James Lang suffers severe stroke

From a tweet from Utah Flash owner Brandt Andersen, former Hornets, Wizards and Hawks big man James Lang has just had a "severe" stroke.

Flash Fans please keep 3 year center James Lang in your thoughts and prayers. James suffered a severe stroke just after Thanksgiving.

James has always been a fan and player favorite. He is fighting to pull through.

@flashbrandt

Lang spent last season with the Flash, averaging 6.4ppg and 4.1rpg, and was named as one of their returning players this season last month. However, he was waived out of training camp on November 18th due to "injury."

Little did we know.

Summer league round-up: Washington Wizards

View the Wizards summer league roster.

- Alade Aminu: I've not seen Aminu, to be honest with you. But his stats from last year go like this; 11.9 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 27 minutes per game. Solid. So is the 6'10 230lb size with a 7'3 wingspan. However, the points came somewhat inefficiently, he turned it over a lot, and he fouled quite a lot too. And he could use some weight gain. But he's also only 21, despite having just played his senior season, and that's got to bode well.

- Dwayne Anderson: In all the times I watched Villanova last year, I didn't realise Dwayne Anderson was a senior. But I did realise that he wasn't very good. He didn't have a bad senior year, but he's a forward in a guard's body, with not much of a jumpshot and little dribbling ability, who rebounds well and who could be a good defender, but who kind of isn't. This is probably his only ever NBA sniff.

- Ryan Ayers Ryan Ayers is here for three reasons. The first is because he has great size for the NBA at 6'7. The second is because he has a fine set jumpshot that already has NBA three point range. And the third is because he's the son of recent Wizards assistant coach Randy Ayers. To be 6'7 and a fine shooter sounds like a good thing, but here's the thing with Ayers; he does nothing else. He only catches and shoots. He's fairly athletic and his defense is all right, but he will only ever catch and shoot. Even at the college level with 6'2 prospective morticians matched up on him, all he did was catch and shoot. That's not going to get it done, even if he is extremely good at shooting and with a good NBA physique.

- Jimmy Baron: See this.

- Andray Blatche: Andray Blatche, there's a reason you're still doing summer league after 5 years in the league. It's because you still haven't figured out that you're not Kobe Bryant. I tell you this in the hope that it may help. Go to the post and stay there.

- Javaris Crittenton: In August 2007, the Grizzlies traded a heavily protected first rounder to the Wizards for the rights to Juan Carlos Navarro. The pick was at least top 12 protected until 2012, at which point if it still hadn't been conveyed, it became a second round pick and cash instead. However, the Navarro move went a bit wrong, and the Grizzlies got all of one year out of him because he buggered off back to Spain, ne'er to return. They then traded Crittenton to the Wizards in December last year to get the pick back, in spite of all its protection. To be honest, I'd rather have Crittenton.

- John Edwards: Edwards is 28 in about a week, but he never stops trying. Aside from one stint in the Ukraine, he's never played outside of America; he's either in the NBA, or in a minor league trying to get back there. Unfortunately, it's no longer happening for him. Last year in the D-League, he averaged 9.3 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.6 fouls for the Sioux Falls Skyforce. That's not getting it done.

- Josh Heytvelt: Heytvelt had a good college career, if you ignore the whole recreational drugs thing, but that doesn't mean he'll have an NBA career. His inside outside offensive game is fun to watch. However, if you're 6'11 and not a defender or a rebounder, you'd better be a bloody good scorer. And Heytvelt isn't. But he is a pretty good Formula 1 driver.

- James Lang: Lang is a former Wizard, and the owner of his own theory. He played 11 games with the team in 2006-07, doing nothing at all. He's done nothing at all since then, too, averaging only 6/4 in the D-League last year. Lang is still freaking huge, so the NBA still continues to monitor him. But he's never developed.

- Tits McGee: The bad news for McGee is that Brendan Haywood is back this year. The good news for McGee is that the Wizards will no longer have to feel like they're obliged to play Darius Songaila. Even at centre.

- Dominic McGuire: McGuire's contract for next year is fully unguaranteed. He's the 15th man on the roster. On a team that figures to be a heavy tax payer next season. Somehow, Dominic McGuire is going to have to show that he's worth the $1.65 million it'll cost to keep him. And I don't think the 21% shooting he managed in summer league is getting it done.

- Tywain McKee: None of us watched a Coppin State game last year, so let's not kid ourselves. So here's some numbers; McKee averaged 18.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 2.8 steals and 3.0 turnovers per game, shooting 40% from the field, 36% from three point range and 815 from the foul line. Those are the numbers. This is the fluff piece.

- Tyrese Rice: Rice averaged 21/5 in his junior season, but that dropped to 17/5 in his senior season. Maybe he was trying to reinvent himself as more of a pass first player - which wouldn't be a bad idea as a 6'0 guard with not a great jumpshot - but either way it was a downwards trend. And that's why he went undrafted. I do love the Boston College uniforms, though.

- Jason Rich: Rich got a pre-draft workout with the Wizards last summer, but went undrafted out of FSU. He then spent the year in Italy, averaging 9.8 points and 3.1 rebounds for NGC Cantu in Serie A. He shot 39% from three point range, which shows improvement, but he still doesn't have NBA talent.

- Alex Ruoff: Ruoff has signed in Belgium next year for Belgacom Liege. I feel this is all the Alex Ruoff news and views that you need.

- Diamon Simpson: Simpson is a great rebounder but a crap shooter, and not much of an offensive player in general. His points come from hustle and scrappiness around the rim; he got to the line over 7 times a game last year, just to shoot 58% from there. His size at 6'7 230lbs isn't really getting it done, either. And as is mentioned in the McGuire section, the Wizards are already carrying 17. Apart from the four already with contracts, none of these boys really have a chance. Still, thanks for playing.

- Kyle Spain: A fat shooter out of San Diego State. (Sorry. I can just see the end in sight, finally.)

- Brandon Wallace: Last season in Poland, Wallace averaged 7.8 points and 5.6 rebounds. His usual high defensive numbers weren't really there, averaging less than a block per game. He shot 38% from three point range, which is a good sign, but it came in limited attempts. If the Wizards decide they can replace McGuire with an inferior but cheaper version, then Wallace could be a candidate. But that doesn't seem as likely as just not bothering with either of them.

- Nick Young: Fun Nick Young fact: Nick Young's career PER in the playoffs is 1.3. That is all.

Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 30

For future reference, a good way to bypass this website's occasional tendency to not work is to use the RSS feed situated on the right. For some unknown, every few weeks, the host company's servers have a glitch whereby updating any page makes it disappear, as the new page is unable to parse properly (or something). As a result, pages can disappear for a few hours until the server is restarted, which is particularly annoying when it's the home page. This is what happened yesterday, and I'd be sorry if it was my fault. But it wasn't.

Snowman update: my dog ate the nose, someone stole the hat, and the pipe fell out. However, the weather hasn't been above freezing yet, and so he still survives as before, slightly icier but just as large. Good times.

Before the list starts, here's a quick TRIVIA QUESTION: which one of the following players has scored the second most regular season points in the NBA? Answer at the bottom.

- Herve Lamizana recently left his team in the United Arab Emirates and joined Al Ittihad (and his wife Jean) in the Egyptian league. I can't imagine where I'll ever say that sentence again. I don't have any stats for Lamizana, but if you like your college basketball enough to remember the names of obscure American players from about a decade ago, then here are Lamizana's American team mates: John Thomas III (college: St Francis), Derrick Franklin (Columbus State) and Chauncey Leslie (Iowa). Those three are nothing to be sniffed at: between them, they've won the Turkish second division, a Jordanian league championship, and a Hungarian Cup runners-up medal. You can't deny experience like that.

- Maciej Lampe doesn't suck any more. In his third season with Khimky, Lampe is averaging 14.1 points and 5.7 rebounds in the Russian league, both team highs, alongside 13.0 points and 3.0 rebounds in two Eurocup games. These numbers come on a stacked team that also features Jorge Garbajosa, Kelly McCarty and Carlos Delfino, amongst others. Lampe was a joke back in the day, but not any more.
- Sean Lampley is signed with Al Arabi (and his wife Jean) in the Qatarian league. As if he could be anywhere else.

- James Lang averages 8.5 points and 5.8 rebounds in 18.6 minutes for the Utah Flash. That's extremely good production in such a short amount of time. That's what Tyrus Thomas does on average every night, and he plays more minutes than that. So why does Lang only play 19 minutes a game? Because he averages 4 fouls a game in that short time. And that's....a lot of fouls.

- Kris Lang is in Turkey, averaging 5.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per game in Turkish league play for Turk Telekom Ankara. Lang also averages 5.3 points and the same number of rebounds in the Eurocup. His full first name is Kristoffer, which is indefensibly bad spelling, although it does explain his abridged version.

- Trajan Langdon is with CSKA Moscow, and has been since 2005. Langdon averages 11.4 points in the Russian league and 11.8 in the Euroleague, numbers slightly down on last year.

- Keith Langford is playing for Virtus (La Fortezza) Bologna, the team that won't play Petteri Koponen, and that Earl Boykins briefly walked away from. Langford averages 11.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 2.6 steals and 0.8 blocks in the Italian league, and 15.7 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 0.6 blocks in the EuroChallenge. Combined, Langford has totalled 293 points on 193 shots, which for points per shot fans is 1.52 PPS. And that's a lot when you score that much.

- Dan Langhi is unsigned after a short stint in Puerto Rico over the summer. He didn't play for the whole of the previous season, and was in Japan before that. Before that he apparently had a tryout with the Kings, which I totally don't remember.

- Stephane Lasme plays for Partizan Belgrade, averaging 11.2 points, 6.8 points and 1.8 blocks in the Adriatic League, and 10.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game in the Euroleague. Partizan recently knocked off Lottomattica Roma in the Euroleague's Final 16 and continue to surpass everyone's expectations, in no small part due to Lasme's play.

- Charles Lee plays for Goettingen in Germany, alongside Santa Clara guard and porn star Kyle Bailey. Lee averages 13.2 points and 4.1 rebounds, doing quite a lot of scoring for a non-scoring role player. Such is the German league.

- Voshon Lenard is unsigned and unaccounted for.

- Maarty Leunen is playing for the wonderfully named team of Darussafaka in Turkey. Leunen leads the team in both points and rebounds, averaging 12.2 points and 6.1 rebounds, making him exactly 61% of a 20/10 player.



TRIVIA QUESTION ANSWER: Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Trajan Langdon. The list is as follows:

Lamizana - 0
Lampe - 215
Lampley - 203
J. Lang - 11
K. Lang - 0
K.D. Lang - 0
Clubber Lang - 0
Lang Whitaker - 0
Langdon - 647
Langford - 2
Langhi - 393
Lasme - 83
Lee - 0
Lenard - 6,745
Leunen - 0

CONCLUSION: This list really scrapes the bottom of the barrel.

Nice!

Where Are They Now? Part 22

James Lang is averaging 12.4 points and 7.0 rebounds for the Utah Flash of the D-League.

Kris Lang is playing for Ankara in Turkey, alongside Khalid El-Amin. Finding out stats for Turkish teams seems to need more work than I am willing to put forth, so if you really want to know what Kris Lang averages, here's what you've got to work with. I cannot for the life of me figure out how anyone can be interested enough in the career of Kris Lang to do this, but if you do, good luck to you. Lord knows I've wasted time in much worse ways, and on much worse people than Kris Lang.

Keith Langford finally got a look-see in the NBA this season, joining up with the Spurs for a few days. This was back when the Spurs were going through that weird phase of signing lots of people for very short periods of time, as emergency injury cover. It wasn't something that was particularly worthwhile - the Spurs had it all calculated so that they could afford to do this while staying under the tax threshold for the season. However, after Tony Parker got injured, the Spurs then had to sign Damon Stoudamire as cover a bit earlier than they wanted to, which put them back into the tax territory by a mere few thousand dollars. This meant that they had to make another move to get back under it, which they did with the Kurt Thomas trade. (Stoudamire's subsequent shitty play made none of it worth it.)

In a roundabout way, I'm saying that Keith Langford cost the Spurs a first round pick. Just saying.

Of course, if (when) Kurt Thomas wins the Spurs an NBA title - not all that farfetched of a theory if you say it without sarcasm and with context - then my stupid Keith Langford rant is shown up for what it is: stupid.

Anyway, still laden with the guilt of sabotaging such a well-oiled machine (maybe), Langford is playing for the deeply attractive Angelico Biella in Italy, averaging 15 points and 6 rebounds. He is playing alongside B.J. Elder, who is a guard that you may have heard of, and which is also a mighty welcome alternative Christmas present for your grandparents than the usual shortbread that you give them.


Dan Langhi is practicing his open-20-foot-jumpshot-shooting trade in Puerto Rico, averaging 15 points and 9 rebounds for a team called Conquistadores de Guaynabo. Here is a picture of Dan Langhi as a boy:



I have no idea why I own this.


Charles Lee - by the way, it is a coincidence that this edition is featuring so many ex-Spurs - is playing for Verviers Peinster in the Belgian league. He averages 9.4 points and 3.4 rebounds, and may I remind you that this is the frickin' Belgian league we're talking about. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Charles Lee isn't an NBA talent. Write that down. Shout it from the rooftops. Carve it into trees. Brand it on sheep. It hath been decreed.

Don't know what Voshon Lenard is doing. Don't care what Voshon Lenard is doing.

Anthony Lever-Pedroza, who briefly got into the league, probably on the basis of who he was related to (he is Fat Lever's nephew), won't be getting back into it unless he stops being crap. Lever-Pedroza, now 29, last played for Siroki in Bosnia, and may be still there, but I can't tell because I don't speak Bosnish.

Ron Lewis did not get drafted, and thus he went to Belgium to play alongside Mario Boggan. (It's the classic route to the NBA.) Lewis averages 16.7 points for a team called Leuven.

Sergei Lishouk is now 26 years old, averaging 12 and 6 for Azovmash in the Ukraine, and simply has not panned out.

Randy Livingston, who stated that he was "99.55 sure" that was was going to retired after the 2006 season, has now spent two seasons in the D-League destroying all comers. Livingston has averaged 10.7 assists this season down there, the league's best, and he also holds the single game record of 22 in a game.

Steve Logan signed in Venezuela for the start of their season, but was waived due to injury. Since not joining the NBA, Logan has played in the ABA, Poland, Turkey, Greece and Portugal, but hasn't played hardly at all since 2006. This analysis is in-depth!

Raul Lopez averages only 7.3 points and 2.3 assists for Real Madrid. Hmm. Could have sworn that he was better than this.