Where Are They Now: Derrick Murray

The look back at the compelling protagonists of the 1996 draft will be coming up soon, as soon as I can find 13 available hours in which to write it. Until them, I bring you a quasi-update from the 1994 edition.

In that post, I wrote this paragraph:

Last month, [Lamond] Murray signed back in the IBL for the third time, signing with the seminal Los Angeles Lightning, where he is currently averaging 25/6.

You weren't expecting that, I'm guessing. But here's the best part - the Lightning's lineup is freaking stacked. In an otherwise piss-poor league, the Lightning have managed to boast a lineup full of ex-NBA players, featuring Murray, current Clippers assistant and minor league veteran Fred Vinson, journeyman big man Jamal Sampson, the artist formerly known as Bryon Russell, ex-Suns guard Toby Bailey and former Rockets guard Juaquin Hawkins, who is with his first team since suffering a stroke last year. Did you see all that coming? No, me neither. In fact, apart from Murray, I didn't know about all those players being there when I started writing this. Good times, maybe.

Well, I have an update on that.

Sampson left the team after only 4 games, but the team replaced him pretty quickly, signing ex-Kings training campee (a new word), Adam Parada. Bailey has also finally turned up, as he was still playing in the German playoffs at the time of the last update. (He's currently averaging a triple double through his first two games, too.) The team also boasts California State senator Tony Strickland on the team, who hadn't played competitive basketball since averaging a double double at Whittler College in NCAA's division 3 almost two decades ago. That's a PR move and a half, that.

But the big news is that the Lightning have sinced added more ex-NBA pedigree, adding Raptors legend Darrick Martin to the team.

You needed to know that. You just did.



This post also serves as an excuse to fire out the two timeless Derrick Murray videos, which I think I will never, ever get bored of.

Great times.

Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 54

I don't know how to tell you this; not only am I kind of a big deal, but there's also only about three of these Where Are They Now posts left before we reach the human terminus that is Eurelijius Zukauskas. And I've already played my joker with the (simply astonishing) Ejike Ugboaja story. And I'm not going to start again. You're going to promise to keep reading this website once they've dried up, right? Don't go elsewhere. You'll like it here.

- Former Hornets second round draft pick Marcus Vinicus has gone back to his native Brazil, where he averages 19.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.0 assists

- Minor league veteran Fred Vinson retired this summer aged 37 after a season in the IBL, and became an assistant coach/director of player programs for the Los Angeles Clippers, the team that gave him his final shot at the NBA. Presumably, this new role means that he rebounds a lot of Zach Randolph three pointers.

- Former Wake Forest centre Kyle Visser is into his second season with the New Yorker Phantoms in Germany. Last season, Visser averaged 9.8 points and 4.3 rebounds per game on 58% shooting, and this season he's up to 10.6 points and 6.0 rebounds per game on 62% shooting. Visser's team features 9 American players on its roster, which seems like at least 6 too many, regardless of the team's name.

- 7'5 former Knicks and Blazers centre Slavko Vranes is averaging 3.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game in the Euroleague, alongside 5.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game in the Adriatic League, for Partizan Belgrade in his sort-of native Serbia.

- Former Hornet, Sun, Bull etc Jackson Vroman is playing for Saba Mehr for Iran. Bollocks if I'm looking for his numbers. You do it.

- The future of the Knicks, Milos Vujanic, averages 10.9 points per game in the Euroleague for Efes Pilsen. That's a good scoring output, but, when you consider that M-Vuj averaged 25.8 points per game in the Euroleague back in 2002-03, it kind of puts those numbers into some sort of context. Milhouse also averages 10.0 points and 2.7 assists in the Turkish league, which is equally average.

- Former Cavaliers and Warriors guard Dajuan Wagner is unsigned. After being cut by the Warriors in late 2006 due to more health concerns, Wagner sat out the rest of that season, and then joined Prokom Sopot in Poland last season, where he averaged 11.7ppg and 2.5rpg in the Polish league, alongside 8.3ppg and 2.5rpg in the Euroleague. He was waived in February - I don't know whether it was due to bad play, bad health, or something else - and resumed workouts with Tim Grover to try and make an NBA comeback. But it hasn't happened, and Wagner remains unsigned.

- Former Heat, Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Celtics, Mavericks and Hawks forward Antoine Walker is waiting for the phone to ring. It hasn't rung. It won't be ringing, either.

- Former Bucks, Spurs, Pacers, Lakers, Heat, Wizards and Mavericks big man Samaki Walker started the season in the Lebanon, but thankfully saw the light and moved to China, unselfishly giving his time for our enjoyment. Good man. Here are his stat lines in his three games, earliest first:

48 minutes, 19 points, 19 rebounds, 1 block, 0 assists, 6-18 shooting.
36 minutes, 11 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 assist, 4-12 shooting.
35 minutes, 35 points, 27 rebounds, 3 blocks, 4 assists, 17-24 shooting.

Good times.

- Former Celtics forward Brandon Wallace started the season in Turkey playing for Mersin Buyuksehir Belediyesi, but played in only one game, totalling 6 points, 3 rebounds and 3 blocks. He then moved to Poland with the incomparable Bank BPS Basket Kwidzyn, where he averages 7.4 points and 5.5 rebounds.

- Summer league perennial Judson Wallace is playing with Benetton Treviso, where I enjoy the luxury of being able to watch him quite regularly. Wallace averages 10.2 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.0 steals in the Italian league, alongside 8.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game in the Eurocup.

- Finally, former Heat and Nets swingman Matt Walsh is in Belgium playing for Charleroi. He averages only 6.0 points and 2.6 rebounds in the Belgian league, as his jumpshot hasn't turned up yet, shooting only 25% from three in Belgian league competition. But he fairs better in the Eurocup, where he averages 13.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists, shooting 44% from downtown.

Summer signings, round 21

This edition of our fun and voluptuous Summer Signings is highlighted by the fact that there's almost no one in it that you've ever heard of. If all the players in this list get into 80 NBA games combined next season, I will be shocked. In fact, I'll be justifiably flummoxed if even three of them make a roster. It's a sparse'un this time. Onward.

- Casey Jacobsen has signed with ALBA Berlin in Germany. In a previous blog post, I asked semi-mockingly for someone to do some research into which players have been to the German league and still been able to come back to the NBA. Two people mentioned Jacobsen, who was the German league finals NBA in 2007 before spending last season on the bench for the Memphis Grizzlies. This move completes the Grizzly German sandwich (giggidy), but it doesn't really undermine my insinuation that the German league is a bit shit, does it? Casey Jacobsen is all right, but a fringe NBA player. In between these two German stints, he scored 107 points on 115 shots in the NBA, as his jumpshot decided to take the year off. And now he's gone back to Germany where he'll probably star once again and become a champion of the serfs. What does this say about the German league? Basically nothing more than what I've already implied - it's a bit weak.

By the way, one of the two people who told me about C-Jake was an agent, who shall remain nameless. In Googling to see whether this nameless man is, or has even been, Casey Jacsobsen's agent, I found this search result:

"casey jacobsen girlfriend ipmessage lolita masturbation free pregnant women having sex"

So, something for everyone there.


- In a bizarre move, the likes of which have never previously been seen as interesting, the Suns and the Rockets swapped young guards D.J. Strawberry and Sean Singletary. This move is interesting (if you're a nerd) because it's a move that could save both teams money. The Rockets are trying to save money to be able to re-sign Carl Landry and Dikembe Mutombo without paying the lxury tax too much, if at all, and the Suns are trying to save money because they're the Suns. So in this deal, they may have both found what they were looking for. With the minimum of 13 players under contract once Goran Dragic officially signs his deal, the Suns depth chart is pretty much done, and Strawberry figured to be the last man on it again. However, as a second year player, he was to earn the minimum of $711,517, whereas a rookie on the minumum would earn only $442,114. Therefore, swapping Strawberry and Singletary saves the Suns the difference between those two sums ($269,403), doubled for tax ($538,806), and yet they lose nothing on the court, because neither player is going to take it. (Note: Singletary's salary is only partially guaranteed, contrary to what it says elsewhere on this webshite, but he'll make the team anyway, because if he doesn't, they'll have to pay someone else as well.) The Rockets meanwhile take on the more expensive player, but Strawberry's contract is not guaranteed, and so they save the whole of Singletary's salary, while also losing nothing on the court. It's all very interesting stuff if you're the kind of person that will forego a social life and regular sex in order to reinvest that time into calculating Greg Buckner's trade kicker.

(Note: If the Rockets keep Strawberry, then forget I said anything.)


- Joe Crawford has signed with the Lakers for training camp where he can once again do what he did in summer league and outplay Coby Karl. While challenging Tim Duncan to a fight.

- Kaniel Dickens has signed with Napoli, in Italy. See how obsure the list is this time around? Kaniel Dickens represents one of the bigger name players on it. At least he actually played in the NBA last year. That's more than what this next fella did.

- Mario Kasun and Barcelona have mutually agreed to terminate his contract. I don't know why, but we can speculate wildly. Maybe he doesn't think he was being paid enough. Maybe he wasn't getting enough minutes, in his own opinion. Or maybe he had a fight with Andre Barrett. Actually, yeah, it's that.

- Orien Greene has signed for MyGuide Amsterdam. And, if anyone out there should need a guide to Amsterdam....start with the cafes, follow the stench of sex, and work backwards. Soon enough you'll find a 70 year old woman seated in a shop's front window dressed in nothing but stockings and a suspender belt, knitting. As national identities go, it certainly pisses our one of fish and chips, Amy Winehouse, an arbitrary powerless monarchy and drizzle.

- Rod Benson has signed with SLUC Nancy in France. I don't know what the SLUC stands for, but if you change the last letter slightly and put it all in lower case while still suffixed with "Nancy", then it makes for quite a realistic soubriquet for the aforementioned 70 year old woman seated in a shop's front window dressed in nothing but stockings and a suspender belt, knitting.

- Sean Marks has signed for the New Orleans Hornets. How the hell does he do it? He's not a bad player by any means, but...well, he's never really done anything, has he? And yet he's now about to start the ninth year of his NBA career. 8 years, 127 games, 391 points, and still more offers of work. Just doesn't make sense. But fair play to him nonetheless.

- Memphis signed Hamed Haddadi, the only player in the Olympics to average a double double. Another fine move by a fine organisation.

- The trail blazing Portland Trail Blazers signed their 15th, 16th and 17th men in Luke Jackson, Steven Hill and Jamaal Tatum, albeit not necessarily in that order. I have already rambled about Jackson, and have nothing to say about the other two, so that's the end of that torrent of NBA insight. Quick! We're near the end!

- And finally, former Clippers guard and ABA journeyman Fred Vinson has returned to the Clippers as an assistant coach. After reading about this news, I faffed about for a while, and then went to bed. Yet clearly the news had a lasting effect on me, because I then proceeded to dream about Fred Vinson. I dreamt that me, Fred Vinson and Fred Vinson's wife, Mrs Fred Vinson (I don't even know if she exists) were out to dinner in a restaurant. The three of us were huddled around a table designed only for two. I had a steak diane, Mrs Fred Vinson had soup, and Fred Vinson had a largely undistinguished plate of brown. There was laughter, merriment, and much guffawery. I can't remember a single topic of conversation, but dammit, it doesn't matter. The important thing is that I dreamt that I was out to dinner with Fred Vinson.

You don't want to be like me when you grow up.