Where Are They Now? Part 3

In a new and uninteresting series of post, we (I) shall attempt to update you on the current whereabouts of some of your favourite players who sniffed the NBA for a brief moment before retiring with their tail between their legs to basketball's minor leagues. These players are to be glorified at all times, as they provide amusement, and also they provide the oft-undervalued mechanism for sports fans to worry entirely too much about the last player on the roster. It is a trend true of all sports, but particularly in basketball - if we can't see a player play, but they're on an NBA roster, we can then convince ourselves that they are potential 20ppg players, and no one can refute our claim with evidence because there isn't any. It's a dream we regularly live, then shatter, and then live again. Good times.




Larry Ayuso, persistent training camp fodder who shines in every league other than this one, is back in his native Puerto Rico playing for Santurce.

Malick Badiane, 2003 draft pick of the Houston Rockets whose rights were bizarrely traded to Memphis in February despite the fact that he'll likely never join the NBA, is playing for Saint Vallier of the French league.

Dalibor Bagaric, who lest you forget is the absolute DON, has grown a beard, and is playing for Upim Bologna of Italy. He also hasn't gotten any quicker.

Kyle Bailey - the mighty Kyle Bailey - is playing for Ulm in Germany. For those not previously aware, the German league is where careers go to die. It's shit.

Vin Baker is MIA. Since being waived by Minnesota in November 2006, he's been heard from twice - once when being arrested for drink driving (again), and once when it was announced that his restaurant was being foreclosed, whatever that means. So things might be going south.

Sean Banks is playing for the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the D-League.

The insaitable Stanko Barac, whose draft rights are owned by Indiana and who can boast the almost unique claimed of having the name Stanko, is playing in Spain for Pamesa Valencia.

Steven Barber is seemingly out of basketball, having last played in the D-League in the 2007 season. Now aged 28 and seemingly unable or unwilling to play professional basketball anywhere, I think the Steven Barber NBA Dream is officially over. Shame. He was so close. (If you don't know who Steven Barber is, rest assured that neither do I, really. He was just in the Spurs' training camp once.)

Andre Barrett is back in the D-League after recently seeing the Clippers turn down renewing his contract in a completely non-sensical decision to sign Smush Parker instead. Barrett remains one of the best players not in the NBA, and if he was three inches taller he would be in it, no questions asked.

Jon Barry is retired, and is now a really, really bad commentator.

Eddie Basden is playing for Bonn in Germany (see earlier comments re: Germany), and he still hasn't made Ben Gordon redundant, as some of my Bulls fan peers suggested was possible.

Edin Bavcic, 2006 second round pick of the Philadelphia 76ers, is in the powerhouse Bosnia and Herzegovina league playing for Sarajevo.



More later.