Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 26

March 13th, 2010

In the previous post I talked about Hawks draft pick Sergiy Gladyr, but did so while omitting a potentially interesting/amusing piece of information. Gladyr has not played since Valentine’s Day, when he left a game against Meridiano after only nine minutes with an injury and never returned. The injury is a broken hand, one which Gladyr suffered by punching an advertising hoarding. Maybe he was feeling a little unloved that day. I feel your pain, brother.

Additionally, the recent surge of Chinese Basketball Association-related material has brought a variety of feedback, much of it useful, some of it banal, some of it sweet and sincere, some of it rude. With that feedback in mind, here are some points for clarity;

1) Tim Pickett has returned for Shaanxi, and played the last three games. In those three games he has posted 50 points and 8 rebounds, 30 points and 8 rebounds, and 39 points and 8 rebounds. He has continued to shoot really really really ridiculously well from the three-point line, going 14-20 over that three game span. But Shaanxi have lost all three games anyway.

2) A number of people pointed out that Bayi are the team affiliated with the Chinese army, which is why they have no import players. I didn’t mention this because I thought it was no longer the case. I knew it used to be, hence all that furore with Wang Zhizhi a few years ago, but I thought they’d moved on from that. At the very least, they had changed the name. But I guess not.

3) No, I didn’t actually think Ding Jinhui the snooker player and Ding Jinhui the Zhejiang Cyclones big man were the same person. And no, I didn’t actually think Li Xiaoxu the Liaoning centre and Ling Xiaoyu the fictional tiny female Tekken schoolgirl were the same person. These may have been jokes. They were not good ones, but they are least were ones.

4) Mengke Bateer does not average 25 ppg, contrary to other published media. The Coconut Killer averages 13.4 points, 9.5 rebounds and 4.1 assists.

5) The amount of minutes that foreign players can play combined in a game has increased during the season from 60 to 72.

6) As for how much import players get paid, read this.

And now for some random people.

 

– Mike Green

Regular summer league starlet and Butler graduate Mike Green is in Belgium, stuffing the stat sheet in that way that he does. He is averaging 15.3 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.0 steals for Liege, the current Belgian league leaders. The points rank sixth in the league, the assists fourth, and the steals also sixth. Green is shooting only 25% from three-point range, but everything else is all there.

 

– Taurean Green

Despite rumours of their impending bankruptcy in the summer, AEK Athens managed to sign Taurean Green this summer. And despite the alarming regularity with which American players leave Greece midseason, Green is still there, as are Torin Francis and Lamont Mack. AEK must have found some cash from somewhere. On the season Green is averaging 33.3 minutes, 15.4 points and 3.7 assists per game, all team highs.

 

– Orien Greene

After spending last year in Holland, Orien Greene has returned to America and is playing for the Utah Flash of the D-League. His numbers there are very Orien Greene like; 15.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.7 steals and 4.1 turnovers per game. Utah run a three point guard line-up with Greene, Gabe Pruitt and Kevin Kruger (it used to be a four point guard line-up until Dontell Jefferson got injured) and yet even with all that help with running the offence and bringing the ball up – two things Greene was never that good at – he still can’t stop turning the ball over. Greene has 36 turnovers in his last six games, and that comes as a starting shooting guard. It’s tough to explain. But the other numbers are high.

 

– Lynn Greer

Lynn Greer left Olympiacos in the summer as a part of their rebuilding plan, and moved to Turkey to join Fenerbahce. There, he is averaging 12.8 points and 2.2 assists in 20.8 minutes per game in the Turkish league, alongside 11.6 points and 2.0 assists in 21 minutes per game in the EuroLeague.

 

– Vincent Grier

Grier signed with the Washington Wizards for training camp, although since they have more than enough players at 6’5 or below, he had no chance of making the team. After being released, Grier spent a month on the shelf before moving to Turkey to join Mersin, where he replaced Richie Frahm. Frahm is a shooter, and Grier is very much not a shooter, as evidenced by his 59% free throw shooting and no made three-pointers, in accordance with prophecy. Nonetheless, Grier is doing OK, averaging 11.2 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. However, he has not played since February 13th.

 

– Adrian Griffin

Griffin started last season as a member of the Bucks roster, happily reunited with Scott Skiles, the man that loves him more than anything else in the world. However, just before the regular season got underway, the Bucks waived Griffin in order to open up a roster spot with which to claim Justin Frazier off of waivers. Griffin therefore retired as a player and became an assistant coach under his boo. 18 months later, he’s still there.

 

– Rob Griffin

Former Iowa player Rob Griffin has been out of basketball for over a year. He last played for the Minot Skyrockets in the CBA (the American CBA, not China) back in December of 2008. However, neither the Skyrockets nor the CBA exist any more.

 

– Rashard Griffith

1995 Bucks second-round draft pick Rashard Griffith never joined the NBA, even though his draft rights were traded to the Magic for those of Jamal Sampson seven years after he was drafted. Did Orlando think Griffith was going to join them in the summer of 2002? If not, why did they do this trade, since it seems to have had no other component parts?

Griffith’s rights are still owned by the Magic, although that doesn’t mean anything any more. He is into his third season with Ploiesti in Romania, averaging 8.2 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. Ploiesti are a EuroChallenge team, which is why they’re the only Romanian team that you’ve ever heard of. Kevin Burleson also plays there.

 

– Anthony Grundy

After a couple of years in Greece, former Hawks guard Anthony Grundy has moved to Italy to play for Carife Ferrara. He is averaging 18.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.4 steals and 2.2 assists per game, making him the second-leading scorer in Italy. Not a bad effort for a man who turns 31 next month.

 

– Dan Grunfeld

If Ploiesti is the only Romanian team that you’ve ever heard of, then Dan Grunfeld is the only Romanian player that you’ve ever heard of. The Stanford graduate and former Knicks training camper is the son of besieged Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld, and Ernie Grunfeld was born in Romania. Therefore, Dan was eligible for a Romanian passport, one which he received last year in order to enhance his European career. Having it means he counts as a European player now and not as an American, for teams have limits on the numbers of Americans they can have. (Except, seemingly, for Belgium. They either don’t have a limit, or the limit is 158.)

Grunfeld helped C.B. Valladolid earn promotion from the LEB Gold to the ACB last season, and is currently there for his second season. He’s not playing much, however, averaging only 5.5 points and 2.4 rebounds per game.

 

– Tom Gugliotta

Googs last played in 2005 with the Atlanta Hawks, for whom he averaged 7.9 points and 5.5 rebounds in 27 games. He then retired due to the persistent problems he had with his knee, and with the other injuries that led to, such as back complaints. He now plays a lot of golf, and is a member of the Georgia Hole-In-One club.

(Also on that list is a man called Gaylord Hunt. Best name ever? Best name ever.)

Tom Gugliotta is 40 years old. You feel old too now, don’t you?

Finally….

 

– Naked, Athletic

USC graduate Daniel Hackett has taken his Italian passport (born and raised there) and gone to Italy, where he is playing for Benetton Treviso. Benetton haven’t had the best of seasons; they were knocked out of the EuroLeague early and have also been knocked out of the EuroCup, and they rank a mediocre eighth in the Italian league. Hackett is finding it very difficult to score in the Italian league, averaging only 4.8 points in 20.5 minutes per game and with only one double-figure outing in 19 games. He averages an additional 2.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.4 steals per game, yet he also averages 3.1 fouls per game and is shooting 28% from three-point range. As first professional seasons go, Naked Athletic is not scoring too well.