league with the L.A. Lakers, where he duly impressed all watchers who didn’t know he could make shots. He averaged 11.8 points and 7.6 rebounds, yet did not sufficiently impress with his defence (there’s something about being an under-athletic 6’9 that doesn’t wash in the NBA). So he went to France, where no one plays any defence anyway. For Strasbourg, McCauley has averaged 10.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.4 steals in 22 minutes per game in the French league. – Jack McClinton Spurs draft pick J-Mac signed with the team for all of nine days, and managed the rare achievement of being waived before training camp even started. This happened because McClinton asked for it to; knowing he wasn’t going to make the Spurs roster, and sensing that a Malik Hairston or Marcus Williams-like ferrying between the Spurs roster and the Austin Toros roster was probably not going to benefit him much, McClinton asked out of his deal to pursue other opportunities. The Spurs granted him that wish and McClinton instead went to camp with the Minnesota Timberwolves. However, he didn’t make that roster either, losing out on a roster spot to Jason Hart. McClinton then went to Turkey to play for Aliaga Petkim. In 25 games there, he has averaged 16.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and […]
