Domincan Republic native Flores has moved to the coldest climate of his career. Playing for Samara in Russia, Flores is averaging 13.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game in the Russian Superleague, alongside 19.5/4.5/1.9 in the EuroChallenge. His backcourt team mate is Bosnian national team member, J.R. Bremer. It's not the tallest backcourt in the world.
Forbes started the season in SerieA, and averaged 13.3 points per game for Vanoli Cremona. He left the team last month, and hooked with Ironi Kfar Hamaccabia Ramat Gan (better known as Ramat Gan) in the Israeli league last week. Ramat Gan were last in the Israeli league when Forbes joined, but Forbes scored 28 points in his first and only game for them so far to lead them to a victory over Ironi Nahariya. And now Ironi Nahariya are in last place.
28 year old ex-NBA player Alton Ford was in the D-League last year after being out of the game between November 2005 and December 2007. He wasn't great there, averaging 10/7/4 for two different teams, where the "4" represents his fouls per game. Ford didn't start this year with anyone, but last month he caught on with Bourg in the French second division. (I don't like Star Trek, so no jokes here.) In 4 games, Ford has totalled 13 points, 13 rebounds, 11 fouls and 1 block.
Ford started the season in Russia, averaging 7.8 points and 6.0 rebounds in 24 minutes per game for Spartak St Petersburg. He left in November (i.e. before the team fell to 1-11 and last place), and signed in January with Carife Ferrara in SerieA. There, Ford averages 11.6 points and 7.2 rebounds in 25 minutes per game. He had 0 blocks in 92 minutes in Russia; he has 15 in 126 minutes in Italy.
Ex-Celtic and Sonic guard Forte averaged 24.5 points per game for Bologna to begin last season, yet they let him go anyway. He then moved to Snaidero Udine (another SerieA team), where he averaged a further 12.0ppg, 3.4rpg, 3.5apg and 2.4spg, but Udine got relegated and Forte was let go at the season's end. Like Udine, Forte now finds himself in LegaDue, averaging 21.1 points and 4.0 assists for Edimes Pavia.
Note; even though LegaDue is a second division, it's still a better league than some country's first divisions. LegaDue, for example, is a better standard of play than the Belgian league, and roughly comparable with the French league. Just a barometer for you there.
Danny Fortson last played in the NBA in 2007, where he racked up 40 points, 43 rebounds and 38 fouls in 14 games for the Sonics. He did not play anywhere after that. Fortson now lives in Newport, Ohio, where he apparently enjoys an active nightlife.
There exists a Facebook group by the slightly un-PC name of "Danny Fortson is the shit". On it is this rather worrying wall post:
Shan Foster is signed in Turkey with Kepez Bld Antalya. He's averaging 9.1 points and 2.9 rebounds per game, shooting three 3's for every free throw, and with more threes than twos. He hasn't expanded his game, although he also hasn't lost his jumpshot, shooting 39% from three point range.
Foster is back in America receiving treatment for an injury. He could be seen in the crowd at the Vanderbilt-Tennessee game last month, sporting gold face paint. Nice of him to play along.
Despite the spelling, Shan is pronounce Shane. The same is not true of Sham, though.
Minor league journeyman Tremaine Fowlkes last played with the Fresno Rebels in late 2008. The Fresno Rebels were an ABA team, so you know without even looking that they no longer exist. (Sad, but true. They merged with the Washington Raptors after only three months, and are now known as only that.) I'm not sure what he does now, but unless there's two guys in California with that name, this might be him.
Fowlkes has more NBA rings than the rest of this list combined.
Fotsis is with Panathinaikos for his second straight season and seventh in total. On the stacked defending Euroleague champions roster, he is averaging 6.5 points and 5.4 rebounds in 24 minutes per game in the Euroleague, alongside 6.5 points and 4.8 rebounds in 20 minutes per game in the Greek league. He also still holds the Euroleague record for rebounds in a single game with 24.
Fotsis didn't work out in his one NBA season - by which I mean, it didn't go too well, and not that he refused to practice - but he's nonetheless a straight baller.
Another straight baller is Richie Frahm, who has not lost his jumpshot any in his 30's. Frahm is in Turkey, signed with Mersin to be the shooting specialist that replaces Chris Lofton. It was an unenviable task considering how freaking amazingly well Lofton shot the ball for Mersin last year - including hitting 17 threes in a single game - but Frahm gave it a go. On the season, Frahm averaged 8.4 points and 3.7 rebounds in 7 games; however, he was released last month in favour of Vincent Grier. And Vincent Grier can't shoot.
Francis last played in the NBA in December 2007. After Portland waived him immediately after acquiring him in the Zach Randolph deal - they decided they would rather have paid Steve $28 million to go away than to have Zach Randolph - Francis signed a two year deal for slightly over $5 million with the Houston Rockets. He played in only 10 games for the team, however, and shot only 33%. He was then salary dumped onto Memphis partway through his second season (in turn gaining Memphis the pick later used to draft Sam Young), and was waived, ne'er to return. The last reports come from last summer, which said that Francis was working hard at the IMG Academy, trying to get right for one last go around. But the athletic skills have gone, leaving Francis having to rely on smarts and skills. And, harsh as it sounds, he never had a lot of those.
Former Illinois guard Chester Frazier has not yet begun the coaching career believed to be inevitable, and is instead proceeding with a professional playing career. Playing for Goettingen in Germany, Frazier averages 5.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 21 minutes per game in the German league (shooting 33% from three point range and 53% from the line), alongside 3.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 24 minutes per game in the EuroChallenge (shooting 11% from three point range and 88% from the foul line).
In other former Illinois player news, Trent Meacham is averaging 15.3 points per game in the Austrian league, Calvin Brock is averaging 15.5/6.8/3.4 in the German second division, and Brian Randle averages 12.6 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game in Israel.
And in current Illinois player news, Demetri McCamey has really figured it out, hasn't he? Could be a late second rounder now.
- Gerald Fitch was unsigned until very recently, as he joined the Turkish team Kepez BLD Antalya only last week. Antalya are currently second to last in the Turkish league, and Fitch arrives as the replacement for leading scorer and former Magic training camp invitee, Torell Martin, who retired to run a country pub in the southernmost corner of Wales. (OK, no he didn't. But he did leave.) Fitch has not yet played a game for his new team, and I'll be sure not to tell you when he does.
- D'Or Fischer is with Maccabi Tel-Aviv in Israel, a rare and special boast for any big man to be making, given the extremely high turnover of big men that Maccabi have had this year. Also currently with Maccabi is one of my favourite players of all time, Marcus Fizer, who has just recently returned from a year long absence due to a knee injury. I don not really know why I like Marcus Fizer so much, so please do not ask. It denies all rational reasoning, but it is what it is, and there it is. Fischer averages 9.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 2.0 blocks in Israeli league play, along with 12.6 points, 7.8 1.5 assists and 1.6 blocks in Euroleague play. Fizer has totalled 13 points and 5 rebounds in the three games of his comeback.
- Gary Forbes was acquired by the Tulsa 66ers from the Sioux Falls Skyforce just a matter of hours ago. Tulsa traded Chris Ellis to get him, he of the recent update. For Sioux Falls, Forbes was the sixth man, and he averaged 16.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists in his time there.
- Alton Ford has also just left his D-League team, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, and has signed with a team in Zhejiang, China. Which Zhejiang team it is, I'm not sure. Ford averaged 9.9 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.4 turnovers and 4.0 fouls in 28 minutes per game for the Vipers, who now have only two players left over 6'5 - Marcus Hubbard and Kurt Looby, former backup at Iowa. Remember things like this the next time you see Courtney Sims's D-League stats.
- Sharrod Ford plays for Virtus Bologna, and averages 10.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in Italian league play. In the EuroChallenge, Ford averaged 12.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.3 blocks.
- Joe Forte is still dislikeable. Starting the year with Fortitudo Bologna (not the same team as Sharrod Ford's Virtus Bologna), Forte totalled 49 points and 7 rebounds in his first two games for Fortitudo, before being released due to general unpopularness. (At least, I think that was it. There was definitely some kind of bust-up. Either way, Qyntel Woods is also on that team, so it wasn't the most functional unit.) Forte later signed with Snaidero Udine, who are currently last in the Italian league first division, despite the presence of both Forte and Rashad Anderson. Forte averages 12.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.7 steals and 3.2 assists through 6 games.
- Danny Fortson is out of the game and out of the headlines. Probably best.
- Shan Foster has forgotten how to shoot, averaging only 9.7 points per game on 31% shooting from the three point line while playing for Eldo Caserta in Italy. Shan Foster wihout his jumpshot isn't much of a player, so I'm assuming and hoping that he'll find it again.
- Former GrizzlyAntonis Fotsis is playing for Panathinaikos back in his native Greece. Fotsis averages 7.8 points and 4.2 rebounds in Greek league play as the backup to the other former Grizzly Mike Batiste, former Maryland star Andrew Nicholas, and Dimitris Diamantidis, and there's no shame in coming off of the bench behind those three.
- Tremaine Fowlkes signed in the ABA, but left during preseason. I hope it's not because he wasn't good enough. That would be bad.
- Finally, and most spectacularly, former Warriors guard Luis Flores is another one playing in Israeli, averaging 19.2 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists while starting at shooting guard for Hapoel Holon. The other starting guard for Holon is called, and I quote, Lior Lipshits. I am not making this up. No, really. I'm not. I'm really not.
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.
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.
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.
Sham is a miserable and self-effacing little bastard, whose basketball opinions are often riddled with bias, insecurity, and rank immaturity. He has also never played the sport, and the only game he has ever been to see was a Ware Rebels game back in 2001. The night bus didn't show up and he had to walk the 9 miles home. It was after this that his passion for basketball really took off.
He considers himself to be Britain's foremost NBA expert, an arbitrary title that carries with it no basis in fact, or any worldly significance. He also wrote this section of the website in third person narrative, purely for reasons of arrogance.
Copyright ShamSports.com, 2005-2010. Every published word on this website
is copyrighted to the website's owner, including (but not limited to)
the really stupid ones that I wish I'd never written.
- Luis Flores
- Gary Forbes
- Alton Ford
- Sharrod Ford
- Joseph Forte
- Danny Fortson
- Shan Foster
- Sweatier Menfolk
- Antonis Fotsis
- Richie Frahm
- Steve Francis
- Chester Frazier
