Where Are They Now, 2009: Part 46

Because twice a night is twice as nice.

- Renaldas Seibutis is part of a deep Iurbentia Bilbao team, averaging 10.7 points and 1.6 rebounds in the Eurocup, alongside 6.6 points and 1.7 rebounds in the Spanish league.

- Now is the time to refamiliarise yourself with Warriors great, Mladen Sekularac. Mladen was drafted in the second round by the Mavericks back in 2002, coming off a season that saw him average 17.6 points in the Saporta Cup, the predecessor of sorts to the Eurocup. From there, Sekularac (whose name I'm finding really hard to abridge) went to Bologna in Italy, where he didn't play much and was released mid-season. In 2003/04, Rac averaged a slightly modest 10ppg back in the Adriatic league, and then saw his rights traded to Golden State as a completely unnecessary minor part of the Erick Dampier trade. It was at that moment that it all started to go south. Sekularac had signed with Buducnost to start the 2004/05 season, but left after they stopped paying him. He then signed in December of '04 with Apollon in Greece, but appeared in only two games, totalling 0 points. Zero. Nada. Since then, Kula has been in Belgium, where a series of injuries have seen him go from the fifth leading scorer in the country in 2005/06 to a fringe starter in the present day (as might have the realisation that he was playing in Belgium, almost always a backwards step for any man's NBA aspirations). Sek is now 28, and has not panned out despite once being touted as his nation's best prospect for a generation. And guess what? Right now, he's currently injured. Larac signed a two year contract with Charleroi this summer, and then got injured in his debut, back in October. He hasn't played since, and has all of two points to his name on the year. Bad times.

- Mouhamed Sene was waived by the Thunder on trade deadline day to accomodate Thabo Sefolosha. The team have since waived Joe Smith, thus opening up a roster spot for Sene's return. But it's not going to happen. Do you know why it's not going to happen It's not going to happen because Saer Sene is not an NBA calibre player. Not now, and probably not ever. Remember that before you tout him as a signing for your team, as so many of you seem to be doing. (Note: if it happens, this post will self-destruct.)

- Josip Sesar - a 2000 second round draft pick of the Sonics, later traded to the Celtics - has never left the Balkans. In fact, the only times he's played for a team outside of his native Croatia have been for teams in Bosnia, and that's where he finds himself now, with a team named BC Zrinjski Mik Company Mostar. The team don't even appear to have a website, so I can't tell you what Sesar averages. But then, you don't really care, do you? He's 31, he's a lot worse than he was when he was 21, he never joined the NBA, and he's never going to. That's all you really need to know.

- Ansu Sesay is playing for ALBA Berlin, a team who have managed to make it strangely far in the Euroleague before their triumphant run ended last month. Sesay averages 9.1 points and 4.4 rebounds in Euroleague play, alongside 12.4 points and 4.5 rebounds in German league play. Six of ALBA's top 7 scorers are Americans (a list that includes Casey Jacobsen, Adam Chubb and Rashad Wright, as well as Sesay), and the seventh is a Serbian named Aleksandar Nadjfeji. German national basketball is looking healthy, then.

- The most important update of this entire series is finally here. Ha Seung-Jin was traded by the Blazers to Milwaukee in the 2006 offseason, as a part of the trade that took Jamaal Magloire to Portland. Ha was waived during training camp, kicked around for a couple of months, and was then acquired by the Anaheim Arsenal of the D-League. Ha played in 26 games for The Arse, with 16 starts, and averaged a frankly depressing 2.7 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.0 fouls. In the size starved D-League. Bad times. But this was still in 2006-07, remember. Since then, Ha's managed to do even less. Ha did not play last year, and this year he is back in his native Korea playing for KCC Egis. But there is hope at last - Ha has played in 37 games with the team, averaging 22 minutes, 9.3 rebounds, 7.4 rebounds, 1.3 blocks and 1.3 fouls per game, shooting 66% from the floor and 43% from the foul line. Those are, if nothing else, numbers. And you can only obtain numbers by playing in games. So this means that Ha is at least playing in games. And for that, we are grateful, and mightily relieved. The dream is not yet over.

For the sheer hell of it, here is that classic Ha picture again, having lost none of its magic in the last three years.



- Mustafa Shakur was a recent signing for Panellinios in Greece, where he backs up Anthony Grundy and averages 6.0 points and 1.2 assists. I watched a Panellinios game a few days ago, and, after Shakur committed two admittedly rather dumb fouls in the first 30 seconds, the commentators spent the remainder of the game doing little else but talk about how bad Mustafa Shakur is. They did this unapologetically and relentlessly, despite Shakur scoring 18 points in 13 minutes right in front of their eyes, on a relentless sequence of superbly effective drives. The lesson here is SHUT UP ROY.

- Doron Sheffer has retired for the fourth time. The first time came back in the year 2000 at the age of 28, when it transpired that he had cancer. He returned in early 2003, and managed to avoid retiring until October 2005, when he retired again due to the "sleepless nights" he got from the "waste of time" that basketball was to him. That solemn vow lasted for all of six weeks before he unretired again in December, and Sheff saw out the season with Hapoel Tel Aviv, playing in only 5 games before breaking his hand. Guess what he did then? Yep, he retired, this time in April 2006, and this one lasted until July 2007, when Sheffer returned to play one final season with his original team, Hapoel Galil Elyon-Golan. This time, he managed a full season. And then he retired again after the season ended. We can only guess that this is really it this time, even if the evidence is decidedly stacked against it.

- Ricky Shields is arguably the best player in Slovenia, leading his team, the league leading Krka, in both points and assists with averages of 15.1 and 2.7 respectively, along with 4.8 rebounds per game. If "best player on the best team in Slovenia" isn't the ultimate CV boost, then I don't know what is.

- Joe Shipp is playing for Minas Tenis Clube in Brazil, a team who strangely favour basketball over tennis. Shipp averages 19.7 points and 5.6 rebounds in the Brazlian league.

- Paul Shirley's blog on ESPN.com over the summer alluded to the idea that his 2008 stint in Spain with Vive Menorca might have been his last ever professional basketball player gig. It wasn't, because Shirley signed a one month contract this November with Unicaja Malaga as an injury replacement for Marcus Haislip. However, that's over now, and Shirley is again unsigned, seemingly not looking too hard for work either. He's now writing a lot for ESPN about music.

- Finally, some good news. After almost two years out of the game, Wayne Simien is back and playing, albeit not at the standard that he once was. Simien is with Caceras in the Spanish LEB Gold [second divison], averaging 16.8 points and 8.2 rebounds a game. It's a start. Despite how few NBA games he played, though, Simien has still appeared in the second most out of anyone on this list, with 51 games, albeit way behind Ansu Sesay's 127. (Sene and Ha both appeared in 46, Shirley in 18. The rest have appeared in 0, and probably never will. These lists are somewhat desperately really, aren't they?)

They call me Sham Slidy. I'm back. Etc.

What is better than a holiday? I'll tell you what's better than a holiday: a full English breakfast is better than a holiday. It really is. Eggs, beans, a copious amount of sausages, bacon, toast, hash browns, mushies, black pudding if you've got it, OJ......yes, yes, that is definitely better than a holiday.

Another thing that is better than a holiday is two holidays, and that's what I've been having. This explains what looks to the casual observer like my continued absence. My last blog post, dated about three weeks ago, spoke of an impressive, overdue and highly important return to action, and yet this is only my second blog post of the whole season, after a month of November that saw only one feeble effort. A cynic would say that I've been away, and a particularly ruthless Mozambiquey (Mozambiquish?) Army General might have me shot for dereliction of duty.

However, that Mozambolian Army General would be wrong, and so would the cynic. I have not been neglecting this website, nor have I been neglecting you, dear viewer. Instead, I have been having a working holiday, if such a thing is possible for an unemployed man. While the blog hasn't been updated, the rest of this webshite has. In recent days, I have:

1: Provided a better vehicle for the site's increased focus on world basketball. (Look left.) While this remains an NBA focused website, a large part of that is documenting the players on the outskirts of the league with a realistic chance of being in it one day. For this reason, the rosters section has been expanded greatly, and player movement worldwide will now be documented via the worldwide transactions page, and the accompanying blog that'll probably never be used. The players database has also been expanded to contain such hugely important people as Joe Forte, Ansu Sesay, Rashad Anderson and Pablo Prigioni, so that they too may now not be written about. These developments come off of the background of the staggeringly mildly successful series of "Where are they now?" blog posts of last season, and such blog posts will now be made on that blog instead. Because I said so.

2: Begun the D-League coverage that was initially planned about two years ago. As the blurb above describes, this website is increasing its focus on the players just outside the NBA, and this is the reason for the sudden and uninspiring new D-League focus. A lot of the players in the D-League are crap and will never make the NBA, so the coverage will only focus on those with a perceived chance. For example, the insatiably named Xavier Whipple may never get a profile on here, whereas Antoine Jordan already did. This will probably be the high point of Antoine's life, and if Xavier Whipple kills himself in the coming days, then it was only a coincidence. All of this exciting new material can be found in the menu to the left, to the left. Mmmmmm. To the left, to the left. Everything I made in the box to the left.

3: Added more lookalikes, for those who like that sort of thing. I do.

4: Expanded the database, so that it now covers almost 10 million players. (Or 1,100. Whichever. Either way, it's more writing that I haven't yet done.)

5: Built three new features that you can't see yet. (Oh! The! Suspense!)

6: Written a DraftExpress post that you also can't see yet.

7: Completed the 2009 free agents lists, now available in three new and improved flavours: by name, by team, and by position.

8: Finished the overdue, slightly pointless but entirely unique 2008 Offseason Review.

9: Updated all the pre-existing information, including (but not limited to): assistant coaches lists (see team pages), depth charts, rosters, cap holds, D-League affiliates, and everything except the salaries because I can't be bothered with them yet.

10: Written the player profiles for T.J. Ford, Anthony Roberson, Chris Kaman, Jared Reiner, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and Matt Barnes. (Only 800 to go!)

11: Finished the character issues section.

12: Agreed to be the host of a new, Around The Horn style podcast, featuring the four most pre-eminent Chicago Bulls podcasts on the web (Bulls Beat, Bullseye, Bullscast, and the other one). More details on this as, when, and if I can be bothered.



So you see, I do do stuff. (Note: my working holiday comes with less photos than my actual holiday. Be grateful.)

The downside of all this is that I might blog a bit less. As an aspiring NBA General Manager with no qualifications or skills to speak of, it's important that I use this website as my curriculum vitae to demonstrate my large and hopefully accurate knowledge of the NBA, and the players both in it and on its fringes. This is the reason for all the expansion. Will it work? No, but I'm doing it anyway.

But anyway, who the hell cares about all that. That's all just self congratulatory bollocks. Let's bring the noise. Here are some of my opinions on stuff.

1: The Al Harrington/Jamal Crawford trade looks like the epitomy of a win win trade. For a discontented player who had absolutely no worth on the depth chart, the Warriors managed to get a much needed short term fill-in at point guard, and a man who also isn't a bad fit alongside Monta Ellis, assuming that Monta ever plays for the Warriors again. Meanwhile, New York got a player that Mike D'Antoni can occasionally pretend is a centre (it's not that farfetched - Al Harrington played a lot of centre in his Hawks days, albeit not very well), while more importantly opening up a few more million in 2010 cap room. The Warriors have no 2010 ambitions, so they sacrificed something that they didn't want for something that they sorely needed. They will, however, suck anyway. (Incidentally, it's kind of a shame how things have worked out with Chris Mullin. He made a lot of mistakes in his early days in charge, but then put them right, and assembled a fine young roster. But then his superiors somewhat sold him out, Baron Davis let him down by opting out, and Ellis let him down by falling off a bike that he shouldn't have been on. Now he has a team with a poor record, a clusterfuck of a roster, and a contract that's about to run out with an owner that has completely different ideas to that of his own. It's a shame. For a while there, things really went his way. Oh well.)

2: Additionally, moving Zach Randolph and Mardy Collins to the Clippers for Tim Thomas and Cuttino Mobley was also a coup for the Knicks. For all the bellyaching I did about Donnie Walsh's summer moves - overpaying for a backup in Chris Duhon, drafting Danilo Galinari at number 6 who allegedly has no chance of being a star and who has the depth chart stacked against him, and dealing one of the team's few reasonable players in Renaldo Balkman to save money after overpaying for Duhon and being unwilling or unable to move the crappy players in front of him - I give Walsh the plaudits for finding a plan (2010), and executing it well. The fact that we're currently having to watch David Lee as a full time center is secondary - the Knicks had the balls and the patience to trade two of their three best players for unwanted bit parts, all for a one year saving on their salaries. Rarely is the 2010 plan (or any capspace plan) worthwhile for the teams involved. But in the Knicks case, it was. And now they've facilitated it. So well done them. As for the Clippers, God knows what they expect to achieve. Getting a 20/10 (not 2010) player for spare parts should always be desirable, but in this case, it isn't. And I can't write much more about their side of the deal without borrowing too heavily from this piece what I's already wrote.

3: The seminal baseball journalism blog FireJoeMorgan.com has closed down, as its proprietors - people with jobs - have decided to do those jobs instead. This seems like a misuse of their time, but whatever. The point is that they'll be missed. (For those unaware, FireJoeMorgan.com was a baseball site that didn't cover baseball, but which covered other people's coverage of baseball. It was not merely a campaign to fire Joe Morgan, as the URL would have suggested. Acerbic to a tee and with a turn of phrase that would make Pynchon weep, the site made baseball writers and broadcasters - particularly the one whose name was in the URL - look really bloody stupid. Yet it did not entirely set out to do this - all that the team behind it had to do was to let the writers write whatever they like. The writer's stupidity was all their original work. FJM just let them hang themselves with line breaks and the occasional bit of sense. That's all that was needed for the ridiculous old boys network that governs Major League Baseball - and those who cover it - to show their true inanity, as they spewed forth their eternal semi-ons for the easily rectifiable myths that have ensured their job security up until now. Sadly, it looks like they'll now get away with it. Damn shame.)

Finally, and most importantly, number 4: It only occured to me the other day just how phallic an overhead shot of half a basketball court looks.



That is all. I am now off to watch all the games that I've missed out on.