Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 40

- Let's start this off with a bang; I have absolutely nothing to report on Wesley Person. Nothing whatsoever.

- Continuing that sizzling opener, Brent Petway is in the D-League, averaging 10.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots a game for the Idaho Stampede. Strangely, those numbers were somehow enough to make him a D-League All Star, and you can see the boxscore for the D-League All Star game here. (That minutes distribution is first class. I'd love to know what Richard Hendrix did to merit those extra 5 seconds.) Petway also lost his D-League Slam Dunk Champion title to James White, so it's not been a good fortnight for him.

- The last I heard about Eric Piatkowski came in the summertime, when an article talked about he was staying in shape and waiting for the phone to ring. I'm guessing it hasn't rung.

- Tim Pickett has had a busy year, starting in the Italian Serie A with Rieti, but leaving before the season began. He then moved to Bulgaria with Lukoil Akademik, and averaged 17.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in Eurocup play for them. Unfortunately, he was a victim of their sweeping cull of international players midway through the season, one which also brought about the demise of Kehnide Adeleke and Kevin Kroogs. Pickett has since signed in China, with Shanxi Zhongyu, as the replacement for Bonzi Wells. By now, you should know what it means when somebody signs in China, and by God you won't be disappointed here either - Pickett currently averages 39.9 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 3.2 assists per game. OK, so the assists numbers are a tad low, but he's averaging 40ppg for Shade Sheist's sake. Who the hell should he be passing to?

- Kevinn Pinkney is with NGC Cantu in Serie A, averaging 14.4 points and 6.8 rebounds a game. Foolishly, though, he continues to insist upon his own three point shot, and is shooting only 29.8% on the year from three point range, while shooting 47 three's to 125 two's. This is a trend with Pinkney, who as far as I can tell has only shot above 30% from three point range once in his entire basketball career, that being last year when he shot 33% for Angellico Biella. (That 50% success in his NBA stint doesn't count. Two shots doth not a sample sizeth make.)

- Danilo "J.R." Pinnock is playing for a team in the Italian second division, whose name as far as I can tell is "Pallacanestro Seven 2007 Roseto 1946". Catchy. Here's Google Translate with the rest of the J.R. Pinnock news:

Last external quintet is the American Danilo Pinnock Jr. Player of talent and high technology, is not exactly a guarantee in terms of choices and application. His performance was influenced heavily discontinuous season biancoazzurri. 16.7 points and 4.5 rebounds for the media to him.

All good information.


- You've probably heard the story about Kevin "Ca$h Money" Pittsnogle that has recently done the rounds. But if you haven't, here it is. Also, if you haven't seen what he wore to his wedding, here's that too.

- Trent Plaisted, second round draft pick owned by the Pistons, is signed with Angellico Biella in Italy. He has not played since October, though, due to back troubles. Plaisted totalled 10 points, 4 rebounds and 8 fouls in the two games that he managed to play in.

- Zoran Planinic never fitted in the NBA, but is now a fine backup point guard for CSKA Moscow, averaging 8.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists in Russian league play, alongside 8.2 points, 1.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists in the Euroleague.

- Question: is Pavel Podkolzin good yet? Answer: nope. Pavel is playing for Sibirtelekom-Lokomotiv Novosybirsk, a team in the Russian second division, and if you can make sense of this jizz then you can see what he averages. He's number 23, and as far as I can tell, he averages 7.2 points and 4 rebounds. In the Russian second division. Hmmm. Lots of people do that, and none of them get drafted in the first round of the NBA draft. That turn-of-the-century European influx got a bit overzealous, didn't it?

- Finally, Scot Pollard is sitting around looking at the phone with Eric Piatkowski.

Also, if you missed it, these last ten days or so were a minefield for arrests of past and present NBA players. Firstly, Nets big man Sean Williams was arrested for trespassing, after violating a restraining order and returning to the Boston College campus, the school that he was previously kicked out of. Suns guard Jason Richardson was then arrested for doing 90mph in a 35mph zone, while also having his three year old son in the back of the car not in a proper child safety seat. Then Celtics guard Gabe Pruitt was arrested for DUI after driving around Hollywood at 3am while tanked up after a loss to the Clippers. Former Bulls and Bucks forward Tommy Smith was then arrested for kidnapping and assault after punching his girlfriend and breaking her nose after leaving a party. (Not sure where the kidnapping came into it.) And then most impressively of all, NBA journeyman Damone Brown was arrested on Thursday as a part of an FBI operation to bring down an entire drug trafficking ring. Brown was charged with money laundering, after supposedly leasing out the safety deposit box tha a local drug kingpin was using to stash his proceeds in. Unsurprisingly, Brown was then kicked off of his D-League team, the Reno Bighorns. (Giggidy.)

Good times.

Summer signings, round 16

- Bracey Wright and his Bengali cats are to sign with DKV Joventut Badalona in Spain, where he'll be joined by Pops Mensah-Bonsu. Pops's status was up in the air for a while, as he exercised a clause in his contract that allowed him to attempt to find some NBA work. But there wasn't any, and so Pops will return to Joventut, a broken man. Maybe.

- The point guard crop got another touch weaker, as Dan Dickau signed with Avellino in Italy. (I suppose an altternative title for this post would be "Dick Out!". Ah well, too late now.) Is this the end of Dickau in the NBA? I hope not, but I fear it might be. And that's a crying shame. If it is, and if we include his draft night like we did for Bobby Jones in a previous post, then the list of NBA franchises that Dan Dickau spent some time with is as follows:

1: Sacramento
2: Atlanta
3: Portland
4: Golden State
5: Dallas
6: New Orleans
7: Boston
8: Portland (again)
9: New York
10: L.A. Clippers

In only 6 years, that's a damn good list. Maybe one day, we can add Chicago to it.


- J.R. Pinnock has signed with Pallacanestro Roseto 1946 in Italy's second division. It's hard to make jokes about team's names when they include the year in which they were founded in them. It's hardly the best ammo in the world, is it?

- Dawan Robinson has signed for Prima Veroli, also in Italy's second division. I know that you know who Dawan Robinson is, and I know that you can tell me which NBA franchise he went to training camp with back in 2006 without looking it up. If you can't, there's something deeply wrong with you. (Clue: Dan Dickau once played for them, which gives you a 1 in 9 shot of a lucky guess. Unless you just skipped the bit about Dan Dickau. If you did, there's something deeply wrong with you.)

- The Phoenix Suns' lengthy pursuit to sign Goran Dragic - their own draft pick - ended in misery and defeat. Dragic decided for about the 400th time to stay with Tau Ceramica in Spain, leaving the Suns having to look elsewhere. It hath been mentioned by people whose job it is to mention these things that the Suns will now look at Damon Stoudamire as their next point guard target. I know very little about Goran Dragic, but I know that he's better than Damon freakin' Stoudamire. So this is not much of a consolation prize.

(You know who else is better than Damon Stoudamire? Salim Stoudamire! That's who you need, Steve Kerr!)

- James "Get The" Gist has signed for the elusive Italian stunner herself, Angelico Biella. (That "Get The" thing is an audible joke, by the way, and one that works really well if the name Gist is pronounced with a soft G, and if you have an advanced understand of English lower middle class colloquialisms. If you don't have such an understanding, but would like to develop one, then you've come to the right website.)

- Jermaine Jackson has signed with Udine in Italy. I have literally nothing else to say about that. Not a sausage. Bugger all.

- The draft rights to Kyle Weaver were traded by Charlotte to Oklahoma City in exchange for New Jersey's second round draft choice next season which Oklahoma City owns from the to Mikki Moore trade of whenever it was. Kyle Weaver was rendered obselete after the Bobcats signed Shannon Brown, and the Bobcats signed Shannon Brown almost immediately after I pointed out that no one had signed Shannon Brown, and that no one ever would. So, essentially, Kyle Weaver's plight - if you can call it that - is my fault. Whoops. Sorry about that, Kyle.

- My Call Mike Hall has signed with Armani Jeans Milano. The single best thing about the NBA is the fact that they have not gotten into the trend of selling the team names for commerical sponsorship. Yet.

- Ryvon Covile has signed for Orleans in France, not New Orleans in America. Both Ryvon Covile and Jermaine Jackson graduated from Detroit Mercy - a college which sounds like a WNBA team - and they are quite possibly the only people in the world to have ever graduated from there. Hooray! I thought of something to say about Jermaine Jackson!

- Walter Herrmann re-signed with the Detroit Pistons. Good move. I had assumed, without any real evidence, that Detroit's decision to not tender Herrmann a qualifying offer would mean that Herrmann would have pissed off back to the beautiful continent of Europe, from whence he came. But it would appear that their decision not to do so was solely one of financial motivations - Herrmann has re-signed with the Pistons on a one year deal that pays a significant amount less than the fully guaranteed qualifying offer would have done. So it works out better for Detroit this way. More importantly, they now have a bench player who can score, shoot from the outside, and who doesn't suck. They could still use a guard with a jumpshot - the backup guard rotation of Rodney Stuckey, Will Bynum, Arron Afflalo and probably Lindsey Hunter will hit about 39 threes between them, and you can guarantee that I'm going to bump this post if that number proves to be anywhere close to accurate. Yet Herrmann gives them a shooter and a perimeter scorer off the bench that they had previously lacked. Plus, he's Walter friggin' Herrmann. That's a positive in itself.


And now, ladies and gentleman, Mr Conway Twitty.

Where Are They Now? Part 29

Gary Payton says he's done. I hope he's right.

Anthony Peeler played briefly in Spain after his NBA career ended, but that was three years ago now.

Ben Pepper is in his native Australia, playing for the Townsville Crocodiles. I am not sure that he's ever left Australia in the 9 years since he was drafted.

Wesley Person is D-U-N done.

Brent Petway is playing for the Idaho Stampede of the D-League, where he averages 7.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks a game.

Tim Pickett averages a whopping 21.2 points and 5.1 rebounds for a not partciularly good Italian team called Aget Imola.

Kevinn Pinkney is playing for Angelica Biella in Italy. If you've been paying really close attention and have a fantastic memory, you will remember that others plays for that team include Keith Langford, Brandon Hunter and B.J. Elder. So, something for everybody there. Pinkney averages roughly 13 points and 7 rebounds a game, while he also remains unable to spell his own name.

J.R. Pinnock averages just less than 15 points and 4 fouls a game (not a typo) for Kolossus in Greece, alongside Curtis Stinson, also known as "50 Cent".

Kevin Pittsnogle is playing for the Albuquerque Thudnerbirds of the D-League, for whom he averages 15.7 points and 6.2 rebounds. But, more importantly, this is what Kevin Pittsnogle wore to his own wedding. This is the kind of information that you need to know. It also bears mentioning that someone out there is now know as Mrs Pittsnogle.

Zoran Planinic is in his second year playing for Tau Vitoria in Spain. He averages 10.1 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists a game.

Pavel Podkolzin, who you could flatteringly describe as "a mis-step", is back in Russia playing alongside Lee Nailon for Lokomotiv Novosybirsk. I have no dull stats here, so just assume he's still crap.

Olden Polynice seems to have finally accepted that retirement is the best move for his 44 year old arse.