Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 23

- Joel Freeland

Despite coming from the unpleasant town of Aldershot, Joel Freeland has turned into a fine player. Still in Spain, Freeland has moved from Gran Canaria to Unicaja Malaga, lured by the promise of Euroleague ball. Freeland is averaging 9.9 points and 5.0 rebounds in 19 minutes per game in the Euroleague, alongside 11.5/4.5 in 20mpg in the ACB.

It's not just my national bias talking - although that inevitably factors - but Joel Freeland is awesome. He has size, athleticism and skill; decent offense, decent rebounding and decent defense. He's not a star player, but he's a rotation calibre NBA player and all around superhero. Taking him 30th in 2006 was an Eyenga-level gamble by the Blazers, but it's worked, and while his selection is not enough to justify trading down from 3rd to 6th in 2005 (thus going from Chris Paul to Martell Webster), it certainly helps.



- Matt Freije

Freije is playing in his homeland, Lebanon. Despite being born in Bismarck, North Dakota, Freije has some kind of ties to Lebanon in his heritage and now represents them at international level. I have absolutely no numbers for Freije's play with the Lebanese club Sporting Al Riyadi, but at the Asian Championships this summer, Freije averaged 15.7 points and 4.6 rebounds. He also likes to spend his summers in Puerto Rico, where he averaged 20.3 points and 6.8 rebounds in 30 games last year.

Freije has a Canadian/Lebanese teammate called Omar El Turk, who sounds more like an Anchorman character.



- Vitaly Fridzon

Russian international swingman Vitaly Fridzon is into his fifth season with Khimky, averaging 9.6 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game in the Russian league, 9.4/3.0/2.8 in the VTB United League, and 6.5/2.4/2.0 in the Euroleague.

So, that's where he is now.



- Hiram Fuller

Ex-Fresno State forward Hiram Fuller is now a Libyan national, via means entirely different to those of Matt Freije. Fuller represented Libya at the 2009 African Championships under the name of Hesham Ali Salem; amongst his teammates was ex-Bulls forward Randy Holcomb, known then as Raed Farid Elhamali. I don't think I want to know how this happened.

For his domestic basketballl, Fuller has gone to Mexico, where he averages 14.5 points and 6.8 rebounds for Fuerza Regia Monterrey.



- Lawrence Funderburke

In retirement, Lawrence Funderburke has written two books. One of them is foreworded by Lou Pinella, and called "Hook Me Up, Playa!: An Insiders Look Into the Financial Fortunes, Misfortunes, & Fortunate Lessons Learned from Modern-Day Professional Athletes." (Title could maybe use some shortening.) The second is called "The Triangle Formula of Success," and has a complimentary website. That website is part of the Lawrence Funderburke Youth Organisation, an organisation that attempts to teach kids how to invest money. It also contains diet tips. Something for everyone there.



- Cheyne Gadson

Gadson is in the D-League, playing for the Dakota Wizards. He is averaging 9.9 points and 3.7 assists per game.

Gadson is also one of the few people covered on this website that used to play in the British Basketball League. (And by "few", I mean very few. It's him, Andy Betts, and that might be about it. Not even Joel Freeland did that.) For the Brighton Bears in late 2005, Gadson averaged 21/5/5 on a team that featured Luol Deng's brother, Ajou. The head coach and owner of that team was Nick Nurse, who now coaches the Iowa Energy. Nurse wanted to move the Bears to the D-League, but the move didn't come off, so he went back to the States without them.

The Brighton Bears then folded and no longer exist.




- Tony Gaffney

Even before he signed with the L.A. Lakers for training camp, Massachusetts graduate Gaffney had signed with Galil Gilboa in Israel. The team let him come back to America for camp, and he rejoined them after the Lakers waived him. However, Gaffney played in only one game for the team before breaking his foot. He was released from his contract and is now back in America rehabbing.



- Deng Gai

Deng Gai is a tough one to find. Between 2001 and 2005 he played for Fairfield, a university in the MAAC, and averaged 13.9 points, 8.5 rebounds and 5.5 blocks per game as a senior. He went undrafted but caught on with the Philadelphia 76ers in training camp and made the regular season roster. Gai survived five weeks being being waived, appearing in two games and posting 5 trillion. That was his only NBA soirée.

Gai then moved to the USBL for the rest of that season with the Dodge City Legend, and spent the 2006-07 season with the Wilmington Sea Dawgs in the ABA. (Spelling it Dawgs will make it appeal to youngsters!) He spent another summer in the USBL in 2007 with the Albany Patroons, then moved to Poland for the 2007-08 season, where he averaged 4.8 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game in the Polish league for ASCO Slask Wroclaw.

All four of those teams have now moved on or gone under. Slask Wroclaw went bankrupt; their second team became their first team, and they play in a faraway Polish lower league, out of sight and mind. The Sea Doggies moved to the ABA to the PBL in 2007, and have moved again this year to the Continental Basketball League, an upstart league born out of the ashes of the old Continental Basketball Association that currently features four teams and will begin its first ever season shortly. The Patroons returned to the CBA in time for its final season, but died when the CBA did. And the entire USBL no longer exists, although there are small whispers of a rebirth after two years out of the rotation. Nothing to reinforce it, though.

Similarly, since leaving Poland, Deng Gai has disppaeared from the basketball map. The only thing I can find about him is his Facebook page. And his name is more common than you might think, which makes Googling info on him harder than you might think.

Deng Gai fact: The aforementioned Ajou Deng is Luol Deng's brother, and Deng Gai is Luol's cousin. The clue was in the name, I think.



- Charles Gaines

Charles Gaines is currently 8th in China in rebounds, and 2nd in scoring. Loyal readers will know already that that means big numbers, and Gaines' line doesn't disappoint; 38.8mpg, 29.6ppg, 11.2rpg, 1.5apg, 1.1bpg, 2.1spg, 63% FG, 71% FT. Only a few short hours ago he shot 14-17 en route to 33 points and 8 rebounds in a win over Stephon Marbury's Shaanxi team. Got to love Chinese basketball.

A full rundown of CBA stats will follow shortly.



- Reece Gaines

After three years in Italy, Gaines has taken the unusual step of joining the D-League this season. It's unusual because he's 29 years old and not on the verge of a call-up, so there doesn't seem to be a lot of reason for the big paycut. Playing for the Bakersfield Jam, Gaines is averaging 13.5 points, 4.0 assists and 2.7 rebounds in 33 minutes per game, shooting 48% from the field and 40% from three point range. Solid all around numbers, but only solid.

Reece Gaines fact: Reece Gaines's first name is Clifton. That is all.



- Mike Gansey

Gansey has not had a great professional career. After going undrafted out of West Virginia in 2006, he signed with the Miami Heat after summer league, but did not make the team after nearly dying of MRSA. He missed that season, and while he returned in the 2007-08 season, he posted only 10ppg in the Italian second divison. This was perhaps expected given the whole near-death thing, and definitely fair, but nonetheless a slow start. Last season saw only an 8.7ppg average in the German league, and he returned to America this season with his three year professional career still not exactly underway.

In the D-League draft, Gansey was picked with the 2nd pick of the 6th round by the Idaho Stampede, inauspiciously ranked behind such as Derrick Mercer of American and backup Duke forward David McClure. He played in 11 games for the Stampede, and averaged only 9.6 points and 4.2 rebounds, still not quite cooking on the gas he was at West Virginia. But then in January, Idaho traded him to the Erie BayHawks for Donell Taylor, and that was opened the floodgates. In 14 games for Erie, Gansey's averages have shot up to 18.3 points and 8.7 rebounds per game, way more like his glory days. Erie are making him put work in; he averages 44.1 minutes per game and has played all 48 minutes in 6 of 14 games, and played 52 of 53 in another. But after missing so much of the early part of his career, that's probably a welcome proposition.

To celebrate this breakout, Gansey now blogs for Ridiculous Upside.



Finally......

- Jorge Garbajosa

Garbajosa played for Khimky last season, alongside Vitaly Fridzon. Khimky made the final of the Eurocup as favourites before losing to Chuck Eidson's Lieutuvos Rytas team. He left Russia after only one season and returned to his native Spain, joining up with Real Madrid. He is averaging 7.4 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in the ACB, alongside 8.5 points and 4.1 rebounds per game in the Euroleague.



As always, if you want to keep tracks of the transaction of these players without having to wait until every January, use the transaction indexes for all three of the NBA, the D-League and the world at large. Every relevant transaction is in there. Even the Taiwanese ones.

Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 18

- Richie Frahm has not been signed since his not exactly explosive summer league performance with the Dallas Mavericks summer league team. I watched all of those Mavericks VSL games, and Frahm - a shooter - often chose not to shoot, which seemed silly on a team clearly auditioning shooters. Other things that I learnt from these games: Reyshawn Terry's a decent shooter, Shan Foster's a very good one (the last update excluded), Keith McLeod remains terrible at all manner of shotmaking, and Renaldas Seibutis is still having an identity crisis. And Rick Kamla's side parting is one of the seven wonders of the modern world.

- British LEGEND Joel Freeland (a legend if only for the fact that he's English) is in his third year with Gran Canaria, Spain. And he's finally getting somewhere. Freeland averages 10.3 points and 4.2 rebounds in the Spanish league, numbers that rise to 15.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in Eurocup play. If Greg Oden continues to disappoint, then......well, sod that, Joel Freeland is already better than him. FACT. (Note: not a fact.)

- Matt Freije started the season in Lebanon of all places (is it Lebanon, or The Lebanon?), before moving to China. For Fujian SBS XunXin, Freije averages 19.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.2 blocks, shooting 37% from three point range. His high scoring teammate is the seminal Chris Porter, who is into his fourth season with the team, with a short Philippines break in between. Porter averages 23.7 points, 13.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists, shooting 41% from three point range. But I think he's had it cut.

- Hiram Fuller was recently part of the Pau Orthez turnover, and left the team earlier this month. In his 6 games with the team, Fuller averaged 6.0 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.2 fouls.

- Lawrence Funderburke is out of the news, seemingly dining out on the success of his two books. I have read neither. Have you? Additionally, his youth foundation have made a new range of videos, which is exciting.

- Cheyne Gadson started the season with International Rescue, averaging 16 points and 5.4 turnovers in 5 games, before he was traded to the L.A. D-Fenders. In 11 games, Gadson averaged 8 points, before leaving the team without permission earlier this month. Not a great idea.

- Deng Gai has not played since a brief stay in Poland last year. As you may already know, Deng Gai is a part of the big Deng family of basketball players, highlighted by Luol. Luol's cousin is called Kur Deng, and he plays (or used to play) for North Iowa CC. He's 23 and could barely crack their team, averaging 2 and 2. One of Luol's seven brothers is Ajou Deng, a professional player in England who went to college at Fairfield, as did the aforementioned Deng Gai (Luol and Ajou's cousin), who briefly played for the Sixers. (There's another brother who plays professionally called Deng Deng. He's somehow worse than all of them.) Bonus Dengs fact - Luol used to go by the name Michael. Is this section getting confusing? I hope so.

- Reece Gaines averages 14,4 points, 2.5 2.9 assists and 2.5 steals for Angelico Biella in the Italian league. A sack of shit he may have been in the NBA, but he's put together a decent European career. That sentence wasn't particularly grammatically sound, but the message was.

- Charles Gaines is but another of the San Antonio Spurs's training camp signings currently stashed away on their D-League affiliate, the Austin Toros. Gaines averages 14.3 points and 10.3 rebounds, although the D-League's official website lists his birthdate as January 1st, 1900, which makes him the second oldest player in the D-League behind Geno Carlisle.

- Mike Gansey is averaging 5.8 points and 3.4 rebounds for the struggling German team, J.R. Bremerhaven.

- Jorge Garbajosa is playing for Khimky in Russia, averaging 8.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.9 assists in Russian league play, along with 9.0 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists in Eurocup play. And I've finally got his buyout amount.

- Alex Garcia is back in his native Brazil, where he averages 17 points and 9 rebounds for Pinheiros. This post died away a bit at the end, didn't it?

Summer signings, round 7

- In round 3, I set your collective minds at ease about the whereabouts of shaven headed corner lingerer, Jumaine Jones. I told you that he had signed in Italy. But apparently that's not the end of the matter. In a rather unique tale, Jumaine's two agents appear to have simultaneously agreed to two seperate contracts with two different teams in two different countries. Jones has seemingly agreed to sign with both Milano in Italy and with a team called Ural Great Perm in Russia. (Great name. A great name. Great perm, too.) I don't think there's any precedent for knowing quite what happens in situations such as this, so it's FIBA's problem now. Good stuff, though.

- On the off-chance that you can remember who Rashad Wright is - a Pacers secound rounder from 2004 who never made the NBA - then you'll be horny when you hear that he has signed with ALBA Berlin in Germany, after last played for Efes Pfilsen in Turkey. For those unaware....that's a backwards step. (No offense to ALBA Berlin fans. But it is. You know?)

- In news that I know will excite at least one reader of this website, former humoursly bad NBA player Reece Gaines has signed for Angelico Biella in Italy. I don't know who she is, but she sounds hot. I made that joke once before, and I shall continue to use it every time the name Angelico Biella crops up, because I'm unoriginal like that. (If you've never received a "hey, do you know what's happened to Reece Gaines?" email in your life, then you're missing out. Ask nicely and I'll write you one. Maybe.)

- Loukas Mavrokefalidis remains in Greece, going from Olympiakos to Maroussi Costa Coffee, where he'll join none other than Andreas Glyniadakis. Try spelling that frontcourt while shitfaced on Mescaline. Can't be done.

- Jorge Garbajosa did indeed sign with Khimky, as thread in a previous blog post. I guess the leg's better now, eh?

- Just In Cage has signed with Belgacom Liege in Belgium (or, specifically, in Liege in Belgium). This news may interest you if you are a Bulls fan - Cage played mediocrely for the Bulls summer league team last season, but was invited to training camp anyway, where he didn't last for very long. However, at some point between the two events, David Thorpe (who was working with Cage in some capacity) wrote a glowing commendation of Cage's hero-like basketball abilities. Certain Bulls fans bought into that, and began planning the franchise's entire direction around the formidable Justin "Magical" Cage. So news of hsi signing in the Belgian league will piss on those people's chips.

- Another Bulls summer league and former Spur, Keith Langford, is on the cusp of signing for Bologna in Italy. That's all I have to say about that. And now onto news about actual NBA players.

- The Spurs re-signed Kurt Thomas, and also signed Creighton's finest Anthony Tolliver. It has to be said that, while everyone's talking about the potential juicy goodness of the 2010 free agency class, no one has talked about the Spurs's potential impact on it. They do, after all, have only two players under contract that summer, and even though Manu Ginobili will be a free agent that summer, the Spurs have enough room to give him an extension and still be able to throw an arseload of cheese at a big name player. They'll have only the merest bare bones of a squad, but an aging foursome of Ginobili, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and, say, Dirk Nowitzki....well, you'd have to respect that, even if the other 9 players are on minimum salary contracts. Which they'd probably have to be. (Note: given the way things work in the NBA, this scenario will prove to impossible within next to no time. Either Dirk will sign an extension, the salary cap won't increase as expected, or the Spurs will spend money on multiple lesser players. Or the franchise will fold. Or all four of those things. This is why I don't make predictions any more - they suck and are hard. Giggidy.)

- Sebastian Telfair re-signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves, after a 'breakout' season in which he shot 40%.

- The Detroit Pistons are to sign Will Bynum, which could be amusing if Lindsey Hunter sticks around for another season. Imagine looking down that bench for a point guard who can hit a jumpshot. Good luck.

- Ricky Davis is the latest reasonably big name NBA player to be offered a disproportionally huge amount of money from Greek club Olympiakos as a replacement for Loukas Mavrokefalidis...........

- .....And Josh Childress did go to Olympiakos after all. Good on you, sir.

Summer signings, round 1

Some former NBA players have moved from a non-NBA team to a non-NBA team. So have some former peripheral players who never quite cracked the NBA league. If news of this interests you, dear viewer, then read on.


Jerome Moiso has moved from DKV Joventut - a very good European team based Spain - to Khimki, an almost as good European team based in Russia. For all of his NBA failings, Jerome Moiso is regarded as hot shit on this Earth's finest continent.

Marc Jackson, who was released from Greek powerhouse Olympiakos part way through last season to be replaced by Qyntel Woods, has signed with Unics Kazan, also of Russia. The fact that Jackson chose to sign before the NBA free agency period began, and that he also didn't choose to go the summer league route, would indicate that Jackson either has no interest in playing in the NBA any more, or that he no longer finds it a viable option any more.

"Spider" Charles Smith has spent the last two seasons with powerhouse Real Madrid in Spain, but this week has left them to sign with Efes Pilsen in Turkey. There's a delicatessen in my nearest town called Efes Pilsen. Fun fact.

Speaking of Turkey, former Memphis Grizzlies guard Tarence Kinsey has obtained a Turkish passport due to residency (more on this concept in a future blog post), and he will now play for the Turkish national team. Similarly, former Raptors guard Omar Cook recently obtained Montenegran citizenship (it's a country), and will play for their national team too. It's news worth knowing brought to you by the site worth visiting.

Denver draft pick Axel Hervelle has re-signed with Real Madrid for three more years. So he's probably never coming over.

The Toronto Raptors and forward Jorge Garbajosa mutually agreed to terminate the final year of his contract, and Garbajosa has already agreed a deal with Tau Vitoria back in his native Spain. A post about the virtues of Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo may or may not be forthcoming, depending on my effort level. Oh, and as mentioned previously, Grizzlies guard Juan Carlos Navarro also went back to Spain, signing with his former team Barcelona for the next one hundred million years. Never should have left, Juan.

Former Knicks - for about a week - forward Otis George remains in the second tier of Italian basketball, signing with newly promoted Venezia.

Rick Rickert has re-signed with the New Zealand Breakers, who play in Australia. I'm still awaiting answers on why this is. Rickert is probably through with the NBA - or is that the other way around? - but there remains a slim chance that one day he can be reunited with Kevin Garnett, who can then punch him in the face again. As they say, "anything's possible!!!!!!". That joke was shit but I'm still happy I made it.

NBA journeyman Amal McCaskill has signed in the Phillipines, with a team named the Magnolia Beveragemasters. The standard of basketball might be shit over there, but the money's good, and the team names are faaaaaaaaantastic!

Milos Vujanic, the one time future of the New York Knicks, is joining Charles Smith above at Efes Pilsen, where together they will make the finest continental salads that you ever did sample.

Zoran Erceg - undrafted last season - has signed with Olympiakos of Greece, who you will know of if you have any worldly sense/saw the top of this post.