Outlaw last played in the 2007-08 season, when he played two games at the start of the year with the Magic before being waived in November. He now works for the team as a community ambassador.
NBA veteran and Bulgarian national team member Andre Owens (true story about the Bulgaria thing by the way) started the year in Turkey, playing for Turk Telekom. In four EuroCup games, Owens averaged 20 minutes, but only 5 ppg, and his averages in the Turkish league were a similar 21 mpg/7.1 ppg. Owens’s minutes were hardly consistent, and in one game, Turk Telekom coach Meric Cakiroglu turned to him down the stretch of a game in which Telekom were losing a big lead and Owens had not yet played, leading to the awkward spectacle of seeing Owens stretching on the court as an offensive possession unfolded. Not good.
Turk Telekom released Owens after being knocked out of the EuroCup, and he moved to Russia. In six Russian league contests for Lokomotiv Kuban, Owens is averaging 9.3 points per game.
Oral Roberts graduate Larry Owens was a member of the Hornets summer league roster in 2008. He must have done something right, because he earned a repeat viewing in 2009. And he must have done something right there, because he earned a training camp contract with the team this year. After not making the regular season roster, Owens went to the D-League, where he averaged 15.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists in all 50 regular season games for the Tulsa 66ers. The 66ers just swept the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the first round of the D-League playoffs, and Owens averaged a further 16/7 in the process. Not bad for a former Belgian leaguer.
Olumide Oyedeji spent a second year in China, but this year wasn’t as spectacular as the last. He did average 14.1 points and 12.6 rebounds in only 32 minutes per game, which is far from slouchy, but it’s also only about 60% of what he averaged in 2008-09. OO has not yet gone to Puerto Rico this summer, but, based on past form, it could yet happen.
Pack last played in the 2004-05 season with Lithuanian giant Zalgiris, where his most significant contribution was this rather well-placed elbow. He appeared out of the blue on the Raptors training camp roster in 2006, but did not make the team and never played again. In retirement, Pack first became a travel agent, but is now working his way up the coaching ranks, and is currently an assistant with the New Orleans Hornets.
Louisville centre David Padgett is spending his second season in the LEB Gold, this time with U.B. La Palma. He is rebounding better than ever before, grabbing 7.2 rpg in only 24 mpg, but he’s also scoring only 9.2 ppg while fouling 3.4 times. La Palma are exactly middle in the LEB Gold with a .500 record, despite having both Padgett and his former Louisville team mate Juan Palacios, who is averaging 13.4 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.
Scott Padgett’s NBA career ended abruptly after a trade to the Memphis Grizzlies and a subsequent waiving. After, that, he signed in Spain for about two weeks with CB Granada, but this was back in April 2007. Nowadays, along with Tony Delk, Padgett is working with John Calipari at Kentucky as a “coach in training.”
Palacio didn’t catch on with a team until January 2010, when he joined Greek team Kavala/Panorama. In 13 games for the team he has averaged 9.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists. He is shooting 32-67 from two-point range, so he can’t have bottom-rimmed more than three lay-ups per game.
You really ought to know who Theo Papaloukas is. He’s the 6’7 Greek point guard machine. Still with Olympiacos, and currently the second-highest paid player in Europe, Papaloukas is averaging 6.1 points, 3.7 assists and 2.4 assists in 21 minutes per game in the Greek league (as well as 58% shooting), and 7.0/5.2 on 54% shooting in 23 minutes per game in the EuroLeague. If those numbers don’t overwhelm you, then that’s a demonstration of how numbers can lie. And it also doesn’t tell the story of how good the other half of Olympiacos’s point guard tandem, Milos Teodosic, is.
Their third point guard, former Ohio State player Scoonie Penn, has totalled only 22 points and 7 assists in 211 minutes. I realise elite European teams are convinced of the virtues of playing three point guards every night, but may I suggest that it’s not what Olympiacos need right now.
Mexican national team centre Adam Parada has spent the season in Mexico. He averaged 11.6 points and 6.2 rebounds in LNBP play for Halcones Xalapa, who won the LNBP championship this year. Parada was also a part of the stacked Los Angeles Lightning roster last year, who won the IBL championship; needless to say, Adam Parada brings home titles.
Jannero’s brother went to summer league with the Orlando Magic, but failed to get a contract offer. He has since spent the entire year in Israel playing for Galil Gilboa. In 20 games, Pargo has averaged 14.9 points and 4.7 assists per game (tied for sixth in the league), shooting 36% from three-point range and (just about) taking more threes than twos. In that respect, he’s just like Jannero.
Parker is signed in China. See this. His team, Guandong, have made it to the CBA finals, and Parker has been big in the playoffs. He averaged 10.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 4.0 steals in a three-game sweep of Bayi in round one, and then exploded for 31.8 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 4.8 apg and 5.0 spg in the semi-final series against Shanghai that Guandong won 3-1. Smush Parker is leading his team to a title. Much like he did with the Lakers. No, wait, that’s wrong.
The Rockets seem to have an untoward number of draft picks who never play in the NBA, as well as an uncanny knack for accumulating unwanted draft rights from other teams. They currently have nine unsigned draft picks, most in the NBA, and while quite a few of them weren’t their own picks, Newley was. The Australian guard spent his first two years after being drafted in Greece, but moved to Turkey this summer to play for Besiktas. He has averaged 16.1 points and 4.4 rebounds in Turkish league play, while upping his three-point percentage from 32% last year to 43% this year. Newley missed two months of the year due to injury, but it didn’t take him long to pick up from where he left off. In fact, his only single digit outing of the year was in the season opener.
Jared Newson is a kind of small but very athletic swingman out of Tennessee Martin (perhaps more famous for Lester Hudson), who made the Mavericks’ training camp roster in 2007 after a strong summer league performance for them. This is his fourth professional season; he spent two of his first three in Germany, and one in Australia. Martin spent this year in the D-League, split between the Sioux Falls Skyforce and the Bakersfield Jam. Between the two of them, Newson has averaged 23 minutes, 9.2 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, shooting 47% from the field and 30% from three.
Maryland alum Drew Nicholas is playing his second season with Panathinaikos, last year’s EuroLeague champions. Functioning as a shooting specialist, Nicholas is averaging 10.0 points in 19 minutes per game in the Greek league, alongside 10.9 ppg in 27.0 mpg in the EuroLeague. He is shooting 42% from three in the EL, and a scorching 51% from there in the A1. These numbers are strangely close to his 67% and 64% free throw percentages.
After an awkward first couple of years in the NBA, which featured stints with four teams and only 58 total minutes, Nichols tried two more teams this summer. He went to summer league with the Raptors and to training camp with the Pacers, but stuck with neither team. Nichols then went to Azovmash in Ukraine for a tryout, but lost out on a roster spot to Erik Daniels, and then went to France to play for Gravelines. In 18 French league games, he is averaging nearly 6.6 points per game, shooting 32% from three-point range.
Matt Nielsen is an Australian forward who is fouled every trip down the court and who has never made contact with a player in his life. Or so he insists to the refs. He has had a strong career, mainly in his native Australia and in Lithuania, but this year he finds himself in Spain, playing for Valencia. On the season, Nielsen is averaging 9.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in the EuroCup, alongside 8.4 ppg, 4.0 rpg and 2.8 apg in the ACB. He has never been much of a three-point shooter, but he’s taken pretty much every open look he’s had this year; unfortunately, that has resulted in only 29.8% three-point shooting in the ACB (14-47), and 7.7% in the EuroCup (2-26). He’s in to mix it up, with any shooting being a bonus.
Mavericks draft pick Nivins has spent his first professional season in Spain, but it’s been short. Nivins averaged 7.8 points and 4.2 rebounds in Manresa’s first 13 ACB games of the year, but he seriously injured his knee in a game on December 18th and has not played since. Manresa signed 40-year-old Larry Lewis to replace Nivins, but they’ve not had much luck with injuries this year; centre Brian Cusworth missed the first two months of the season, and Hawks draft pick Sergiy Gladyr has only just returned from six weeks out after breaking his hand punching an advertising hoarding. So to be 12th out of 18 teams like they are is ultimately a pretty good effort.
David Noel’s European career has been a bit underwhelming. He has played well during his various stints in the D-League, but he hasn’t found the right gig for him in Europe yet, and has been a fairly ordinary player. In France this year, Noel is averaging 9.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game in the French league for Roanne, as well as 11.0 ppg and 3.7 rpg in the EuroChallenge. It’s not bad, but he hasn’t quite gotten going yet.
Timberwolves draft pick Norel is still with DKV Joventut, even if Ricky Rubio isn’t. He is averaging 5.1 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.7 fouls in 11 minutes per game in the ACB, alongside 4.2 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.7 fouls in 10 minutes per game in the EuroCup. He is still more about running about than skill.
Polish big man Obrzut spent four years deep down the Kentucky bench from 2003 to 2007, averaging 2/1 in his senior season. This somehow led to a training camp contract with the Indiana Pacers in 2007. Not sure of quite how. Obrzut spent the 2007-08 season stuck on D-League benches, and returned to his native Poland for the 2008-09 season, only to be stuck on Sportino Inowroclaw’s bench. This year, Obrzut returned to America to play for an expansion ABA team, the Kentucky Bluegrass Stallions. The Stallions have made it through their first season without folding, which is rare for expansion ABA teams, and Obrzut has been their starting centre all year. Even with that, he has averaged only 8.7 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. But he’s tall.
Olowokandi is a tough one to find. He turned 35 last week and has not played since playing for the Celtics for the minimum in 2006-07. After that, there’s pretty much nothing. The only thing we know is that Olowokandi was in St Louis last month, and we know this because he said so on his official Facebook fan page, a fan page with four times fewer fans than this one. It appears there’s still time to win the competition.
Ostertag retired in 2006, and announced this year that he regretted it. In his time away from the game, Ostertag fished, hunted, played golf and hockey, and found a new love; cake-making. But he missed the game, and attempted a comeback this offseason when he worked out with the Blazers. But it didn’t work out, and now he’s back to doing what he was doing before; the fun things that become available to you when you earn lots of money and don’t piss it all away. It can’t be bad.
Mamadou N’Diaye missed last season with a serious knee injury. This year, he started the season by going for a tryout in Lebanon with Al-Riyadi Beirut, but failed the physical as his knee had not yet recovered. Then in February, the comeback began when Mamadou signed with Maccabi Haifa in Israel. In 72 minutes of six games, he has totalled 23 points, 20 rebounds and 4 blocks.
Former Clipper big man N’Dong is with Barcelona. Splitting time at the centre position with Fran Vazquez, N’Dong is averaging 6.3 points and 3.5 rebounds in 15 minutes per game in the ACB, alongside 8.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in 16.1 minutes per game in the EuroLeague.
You may never have heard of Boniface N’Dong, and the fact that he spent a whole season on an NBA roster as recently as four years ago may have completely passed you by. This is fair enough, because nothing much really happened. But it happened. N’Dong signed a minimum salary deal with the Clippers in time for training camp 2005, made his NBA debut aged 28, and appeared in 22 games with the team. He even started one. Boniface totalled 50 points, 37 rebounds and 23 fouls for the Clippers, and put up a PER of 11.0, before returning to Europe to continue his strong career there.
Boneyface has NBA talent, particularly on the offensive end and on the roll, which isn’t usually the case with fringe NBA-calibre Senegalese big men. And he has a great name. There’s nothing here not to like.
Bostjan Nachbar has not had a very good season. He moved from Dynamo Moscow to Efes Pilsen in the summer, signing a big fat contract and becoming one of Efes’s key targets in a concerted effort to stack up enough talent to compete with the big boys. But it’s not gone well; Efes underperformed relative to expectations in the EuroLeague, and, while they’re currently leading the Turkish league table, it’s not been without a great deal of infighting. Things haven’t been as bad for Nachbar as they have been for Efes’s other big name recruit, Igor Rakocevic – who apparently does not even speak to the coach, and vice versa – but it’s not been good. It was even announced that Nachbar had been released late last month, prompting me to write this, although things were patched up the following day when all parties had a “change of heart.”
Amidst the turmoil, Nachbar has averaged 6.7 points in Efes’s unsuccessful EuroLeague run, and averages 8.8 points and 3.5 rebounds per game in the Turkish league.
Other than the homegrown players, most players play in Puerto Rico during the summer in conjunction with other playing gigs elsewhere during the year. Yet Lee Nailon, who is currently playing in the BSN with the Ponce Lions, has not played elsewhere since playing in Puerto Rico last year, also for the Lions.
Nailon started the year with the Quebradillas Pirates, but was traded to Ponce after three games. I don’t know what Quebradillas received in return for him, but it had better have been a lot, because Nailon is one of the best players in the nation; he averages 19.2 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.0 assists for Ponce, scoring at a Lee Nailon-like rate of 92 points in 160 minutes. Bizarrely, he’s managed to take only three three-pointers and five foul shots in the time it’s taken him to get up 74 two-pointers; then again, this is 19-foot jump shot specialist Lee Nailon we’re talking about here.
Navarro is N’Dong’s team mate at Barcelona. He was at Barcelona from 1997 to 2007, has been at Barcelona from 2008 until the present day, and is under contract to Barcelona for at least three more years. The only time La Bomba wasn’t at Barcelona was when he spent the 2007-08 season with the Memphis Grizzlies in a move which didn’t work out well for either party. Navarro played for a financial loss, was not a whole lot more than a specialist shooter at the NBA level, and returned home to Spain a matter of hours after the end of the Grizzlies’ final game. The protracted contract negotiations behind bringing him over meant it did not start well, a 26-win season meant it did not end well, and the bit in the middle didn’t go too great either. Not least of all when Pau Gasol – Navarro’s friend, national team teammate, and part of the lure of him even going – was traded at midseason. All in all, not a great success.
(The Grizzlies were able to get back the protected pick that they had traded to get Navarro’s rights when they traded Javaris Crittenton to the Wizards at the 2009 trade deadline. In the end, then, they did OK. The trade essentially became half a season of Javaris Crittenton for one season of Juan Carlos Navarro. And I’ll take the latter on that without fear of contradiction.)
Navarro is averaging 15.4 points and 3.3 assists in ACB play this year, as well as 13.9/3.3 in the EuroLeague.
Gary Neal was spending his second season with Benetton Treviso, and was leading Serie A in scoring with a 19.4 points per game average. I say “was” for a reason; Benetton released Neal last week. They did this because two weeks ago, Neal reportedly went out with Armani Jeans Milano guard Alex Acker, and was subsequently too ill to play in Benetton’s next game. Benetton did not take too kindly to a player missing a game for this reason, and they took action. Swift and decisive action. (Neal landed on his feet, signing with Unicaja Malaga in Spain’s ACB a matter of days later. But Acker was waived by Milano later the same week. Was this partly the reason why? Could not say.)
In Neal’s half-baked defence, the game in question was against Martos Napoli. Napoli’s “struggles” this season – if you can call a catastrophic implosion of a sports franchise that – have been well documented on this site before, and if you’re not familiar with them then I implore you to read up on them. Benetton didn’t need Gary Neal to beat Napoli; they didn’t need anybody to beat Napoli. Even without Neal, Benetton won 169 to 29, Napoli’s worst defeat thus far in a season full of history-makingly-awful losses. But that’s hardly the point. Neal was supposedly unprofessional and not able to play, which is not what they were paying him for. The team could have downplayed it so as to not lose arguably their best player. But they didn’t. They took a stand for their virtues. So they cut him.
Michigan State’s very own Drew Neitzel started the year in France, where he averaged 12.6 points and 5.3 assists in 31 minutes per game in the French league for Chalon. He was released after Chalon lost four consecutive games (replaced by former Oklahoma guard Terrell Everett, who now ranks second in the league in assists), and moved to Germany to play for TBB Trier. But Neitzel is struggling in Germany, averaging only 7.2 points and 1.4 assists in 22 minutes per game. He’s also shooting only 10-32 from three-point range. Maybe he should use the other hand. [Neitzel can shoot with both.]
Duke graduate DeMarcus Nelson started his first professional season last year on the Warriors roster, finished it on the Bulls roster, and spend most of the gap in between in the D-League. In that sense, it’s not been entirely unlike the career path of Rob Kurz. (And, hopefully, Anthony Morrow.) Nelson hasn’t been in the NBA this year, however, and has instead been playing for Air Avellino in Serie A. He has averaged 9.7 points and 3.5 rebounds in 24.8 minutes per game, but has shot only 26% from three-point range.
Former Colorado State centre Matt Nelson gets an honourable mention on this list because he’s a one-time Bobcat. How the 7’1 Nelson went from 16/6 in the Mountain West Conference to being on the roster of an NBA team within only a year, when that in-between year featured only a short stay in Russia, is something of a mystery; perhaps it has something to do with where I said 7’1 just now. Either way, since being waived by the Bobcats, Nelson’s career seems to have involved just two stops; the Tulsa 66ers of the D-League (released in 2006 training camp, just after being cut by the Bobcats) and a French team called Toulouges (late 2007).
At the time, Toulouges played in the third tier of French basketball (they now play in the fourth), and when you consider that we don’t even cover the French second division here – and not a whole lot of the first – then you can see how far behind the Bobcats this team was. Worse still, Nelson played only about a month before suffering a season-ending torn patella tendon and not playing again. That was over two years ago now, and Nelson has not played since.
His Myspace page hasn’t been updated much since the Toulouges saga ended, but alludes to Nelson’s return to school to study for his masters. The other entries on that blog talk mainly abut his time in France, and include a bit of everything; game-winning shots, fights, rants, laughs, love, heartbreak, heartwarming stories, stuff about drinking, baseball, breakfasts, urine…, there is, truly, something for everyone there.
Utah State graduate Nelson got a second training camp contract from the Utah Jazz this summer, four years after the first one. After touring Europe with the team, and getting the rare but special opportunity to pass within 100 feet of me, the Jazz released Nelson, and he spent six weeks on the sidelines. A move to Belgium was rumoured, but never came off, and Nelson finally emerged in Greece to play for A1 team Peristeri. However, it’s not been a good season. Nelson has suffered mightily from inconsistent minutes, inconsistent play, and a hell of a lot of fouls. He has averaged 17.9 minutes, 6.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 2.8 fouls per game, scoring efficiently from inside and out, but struggling badly with his fouls. Nelson is no stranger to the A1 league, for he played there last year with Aris and did pretty well. So maybe he’s hurt.
Utah graduate Luke Nevill signed a training camp contract with the Cavaliers this offseason, even though Cleveland knew they weren’t going to carry another big, and even though they knew that three slow 7’2 guys on the roster was probably at least one too many. He then went to the D-League, where, inevitably, he was assigned to the Utah Flash. Nevill had an inconsistent season marred by injuries in the early going, but in the end he finished with solid averages of 24.2 minutes, 11.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game, shooting 54% from the field. However, in 47 games, he never grabbed more than 10 rebounds in any game, which seems unlikely from your 7’2 starter.
Five to ten years ago, Nevill might have gotten a chance in the NBA. He’s an offensively talented 7’2 guy, after all, and you don’t see that often. But the slow plodding post-up player is being phased out for now. Mind you, as evidenced by Spencer Nelson, there’s always the possibility that the Jazz could give a training camp contract to the hometown boy.
Newble fell out of the NBA in the summer of 2008. He spent the 2008-09 season in Israel, averaging 14/6 in a few games for Bnei Hasharon, but finding work this past summer wasn’t as easy. Newble first signed with Greek team Aris, yet the team released him after only a couple of weeks when personal issues kept Newble in America for longer than Aris were willing to wait. Aris had secured Newble a visa, but Newble said he was unable to make a flight the team had arranged for him, and so they signed Mike Kakiouzis instead. They’re more ruthless about things like this in Greece.
After that, he signed in Cyprus with Keravnos, a team he had played for ten years earlier before his NBA career. However, Newble didn’t play there, either; for reasons unknown (due to the almost non-existent nature of Cypriot league basketball coverage), Newble’s stay with the team was very short. He then moved to Spain in January to play for Caceras, a LEB Gold team that Wayne Simien played for last year. But Newble didn’t last long there, either, getting injured in his first game and leaving after only three. (A local Spanish newspaper says that Newble was “cut for lack of personal adjustment.” That’s a bit too voodoo for my liking.) Newble was then reported to have signed for Santurce in Puerto Rico, but he never appeared for the team, and was replaced by Marqis Gainous before the season started. Supposedly, he cancelled the contract to return to America to work out for the Cavaliers.
All told, that’s four teams in eight months, spanning two continents and forty million miles (roughly), at least two of which that he didn’t play for, and possibly only three games played in total. A tough year for Ira Newble.
Mikki Moore isn’t playing right now. He was signed by the Golden State Warriors this offseason to a one-year minimum salary contract, in the same summer that saw them acquire Speedy Claxton and Devean George, which is some inactive list right there. Claxton and Moore have since been waived, and while Denver and Utah both expressed an interest in signing Moore, neither one did. Denver instead decided to sign Brian Butch (in a move that still hasn’t happened yet), and Utah figured they would rather have two open roster spots.
Former Sonics draft pick Patch Morlende isn’t playing right now either, having been out of basketball for the best part of two years. He signed in Russia with Ural Great Perm for the 2008/09 season, but left in preseason without playing a game, and has not been signed since. Morlende has been injured, and his comeback only started to get somewhere in January when he began training with French club Dijon, the club with whom he began his career. Morlende wasn’t under contract with the team, and he never did sign there, but he asked to be allowed to train there to help with his rehab, and the team agreed. Patch is still unsigned, but Lyon were said to be considering signing him as an injury replacement for Ralph Mims, who has broken his finger. However, they signed Mamoutou Diarra this week instead, which probably ends that.
Former Rockets and Magic forward Terence Morris IS playing, and playing a sweet gig at that. Morris is signed with Barcelona, the best team in Europe, after moving there from CSKA Moscow in the summer. He is averaging 6.3 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in the ACB, alongside 7.7 points and 4.1 rebounds in the EuroLeague. He would play more, but Barcelona are too stacked.
One-time Raptor, Pittsburgh’s finest Toree Morris, isn’t playing right now. He spent the 2008/09 season in the D-League, spending time with both the Albuquerque Thunderbirds and Fort Wayne Mad Ants and averaging about 4/3 between the two, but he has not signed anywhere this year. He broke his wrist at one point, which probably factors. Morris is named as an author at this website [website removed], but he doesn’t appear to have written anything. Nor has anyone, really. He turns 28 on Tuesday.
UCLA graduate Brian Morrison isn’t playing anywhere right now, either. He too spent last year in the D-League, splitting it between the Mad Ants and the Austin Toros, averaging 3.7 points and 1.3 assists for the latter. This came after an unexpected training camp contract with the Spurs that summer, one unbecoming of a player who had been left unprotected in the D-League expansion draft about two months earlier. It wasn’t quite the same as signing Curtis Jerrells for camp to guarantee that he gets assigned to the Toros. Morrison did nevertheless get assigned to the Toros, but whereas Curtis Jerrells is a fringe NBA talent, Brian Morrison is a fringe D-League talent. So it was a head-scratcher, but fair play to him.
However, despite making the NBA for two weeks last year, Morrison has not signed anywhere this year.
Zo is definitely not playing right now, and nor will he again. He is now the Vice President of Player Programs and Development, and continues to do work to raise awareness of kidney disease.
Mozgov is still with Khimki, which means he’s been a EuroLeague player. Because of Khimki’s tooling-up for the EuroLeague campaign, he has had to share the centre spot with Robertas Javtokas, and that means backing him up. But Mozgov still produces when he plays, as well he should, because he’s awesome. Mozzy averages 7.3 points and 4.8 rebounds in 18 minutes per game in the Russian league, 13.1/6.0/4.1 in the EuroLeague, and 20.4/10.9/5.5 in the VTB United League. We’ll ignore the foul rates for now.
Spanish international Mumbru moved from Real Madrid to Bilbao this year. He is averaging 13.3 points in the ACB, and 8.6 points in the EuroCup. Here he is doing an impression of Roy Hibbert’s defensive rebounding.
Journeyman Gabe Muoneke has not had an enjoyable year. In fact, it was so not enjoyable that he retired. Gabe’s reason for retiring seem to involve a combination of disenfranchisement with the game, as well as the fact that he could get paid more by using his degree. Fair enough. In this, ostensibly his final season, Muoneke played no games. He briefly went to Poland to play for Energi Czarni Slupsk, but did not appear in any contests. Gabe says he would have signed in France were it not for his former team, ASVEL, badmouthing him.
You may have thought that Lamond Murray had retired. But you’d be wrong. He’s old, but he’s still going.
Murray’s career began to fade in the 2002-03 season, when he missed the entire thing due to a torn foot ligament. I remember this vividly, because I dropped Gilbert Arenas from my fantasy team to pick up Murray just before the season started, only for Murray to miss the whole thing and for Gilbert to break out. (I am noted for the quality of my talent evaluation.) Murray returned to play with the Raptors, but was never the same again, going from a career-high 16.6 points per game in the season before the injury to only 6.0 points in 33 games in the season after it, on 35% shooting. After one more year in Toronto, again averaging 6.0 ppg, Murray signed a one-year minimum salary contract with the Nets for the 2005-06 season. He averaged 3.4 points, scoring 196 on 181 shots, and never played in the NBA again.
After that season ended, Murray returned to his first team, the L.A. Clippers, for training camp. He failed to make the team and sat out most of the rest of the 2006-07 season, but joined up with an IBL team, the Los Angeles Lightning, in the summer of 2007. The IBL is an American minor league that takes place in the summer, and Lamond has played in it for the last three years. He has spent his regular seasons in China (2007 and 2008), the ABA (2007) and Bahrain (this year), and then goes back to Cali for the IBL in the summer.
Dikembe Mutombo retired this offseason, after seeing his career end last year being stretchered off the court with a knee injury. It’s a bad way to go out, but ultimately, it changes nothing; no one’s going to remember it when compared to the rest of Dikembe’s legacy. He now works for the NBA as a global ambassador.
Since his surprising and ultimately irrelevant “comeback” with the Grizzlies in 2007, McKie went back to where he already was; on the Philadelphia 76ers bench as an assistant coach. He did not play for the Grizzlies at any point. Probably best.
Looking to get back into the NBA, Keith McLeod has spent a second season with the Albuquerque Thunderbirds of the D-League. His numbers this year were up across the board from last year; McLeod averaged 21.8 points, 5.6 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game, and even shot 39% from three-point range. However, McLeod shot only 40.0% from the field overall, which suggests he hasn’t mended his lay-ups problem, and also turned it over three times a game. The points per game were nice, but I don’t think 30-year-old 6’2 jump shooters are getting it done.
Despite being on the Utah Jazz roster as recently as 18 months ago, Gerry McNamara has retired from basketball. He did so about a year ago, actually. After leaving the Jazz, McNamara went to the D-League for a bit with the Reno Bighorns, but professional basketball in front of sparse crowds didn’t hold the same lustre that his Syracuse days did. So he retired last April to return to Syracuse as an graduate assistant coach, where he remains today. And that’s fair enough. If he doesn’t want to do it, then why should he?
Marquette star McNeal joined the Kings for summer league after going undrafted, joining up with his former team mate Wesley Matthews. He got to play quite a few minutes with the team, but they were mostly at point guard, and McNeal still isn’t one. He didn’t get a contract offer from the Kings, and although he did go to camp with the Clippers, he lost out on a roster spot to Kareem Rush. After being released, McNeal went to Belgium to play for Dexia Mons-Hainaut, for whom he averaged 15.3 points and 2.4 assists in Belgian league play, alongside 15.5/3.5 in the EuroChallenge. However, he was sent home by the team two weeks ago after testing positive for cannabis, and was released yesterday.
Medvedenko played in only two games in the 2005-06 season with the L.A. Lakers, and appeared in 14 more with the Atlanta Hawks down the stretch of the 2006-07 season. But that’s it. That was his career. Even though Slava turned 31 only this week, he has not played outside of the NBA at any point, and hasn’t played in it for the best part of five years.
The internet does not carry much news about the life and times of Slava since then. But what it does carry is rather surprising. Slava had a minor cameo in a film called – and I quote – “Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!!”, a no doubt classic Carmen Electra comedy for which a trailer can be seen here. If that seems like a mistake, and that IMDB has jumped the gun and assumed that the guy in the film called Slava Medvedenko is THE Slava Medevedenko when it’s actually some other dude of the same name, then fear not, because it really is Slava. Here he is in character.
This appears to be not only the start of Slava’s acting career, but also the end of it. It is Slava’s only listed appearance on IMDB in any show, apart from the 2004 NBA Finals, which were another fine cameo of his but which can’t really be called acting. Nevertheless, if this is the start of Slava’s new career path, quenching Hollywood’s relentless thirst for “Freakishly Tall Men With Foreign Accents”, then I’m all for it.
Meeking was a D-League All-Star last year, and celebrated his appearance by cranking up threes. He then joined the Puerto Rican contingent in the summer, averaging 14.2 points and 6.8 rebounds for Humacao, and has spent this year in the Turkish second division. He is averaging 15.0 points and 8.8 rebounds, shooting 38% on three-pointers, his new favourite toy.
Former Pistons draft pick Mejia is signed in Cholet with France. Teammates there include Mickael Gelabale, Antywane Robinson and upcoming draft prospect Kevin Seraphin. Cholet never got out of their group stage in the EuroCup – a tough group involving Benetton Treviso, Dynamo Moscow and Crvena Zvezda – but they’re right there in second place in the French league, just one game behind Le Mans. Mejia is one of the leaders of that title push, averaging 13.3 points, 3.6 points and 2.6 assists per game.
Cholet’s coach is Erman Kunter. Erman Kunter once scored 153 points in a game. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but even if I have, it’s worth mentioning again.
Wisconsin-River Falls’ finest Rich Melzer spent this year in the Australian NBL, where he averaged 10.9 points and 4.8 rebounds per game for the Skytrans Cairns Taipans. The NBL season has already finished, even if this series of posts has just cracked halfway, and Melzer returned to American to play the last two games of the D-League season with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. In two games he totalled 25 minutes, 11 points and 8 fouls.
England’s finest Pops Three Whales started the year with the Rockets, unable to secure any guaranteed money this offseason despite his strong finish to last season. The Rockets waived him before one of his multiple contract guarantee dates, at which point the Raptors brought him back when they claimed him off of waivers. Pops didn’t survive long there either, though, and was waived before another contract guarantee date. After this, Pops went to European powerhouse CSKA Moscow (in Moscow) to replace Courtney Sims, who had spent only about eight minutes with the team. But Pops has played very little in his three months with CSKA. He is averaging only 11.6 minutes in Russian Superleague play, averaging 8.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.2 fouls in that time. He has also totalled only 65 minutes, 37 points and 12 rebounds in EuroLeague play; 24, 19 and 8 of that came in just one game.
Ron Mercer, a touchy subject to us Bulls fans, did not play after being the Nets’ amnesty clause waivee in August 2005. He was only 29 at the time, yet that was the end of his career. His main contribution to the news after that was being involved in an assault at a strip club in August 2007; after an argument with one of the girls, Mercer’s friend stabbed a bouncer that told them to leave, and Mercer then punched him. (Mercer pleaded guilty and received probation.) At the behest of Kentucky head coach John Calipari, Mercer has signed up to join a program at the university that helps former players complete their degrees, along with Derek Anderson.
Marquette graduate Scott Merritt played in all three of Ukraine, Cyprus and Turkey last year, so it was probably a relief to get one long gig this year. Playing for Tochigi Brex in Japan’s JBL. Merritt is averaging 12.9 points and 8.2 rebounds per game for the team; teammates of his include UCLA’s Alfred Aboya (7.7 points & 4.9 rebounds) and former Suns guard Yuta Tabuse (more on him later). Playing with Yuta Tabuse is a bit like playing with Dwyane Wade, at least in terms of hero worship.
Former Cincinnati forward Pete Mickeal had a few looks in the NBA at the start of the decade, including being drafted at the very end of the 2000 Draft by the Mavericks. But he never quite made it in. There were workouts, summer league gigs and a couple of training camp contracts, but Mickeal never made it into an NBA game.
Not yet, anyway.
Since those days, Mickeal has had a strong European career, the majority of which has been in the ACB. After a couple of years with Tau Ceramica, Mickeal moved to Barcelona this summer, and has been one of the best players on one of the world’s best teams (and probably the best non-NBA in existence). Mickeal is averaging 12.2 points and 5.1 rebounds in the EuroLeague, alongside 10.7 points and 4.0 rebounds in the ACB.
You might look at those stats and not be overwhelmed. But it’s all relative, to the standard of play at which they come, and to the depth of the team on which he plays. The Knicks have already been linked to Mickeal for next year; Pete may be 32, but the NBA is his if he wants it.
The Bulls just waived Jerome James and signed Rob Kurz (or, as Vinny Del Negro will no doubt call him, Rob Kirk.) Goodbye, Jerome.
Chicago traded Larry Hughes to the Knicks last trade deadline in exchange for James, Tim Thomas and Anthony Roberson. Roberson is long gone, and Thomas and James played a combined 0 minutes for the Bulls this season while being paid $11.2 million. So, would they rather have had Larry Hughes instead?
Mihm was a member of both the Lakers and Grizzlies last year, but played only 105 minutes. He played only 279 minutes the year before that, and missed the whole 2006-07 season, all because of his chronic ankle problems. What started out as a sprain turned into four years of torture, a breakdown of which can be found here. And check the date that that was written; despite the feel-good nature of the final stanza, it was nearer to the beginning of the ordeal than the end.
Miles is signed with Aris in Greece, winding up there after failing to make the Hawks’ regular season roster out of training camp. He is averaging 8.4 points and 3.5 assists per game in the EuroCup, alongside 6.8/3.0 in the Greek league. He still can’t shoot from outside, but Aris have enough of that from elsewhere. Just being in the Aris backcourt for the whole year has been quite an achievement in itself, for Aris have turned over quite a bit of their backcourt this year (Matt Walsh in, Juan Dixon out, Ivan Paunic in, Quinton Day out), and have been linked to about 400 other players (Rob Kurz and Vuk Radivojevic being the only two I can remember at the moment, although they’re also currently in talks with Jeremiah Massey). So it’s not been a bad year for Aaron.
Darius has a year like Mihm. He has done nothing. He too was a Grizzly to end last season, the compelling protagonist in that slightly unpleasant scandal that ended with Portland paying luxury tax and signing Andre Miller. He played fairly well for Memphis as a back-up power forward, too. But the team made little effort to bring him back, supposedly due to his bad attitude, and Darius has been remained unsigned all year. (It didn’t help that he got arrested just as the season ended.) He continued to pick up $9 million in salary this year via Portland/the insurance company, so he hasn’t NEEDED to play, but it’s quite the anticlimactic ending from a man whose “comeback” was such big news last season.
Oliver Miller is another one on the comeback trail. His career seemed to have ended in the 2004/05 season, which he split between a couple of ABA teams. He reappeared in late 2006 as player/coach of the short lived Arkansas RiverCatz (it’s cooler if you spell team names wrong), and then nothing came after that. But this season, he reappeared in a different minor league, the PBL. Miller signed in the preseason with the Lawton-Fort Sill Cavalry, a team coached by Micheal Ray Richardson (it’s cooler if you spell your own name wrong), but he was released without playing a game. Miller then went to Puerto Rico to try to get work, but couldn’t, and came home again. He was picked up again by the Cavalry in mid-March when former Utah State forward Shawn Daniels went to play in the Philippines, and Miller has appeared in four games with the team. He has averaged 2.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.2 blocks and 3.0 fouls in 13.8 minutes per game. That’s a very bizarre stat line.
Former Knicks signing Paul Miller is in Russia, playing for Triumph, the team that had Nenad Krstic last year. He is averaging 17.4 minutes, 8.7 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.6 fouls per game in Russian league play. How does a 6’10 guy rebound like a guard? I don’t know. And I don’t want to know. But to compensate, Miller is shooting a scorching 52% from three-point range. He appears to be pretty adamant about how he wants to play; he’s trying to be more like Reggie Miller than Oliver Miller. Oh, and speaking of…..
Since being drafted out of Morehead State by the Kings in 2004, failing to make their summer league roster that year, and a couple of months in the NBDL immediately afterwards, Minard has been in Italy. He played first for Biella, then spent two years with Reggio Emilia, and two more with Montegranaro, before moving to Lottomatica Roma this summer. However, it did not go too well. Roma underperformed both domestically and in the EuroLeague, and so in spite of his EuroLeague averages of 11.2 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, Roma released Minard. He subsequently signed in Russia, ending his Italian streak, and scored 14 points in 13 minutes in his only game so far for Khimki.
The 39th overall pick in the 2004 draft ahead of players such as Chris Duhon or Trevor Ariza, Miralles had spent the last four years with Valencia. But Valencia replaced him with Sergei Lishouk this summer (49th pick in the same draft), so Miralles had to move on, eventually moving to fellow ACB team Lagun Aro Gipuzkoa BC. He is having a better season there, averaging 8.1 points and 5.0 rebounds in 20.8 minutes per game and shooting 55% from the floor. However, he still can’t stop fouling, averaging 3.2 fouls per game.
Former Lakers camp signee Dwayne Mitchell was playing with Israeli team Hapoel Holon until about 96 hours ago. He had averaged 16.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists for the team, on 152 field goals and 110 foul shots. However, he had also averaged 3.7 turnovers per game, hit only eight three-pointers all year as a 6’4 guard, and had picked up a knee injury in their previous game. Not a bad season, all told, but with the same flaws as ever. He gets buckets, at a price.
Moiso was briefly mentioned in the earlier entry for Damir Markota. He has spent the year with Bilbao, getting released at one point but later re-signed, and has averaged 6.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game in the EuroCup.
Jerome Moiso is still Jerome Moiso. Same guy. Capable of most things, yet you’re never quite sure of when he’ll do anything.
Lakers camp signee Monds has spent the year in Greece with Kolossos. He has averaged 5.6 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. Incisive follow-up comment, followed by pithy remark, all drawing to a mildly analytical and hopefully rapturous crescendo.
Former Blazers forward Sergei Monia is back home in Russia, and has been with Dynamo Moscow for four years. Even when Dynamo ran out of money over the summer, Monia stayed with the team, and is a key player in their new Russian-only regime. He is averaging 14.6 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.4 blocks per game in the Superleague, alongside 12.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.3 blocks per game in Dynamo’s short and not especially sweet EuroCup campaign.
Former Miami Ohio guard and Cavs signee Chester “Chet” Mason is spending his second season with Siroki Eronet in Bosnia. Most teams from the former Yugoslavia that we cover – Crveza Zvezda, Hemofarm, Cibona Zagreb, etc – are usually in either the EuroCup or the EuroLeague, and also play in the Adriatic League. The Adriatic League is one of the strongest in the world for this reason. Yet Siroki are in none of them, nor are they in the EuroChallenge. It’s pure Bosnian league for them. Mason is averaging 13.5 points, 8.1 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.4 steals per game, and three weeks ago he posted the David Lee-like stat line of 27 points, 18 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 steals. Not bad for 6’5.
Mason started the year with the Kings. Despite already having Kevin Martin, Francisco Garcia (neither of whom were injured at the time), Tyreke Evans, Donte Greene, Andres Nocioni and Omri Casspi all available to play at the two and/or three spots, the Kings felt they needed another wing option and brought in Mason for training camp. Even though he didn’t really show much in preseason, Mason made the team, and he then bizarrely started five games to begin the year. The experiment quickly ended after Mason put up a 6.2 PER, and Mason was waived. He has remained unsigned since; proposed links to a couple of different ACB teams never came off.
Tony Massenburg is 42 years old and has not played since summer 2008, but this does not necessarily mean he is retired. He is Tony Massenburg, after all, the man who signed with the Washington Wizards aged 40 in an unashamed pursuit of the “most NBA teams ever played for” record that he currently jointly holds with Jim Jackson and Chucky Brown. Massenburg last played in summer 2008 in Puerto Rico, yet spoke as recently as June of his desire to play in Europe.
Massey was a member of Real Madrid last season, but with the arrival of Ettore Messina came a new era, and Massey was not retained. In fact, pretty much no one was retained; the only four current Real Madrid players who were there this time last year are Felipe Reyes, Louis Bullock, Sergio Llull and Tomas Van Der Spiegel, the latter of whom barely plays. Maybe they turned over too much, because they’re losing to Barcelona in all competitions right now.
It took a strangely long time for Real Madrid and Massey to finalise a settlement of the contract, and Massey didn’t find a new team until late February. But he did eventually join Xacobeo Blusens, who are currently second-last in the ACB with an 8-20 record. Massey played six games with the team and averaged 14.0 points and 5.7 rebounds; however, he was subbed out early from their last game on Monday night – a 40 point loss to Bilbao – and was then suspended by the team. An early report that I cited in an earlier post said that Massey was suspended for “threatening behaviour”, but this turned out to be a mistranslation. Supposedly, he was actually released to his attitude. Whatever that attitude consisted of, it must have been pretty severe for a team in a desperate relegation struggle to release one of their better players so close to the season’s end. They have moved fast in already replacing him with Paul Davis, and rumours continue to circle surrounding a potential Stephon Marbury signing, but regardless of both of those things, Xacobeo are still in trouble.
Speaking of Stephon Marbury, the following clip is of him scoring 9 points in 35 seconds in the CBA All Star Game.
Former Virginia Tech forward and Raptors signee Bryant Matthews has spent the year in Cyprus, playing with Pizza Express Primetel Apollon. There are no statistics available for Cyprus league basketball.
Timberwolves draft pick Luke Maverick was bought by Olympiacos from Maroussi this summer, as Olympiacos sought to meet their quota of Greek nationals. (He was born in the Czech Republic, but has represented Greece at junior levels.) Mav doesn’t play much for Oly, playing only 124 EuroLeague minutes all season and usually appearing in A1 games only after the rout is on (which is quite often), but he’s scored well in his limited time. Mavrokefalidis averages 6.2 points and 2.6 rebounds in 10 mpg in the EuroLeague, alongside 7.7 and 2.6 in 13 minutes per game in the Greek league. But he also has 61 total fouls in 331 total minutes, a foul every 5.4 minutes, or 6.6 fouls per 36 minutes. Not ideal.
Captain Slows started the year in China, and was one of the best players there. In 16 games for Beijing, Mays averaged 26.0 points, 13.2 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 1.9 assists per game, shooting 58% from two-point range, 44% from three-point range (with more than two makes per game) and 58% from the line. However, he was only with the team for a month before being released in late January for reasons I am not aware of. Since then, Mays has gone from being one of the best players in China to being one of the best players in Puerto Rico, averaging 17.7 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.1 blocks per game for Humacao.
After going undrafted because of his skin pigment, McAlarney went to summer league with the L.A. Clippers, where his jump shot was not enough to convince Mike Dunleavy to stop being racist. With no training camp contract forthcoming, McAlarney was unable to cope with the bigotry he faced in America any more, and he moved to Israel to play for Ironi Nahariya. However, Kyle soon found that he pined for the prejudice he had back home in America, and returned to those shores to play in the D-League. In 43 games split between Fort Wayne and Springfield, McAlarney has averaged 10.8 points and 4.0 assists, numbers which would EASILY get him into the NBA if it wasn’t for the fact that he was white. Or something.
If you’re unaware of the reason for all this stupid racial talk, you should know that Kyle started it. This video used to be a lot longer, but ESPN cut it down after the controversy it caused. Just know that after the current ending of the clip came the message (not an inference, but an outright statement) from McAlarney himself that he felt his race was everything to do with the fact that he wasn’t in the NBA. Mike Dunleavy countered that while McAlarney’s shot was nice, they didn’t keep him around because they didn’t think he could guard anybody, yet McAlarney was not pacified. He thought it was a racial thing.
And that’s just not the case, Kyle. You’re good, but not good enough. You’re a nice D-League player, which is why you fit where you are. Your shot is nice, but the NBA needs a lot more, and you don’t have a lot more. Race does not enter into it. If the common belief surrounding your play is that you’re an undersized and not particularly athletic jump-shooting specialist with mediocre point guard skills, that’s not because of racial stereotyping; that’s because that’s who you are. There’s no need for the racism angle.
(If Kyle McAlarney makes the NBA without significantly adding to his currently defined yet limited skillset, could somebody not make an argument for racism the other way?)
McCants went unsigned this summer and has remained so ever since. It was reported that the Rockets had signed him for training camp, and they had intended to, but McCants failed his physical and it never happened. That was back in October, and there has been no news to report since then.
One-time Nugget and former Miss USA Kelly McCarty is now a Russian international playing in Russia. McCarty is playing his fourth consecutive season with Khimki, and even aged 34 he is a quality EuroLeague performer, averaging 14.2 points and 4.4 rebounds and shooting 43% from three-point range there. He averages a further 13/6 in the Russian league, alongside 11/6 in the VTB United League. Not bad.
McCarty’s NBA career started and ended back in 1999, and lasted all of two games. He put up a PER of 31.7 in that time. Also not bad.
Walter McCarty’s last stint in the NBA came with the 2005-06 Clippers, where he didn’t do much. Since then, he has worked his way up through the coaching ranks, and he’s now an assistant coach to restaurant fanatic Rick Pitino at Louisville.
A-Mac has been doing the D-Lang tour for a while now, and this year’s installment of it saw him wind up in South Korea to play for Inchon Black Slamer. (If that’s not a sex toy, I’ll be shocked.) In 27 minutes of 48 games, the 36-year-old McCaskill has averaged 11.9 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, shooting 57% from the field and 73% from the line.
NC State graduate B-Mac went to summer league with the L.A. Lakers, where he duly impressed all watchers who didn’t know he could make shots. He averaged 11.8 points and 7.6 rebounds, yet did not sufficiently impress with his defence (there’s something about being an under-athletic 6’9 that doesn’t wash in the NBA). So he went to France, where no one plays any defence anyway. For Strasbourg, McCauley has averaged 10.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.4 steals in 22 minutes per game in the French league.
Spurs draft pick J-Mac signed with the team for all of nine days, and managed the rare achievement of being waived before training camp even started. This happened because McClinton asked for it to; knowing he wasn’t going to make the Spurs roster, and sensing that a Malik Hairston or Marcus Williams-like ferrying between the Spurs roster and the Austin Toros roster was probably not going to benefit him much, McClinton asked out of his deal to pursue other opportunities. The Spurs granted him that wish and McClinton instead went to camp with the Minnesota Timberwolves. However, he didn’t make that roster either, losing out on a roster spot to Jason Hart.
McClinton then went to Turkey to play for Aliaga Petkim. In 25 games there, he has averaged 16.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game, but has not shot well in doing so. McClinton is shooting 42% from two-point range and 31% from three-point range, which wouldn’t be too bad if he didn’t take eight threes a game, more than he does twos. His 400 total points have come on 377 shots, which is not great, and while he’s shooting 86% from the free throw line, he only gets there three times a game. McClinton’s shooting hasn’t been this bad all year, but after a 5-10 three-point shooting performance on February 27th, he has since shot 11-47 from there, in only six games, while playing nearly every minute. Not a good month. McClinton’s effectiveness is based on how well he shoots.
Maryland graduate and former Bucks guard C-Mac hasn’t had a great couple of years, being a bench player in Belgium in 2007-08 and posting a sedate 13 ppg in the Italian second division last year. This year, he came home to America to play in the D-League, and was acquired by the Sioux Falls Skyforce. In 36 games with the team, McCray averaged 28 minutes, yet only 8.5 points, alongside 3.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists, shooting 40% from the field and 28% from three. His assist to turnover ratio was near 3:1, and he also averaged 1.6 steals per game, so the defence is still there. But the offence hasn’t caught up.
Winthrop graduate and former Wizards signee T-Mac started the season in Israel, playing for Ramat Gan. He averaged 13.4 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.1 steals in 24 minutes per game, before leaving the team to go and try out for VEF Riga in Latvia. He was later signed for the remainder of the season by Riga, and has averaged 18.9 points and 6.9 rebounds in the Baltic League. Latvian basketball as described by a Briton. My mum’s quite proud, I think.
Dub-Mac is the same place he always is – Spain. He was announced as being a member of the Milwaukee Bucks’ summer league team this past year, which was an unexpected occurrence for a 30-year-old in the midst of a strong European career, but in the end he never played for the team anyway. McDonald then moved from Tau Ceramica (now Caja Laboral) to return to his former team Gran Canaria, for whom he averages 8.6 points and 4.0 rebounds in ACB play, alongside 11.1 points and 4.7 rebounds in the EuroCup.
Scoot-Mac started the year in France to play for Brest. (French people do know that this is a funny place name, don’t they?) Brest only play in the French second division, yet McFadgon was released before the season started (apparently due to injury) and returned to the D-League, drafted as a member of the expansion Maine Red Claws. He was waived in late November before the season began, and moved to Argentina to play for Quilmes Mar del Plata. In 26 Argentinian league games, Scooter has averaged 10.8 points in 24 minutes per game.
Former Nuggets and Sixers forward I-Mac is currently signed in a league that no one I’ve ever heard of has signed in before. He started the year in Poland and averaged only 3.0 points and 2.1 rebounds per game for SKK Kotwica Kolobrzeg – which begs the question, how are the different tiles valued in Polish Scrabble? – but he now plays for the Bendigo Braves in Australia.
Australia has attracted and produced many good players over the years, and as such has been covered on here quite a lot, but those players all played in or came from the NBL, the premier Australian league full of teams you’ve heard of like the New Zealand Breakers or Adelaide 36ers. The Bendigo Braves are not in the NBL. They’re instead in what’s called the ABA (Australian Basketball Association). The ABA plays its schedule in the summertime – or, as Australians call it, “winter” – and not unlike the American ABA, it has many conferences (six, or five if you count the SEABL’s East and Central as just one) and a load of teams (57), with the Braves playing in the SEABL, regarded as the strongest conference within the ABA. That being said, the whole ABA is still the second-tier Australian league beneath the NBL, and the NBL itself isn’t too strong these days either.
T-Mac is still with Italian powerhouse Montepaschi Siena, now into his fourth season with the team. He is averaging 10.6 points and 4.1 assists per game in Serie A, alongside 12.5 points and 5.1 assists in Siena’s now-concluded EuroLeague campaign. Siena lead Serie A with a 23-1 record after going 29-1 last year, and have retained much the same core in doing so. McIntyre, Romain Sato, Shawn Stonerook, Ben Eze and Kristof Lavrinovic are the core that’s been together for a while now; the most significant change this offseason was letting Rimantas Kaukenas leave for Real Madrid and signing David Hawkins in his place. However, Siena have a lot of contracts expiring this summer, and their budget is going to shrink at exactly the wrong moment. This might be the year the core breaks up. I am told that McIntyre is one of those whose contracts are due to expire, so this might be his last year with the team.
Ibrahim Jaaber is apparently said to have already agreed a deal with Siena for next year, which would support that.
Former McNeese State guard Demond Mallet is playing with Turk Telekom Ankara. He averaged 12.3 points and 3.2 assists per game in their EuroCup campaign, and averages 10.2 points and 3.2 assists per game in the Turkish league. He does this while taking two three-pointers for every one two-pointer, and yet shoots them at a relatively sedate 35.6%. When he’s hot, he’s hot. When he’s not, he’s not. This is the level of analysis you come here for, no doubt.
Demond Mallet is Shaq’s cousin. They play differently.
Jackie Manuel is much the same player that he ever was; a good-sized strong defensive-specialist perimeter player with sedate offence. He’s scoring more than usual this year, averaging 13.9 points per game in 44 contests for the Erie BayHawks of the D-League, but he’s played a whopping 42 mpg to do so. He is also shooting only 29% from three-point range, 44% from the field, and 62% from the line. If Manuel was two inches taller, better at rebounding in traffic, and had the lure of being a foreigner, someone might think he was the next Thabo Sefolosha. But, now aged 27, a growth spurt doesn’t seem too likely.
Marbury was the best player in China this year. I know, I didn’t believe it either. Shanxi’s season has already ended, and Marbury is now a free agent again. The ACB team Xacobeo Blusens have been rumoured as pursuing him all week; it certainly has helped fuel the story that Xacobeo suspended American forward Jeremiah Massey earlier this for “threatening behaviour” (whatever that involves). However, the latest word is that the Marbury talks have broken down. And it also probably doesn’t help that Xacobeo yesterday completed the acquisition of former NBA forward Paul Davis.
Former Nebraska centre Aleks Maric is Australian, despite the name. He is playing for Partizan Belgrade, a Serbian team that has had a Cinderella-like run in the EuroLeague this year, one that still hasn’t ended. Partizan are currently set to play in the EuroLeague semi-finals against Olympiacos next month, and Maric is the reason why. He has broken out this year to average 14.4 points and 8.6 rebounds in only 24 minutes per game in the EuroLeague, alongside 23.4/11.6/7.5 in the Adriatic League. He is tenth overall in the EuroLeague in points per game and second in rebounds; somehow, despite being slower than a Stephen Hawking freestyle, Maric has emerged as one of the best players not in the NBA.
Partizan owe much of their run this year to him. And it’s probably going to be more than they’re able to pay next year.
Former Bucks forward Damir Markota is with Bizkaia Bilbao in Spain. Like Serhiy Lishchuk in the previous entry, it is instantly clear both why Markota went to the NBA, and why he left it.
On some days, Markota is everywhere; driving the ball, fighting on the glass, passing well and spotting up for jump shots, even occasionally capable of playing frustration defence on both the perimeter and interior with his combination of size and speed. And on others, he just can’t be doing with any of that, save for the jump shots bit. He’s good enough to be desirable, but not good enough to coast.
Markota’s minutes are tailored accordingly. Bilbao are a deep team who have underperformed domestically, and inconsistent minutes affect many players on the team, but it’s particularly true of Markota. In his 16 EuroCup games this year, Markota’s minutes per game have read 21, 19, 24, 26, 5, 32, 20, 41, 1, 4, 23, 25, 5, 14, 19 and 7. He has only one double-figure output in that time, a 27-point 7-rebound outburst against Mallet’s Turk Telekom. Overall, Markota is averaging 5.3 points and 3.2 rebounds per game in the EuroCup, alongside 4.8 points and 3.6 rebounds per game in the ACB. The numbers belie his talent.
Also on that Bilbao team is former UCLA and Celtics big man, Jerome Moiso, whose whole career has been plagued by the same problems with consistency and apathy. You can see what Bilbao did there; by acquiring both, they’ve hedged their bets. If only one of the two brings it on any night, they can just play that guy next to Marko Banic and have a strong front court. I’m pretty sure that this strategy of signing multiple apathetic talents is riddled with the stench of genius. It’s killing one stone with two birds.
Hemofarm product Markovic is still with the team that brought him into the professional basketball world, albeit maybe not for much longer. He averaged 8.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 2.2 steals in Hemofarm’s unusually-short EuroCup campaign, alongside 9.2/4.0/4.8/1.5 in the Adriatic League. Rumours abound, however, that Markovic has agreed to sign with Benetton Treviso for next season. It makes sense; Benetton need a guard after the underwhelming performances of Daniel Hackett and the release of Gary Neal, and Markovic’s ability has (presumably) outgrown Hemofarm’s budget.
Of course, Markovic may yet be drafted. And that might change things.
Marshall did not play this year, after spending last year with the Philadelphia 76ers. He appears to have quietly lapsed into unofficial retirement, as he now works with the Sixers as a post-game analyst for Comcast SportsNet.
Rawle Marshall started the season with Valencia, but the coach didn’t like him, and nor did he play all that well. He was released after three poor EuroCup performances, and was replaced by Thomas Kelati. This didn’t really hold Marshall back, though, for he quickly caught on with EuroLeague team ASVEL Villeurbanne. There, he turned it around; Marshall averaged 11.5 points and 3.8 rebounds in ASVEL’s EuroLeague campaign, and averages 8.7 points and 2.6 rebounds per game in the French league.
You may know of ASVEL as being the team Tony Parker part-owns. Part of the reason for that may be that his less successful basketball playing brother, former Northwestern guard T.J. Parker, is on the ASVEL roster. One brother paying another brother’s wages? I don’t think I could handle that. Not unless I was the rich brother.
Murray is currently the Assistant Director of Player Development within the complicated Minnesota Timberwolves front office hierarchy. He had unofficially retired at the end of the 2007-08 season, yet reappeared as a player on the stacked Los Angeles Lightning IBL team in the summer of 2009. But it wasn’t a comeback; it was just for fun.
Winthrop graduate and former Magic camp signee Martin is playing in Germany for Bremerhaven, one of the other eight Americans mentioned in the earlier Kevin Lyde entry. He is averaging 11.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, while shooting 43% from three-point range. Martin is an athletic 6’5, and he both rebounds and shoots the three well. But now is the time for him to learn how to better dribble in traffic.
Mashburn played in only 19 games in the 2003-04 season, then missed all of the 2004-05 and 2005-06 campaigns. The Hornets traded him to the Sixers in that time despite his injury, which must have been quite the indignity, and Philly eventually waived him in February 2006. Mashburn now works as a TV analyst for ESPN, something that he’s very good at, choosing not to try to force a personality onto the viewers like so many of his peers and being entirely inoffensive in his speech. He also co-owns Ol’ Memorial Stables – formerly known as Celtic Pride Stables – alongside Rick Pitino and some other people.
D-League stalwart Lewis finally left there this summer after nearly three years, and moved to France to play for Roanne. He has averaged 8.6 points and 3.9 rebounds in 17 minutes per game in the EuroChallenge, and 8.7 points and 3.6 rebounds in 15 minutes per game in the French league. Considering that scoring rate, maybe he should play more.
Former Minnesota Gopher and Minnesota Timberwolves swingman Quincy Lewis is retired. He was playing as recently as last year, playing in the EuroCup with Bilbao, and while he averaged only 5.4 points and 2.5 rebounds per game, it was at a good standard of basketball and on a deep team. Nevertheless, Lewis retired aged only 32, and became a volunteer assistant coach at DeLaSalle High School. He also majored in Sports Management back in 2007, and is now the CEO of 20/20 Sports Management.
Lewis is playing his second season with Nymburk, a Czech Republic team. No one signs in the Czech Republic unless they have good reason, and Lewis does; Nymburk were in the EuroCup, and made it as far as the quarter finals before losing to Bilbao. Lewis averaged 11.7 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists in that campaign, alongside 12.5 points and 2.6 rebounds in the Czech Republic league. It was my very great pleasure to watch Lewis in several of Nymburk’s EuroCup games, yet it was a greater pleasure to watch Phillip Ricci, Michael Lenzley and Petr Benda. One has no neck, one is British, and one has a surname that is also a perjorative term. Something for everyone there.
Former Grizzlies draft pick Lishouk, whose rights are now owned by the Rockets, is playing in Spain with Valencia. After spending his whole career to date in the Ukraine, including spending the last four years at Azovmash, Lishouk (who is usually known as Serhiy Lishchuk in Europe) moved to Spain to become a part of Valencia’s ever-changing ten-man rotation, and to bolster their EuroCup campaign. He has averaged 8.7 points, 3.1 rebounds, 3.3 fouls and 1.3 blocks per game in that campaign, alongside 7.8/3.3/3.4/0.8 in the ACB.
It is clear to see why Lishouk was drafted, and it is also clear why he didn’t play the NBA. As the numbers above indicate, Lishouk can flat-out block shots, particularly when you consider that those numbers all come in less than 20 minutes per game. He does so at the expense of fouling, but such is the life of a shot-blocker. He’s also a big old boy (the 6’11 232lbs measurements do not do that justice) with a surprisingly good jump shot (shooting 23-62 from three point range on the season, or 37%.) However, Leesh also suffers from the classic shot-blockers curse of bad rebounding, recording fewer rebounds per game than fouls, which just isn’t enough. He’s also very slow, which is part of the fouling problem, and he’s also now 28. Lishouk can score with the jump shot, on the pick-and-roll or through size alone, but he’s a defence-first player who struggles to defend quicker guys. And there’s a lot of quicker guys.
Livingston said he was going to retire after the 2005-06 season, which he spent playing power forward for the Chicago Bulls. (He did genuinely play power forward at one point. Scott Skiles’s four guard line-ups were the stuff of dreams.) But he didn’t, instead cranking out two more years in the D-League, averaging more than 10 assists per game both times, and even getting another NBA contract with the Seattle Supersonics. Livingston did finally retire in 2008 after winning the D-League championship with the Idaho Stampede – although this didn’t stop the Erie BayHawks from picking him in the expansion draft a few months later for no obvious reason – and he became a coach. He started out volunteering with the Jazz during the summer, was quickly as an assistant with the Stampede, and moved last year to the expansion Maine Red Claws to be an assistant there. Livingston has also been completing his degree at the University of Phoenix in his spare time. He is destined to be a head coach some day, and possibly at the NBA level too. Let’s hope he forgets what he saw about four-guard offences.
Sergio Llull was awesome, which is why the Rockets bought the #34 pick from Denver and drafted him ahead of DeJuan Blair. And he still is awesome. Llull is averaging 9.0 points and 2.1 assists in 20 minutes per game in the ACB, alongside 9.5 points and 2.0 assists in 21 minutes per game in the EuroLeague. He is shooting 48% from three in the ACB and 42% from three in the EuroLeague, with 370 total points on 246 total shots, for a true shooting percentage of .673%. And this is as a 6’3 guard. Llull is still neither a point guard nor a shooting guard, but he has a blazing hot jump shot and a Sham-like 76 inch vertical leap. What’s not to like?
Lofton is not having as good of a year this year as he did last year. Then again, having as good of a year as he did last year is basically impossible. Last year in Turkey, Lofton averaged 20.2 points per game, an average boosted in particular by two games. On February 8th 2009, Lofton posted 47 points, 1 rebound and 1 assist, shooting 3-5 from two-point range, 2-2 from the foul line, and 13-20 from three-point range, doing a damn fine Damon-Stoudamire-when-the-Blazers-were-tanking-that-time impression. He bested it a few weeks later on April 25th, when he totalled 61 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 6 steals in a win over Koleji, shooting 4-6 from two-point range, 2-2 from the foul line, and 17-22 from three-point range. If you didn’t know what kind of player Chris Lofton was before this, you can probably tell now.
These performances attracted the attention of the NBA, and Lofton had a stint with the Boston Celtics in summer league this year. He again shot the ball incredibly well, going 15-25 from three-point range in five games, yet he also put up only 3 assists in that time (as a 6’2 guard), and the Celtics passed on signing the next Eddie House. (Perhaps in part because they already had Eddie House.) Lofton then moved to Spain to sign a short-term contract with Caja Laboral, and moved to Estudiantes Madrid after it expired. On the season he is averaging 12.7 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.6 assists, shooting 36% from three-point range. His highest scoring output of the year has been a mere 25. It’s harder in Spain. But the man can shoot.
Logan continues to play in Poland with Asseco Prokom Gdynia, and is also now a member of Polish national team. He is in his second season with the team, and averaging 17.4 points and 4.8 assists in Polish league play. Logan also averaged 15.3 points and 3.4 assists in EuroLeague play, making him one of the EuroLeague’s highest scorers this year. Not bad for a man from Division II University of Indianapolis.
David Logan fact: David Logan wears his headband at an angle that mimics Scott Skiles’s hairline. He seems to believe it is possible for a man to sweat at that angle. It is not. Someone should make a list of players who wear their headband in a stupid way. I’ll start; David Logan, Wayne Chism, Reggie Jackson of Boston College, Bulls-era Eddie Robinson, DeShawn Stevenson….chime in.
Things are not going so well for Cincinnati graduate Steve Logan. Logan has played only once since November 2006, and that was in Venezuela in summer 2008. He didn’t play a regular season game there and left due to injury. Indeed, in that three-and-a-bit years, Logan has only done one thing of note; be arrested for rape. While out of an evening, Logan picked up two women and took them back to his apartment, where he is accused of raping one and indecently fondling the other. Both charges were dismissed and the cases closed back in October, but Logan’s basketball career has not restarted.
Former Iowa centre Kurt Looby exploded onto the scene in the D-League last year. He played little in college, averaging only 3.6 ppg and 4.6 rpg as a fifth-year senior, but he was thrust into a starting role with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, and responded with fine big man numbers: 8.6 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game in only 24.9 mpg. (I deliberately didn’t mention his points.) Looby then averaged 9.4 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game in Puerto Rico, worked out for the Grizzlies, and then went to training camp with the Nuggets. He did not make the team, and nor did he feature in the running during their recent lengthy big man search that included everybody from Aaron Gray to Brian Cook, before finally arriving at Brian Butch. So Looby instead returned to the D-League. He played for three different D-League teams this year – Albuquerque, Rio Grande Valley and Maine – and averaged a combined 5.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 3.3 blocks per game.
St John’s legend Lopez is still playing basketball, even at the age of 35. He is now doing so back in his native Dominican Republic, playing for a team called Gregorio Urbano Gilbert, which sounds more like the forenames of a Three Musketeers tribute act. Statistics are not available due to the absence of significant on the world stage of the Dominican Republic league. But we do know that Lopez averaged 10.4 points and 4.7 rebounds in Argentina last year.
Former Jazz guard Raul Lopez left Spain this summer to go to Russia, where it is considerably less sunny. He and fellow Spanish national team member Carlos Cabezas both moved to Russia to be the two point guard tandem for Khimki, trying to replace (and improve upon) last year’s tandem of Milt Palacio and Anton Ponkrashov. They have done just that; Cabezas has averaged 7.1 points and 3.6 assists per game in the Russian league and 7.3/2.4 in the EuroLeague; Lopez has averaged 4.2/2.5 and 6.3/3.1 respectively.
Erazem’s brother couldn’t get a gig this summer after leaving Benetton Treviso. He eventually made his way to Cajasol Sevilla in the ACB, but it was only on a one-month contract as an injury replacement, and he was not retained upon its expiration. To stay in shape while waiting for a better offer, Lorbek went a long way down the ladder and returned to his former Slovenian team, Helios Domzale, and eventually the better offer came from another ACB team, Lagun Aro. In five games for the team, Lorbek has averaged only 4.0 points and 1.4 rebounds, but it’s a gig.
Domen’s brother is with Barcelona, whose basketball team are almost as much of a juggernaut as their football team. But let’s not talk about their football team. Lorbek is averaging 10.1 points and 4.0 rebounds in the ACB, alongside 8.7 points and 3.9 rebounds for the inevitable EuroLeague champions. He could play in the NBA, but he won’t.
Former Washington State guard Derrick Low moved to Lithuania this year to play for a salary less than that of your average telephone engineer. He did this because the team he is playing for – Siauliai – were a EuroCup team, so it was a good opportunity to get some exposure. Low has had to play full-time point guard for much of the year, as opposed to all the off-ball time he has had in his career thus far, and he’s doing a decent job of masquerading as such. Low averaged 18.5 points and 3.8 assists in Siauliai’s EuroCup campaign, averages a further 14.7 points and 4.4 assists in the Baltic league, and averages 12.8 points and 5.3 assists in the Lithuanian league. The Lithuanian assists tie for third in the league.
He’s also had all that hair cut off. Probably best.
John Lucas’s son John Lucas went to China this year. He started out with a fight, but then quickly started owning. His team, Shanghai, are currently 1-1 against Smush Parker’s Guangdong in the CBA Semi Finals. Lucas had 56 points, 13 rebounds and 8 assists in the series so far.
Tyronn Lue did not play this season, after splitting last year between the Bucks and the Magic. He then retired somewhat unexpectedly aged only 32 to become an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics.
Lue still has a cap hold on the Magic’s payroll. For this cap hold, and for all other applicable ones, view the updated and enhanced salary pages. Player totals are now included, as are team totals for ALL years (which are tabulated in a table on the salary index). And free agent cap holds for both this season and next are included, thus making it easier to calculate cap space and offseason plans. (Draft pick cap holds to follow shortly.)
This website is destined to remain permanently unfinished, but join me in my quest as I keep trying to get there. Keep it loyal.
Lyde, who is synonymous with the Utah Jazz whether Jazz fans like it or not, is in Germany. Playing for Bremerhaven, Lyde averages 8.1 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.3 blocks and 2.7 fouls per game, shooting 57% from the field and 59% from the foul line. The Jazz didn’t sign him this year, but they did inevitably allow him a spot on their summer league roster. That marked their third anniversary together. It’s a beautiful thing.
If you were wondering, Lyde is one of nine Americans on the Bremerhaven roster. That’s just how those guys roll.
Lynch last played in the 2004-05 season, averaging 3.7 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists for the Hornets. They waived him as one of the last cuts in 2005 training camp, even though they owed him $3.2 million from an unnecessary one-year extension that they gave him in 2003. Lynch became administrative assistant and graduate manager at Southern Methodist University in December 2006, and was still there as an assistant coach as of May 2009.
Lyons is signed in Israel with Hapoel Jerusalem. It would have been my very great pleasure to watch him this year, but put simply, Lyons has not been playing. Hapoel have no real centres; their starting big men are Kevinn Pinkney and Brandon Hunter, and the two both play heavy minutes. Their backup big man is Israeli native Uri Kokia, who rebounds a bit but that’s about it, and starting small forward Dijon Thompson leads them in blocks per game with 0.7 per game. Hapoel don’t do shot-blocking, nor centre size, and it’s been this way for a few years. So it is a mystery why they signed Lyons, just for him to be the fourth power forward, rather than to pursue a centre of equal calibre to balance their roster. Lyons has produced in the minutes he has gotten, averaging 7.7 points and 3.5 rebounds in 15 minutes per game in the Israeli league, but his minutes have been unbelievably inconsistent all year. Coach Guy Goodes – an Israeli citizen with the least Israeli name ever – just doesn’t seem to like him. And so it is perhaps not a coincidence that Goodes is now on the hot seat, one reason for which is his refusal to use his bench properly. Poor Leo.
You may have known about Lynch’s former teammate and former Hornets guard Arvydas Macijauskas’s lengthy contract dispute with Olympiacos. The dispute was simple, yet complicated, and hinged on one key issue; whether Macijauskas and Olympiacos had a valid contract or not. Olympiacos said no (they wanted out from the contract without paying him), Macijauskas said yes (he wanted to get paid what he signed for), and it all got ugly. This dispute was finally resolved in a settlement a few months ago, but it hasn’t done much for Macijauskas’s career. He missed all of last year with injury (which is what started the whole shaboodle in the first place) and is still rehabbing today. But at least he is free to roam again.
Lithuanian national team guard and 2007 draft candidate Maciulis left Zalgiris by mutual consent last season when they ran out of money. He thus moved to Italy to play for Armani Jeans Milano, for whom he’s been a bit inconsistent. Maciulis averages 8.1 points and 2.7 rebounds per game in Serie A, alongside 10 points and 3.8 rebounds in their long-since-ended EuroLeague campaign. He has scored in double figures in only three of their last 15 games, yet in the last game scored 26 points. We should probably discount that one, though, as it came in a 110-point rout of Napoli. Good old Napoli.
Tito Maddox still hasn’t played for five and a half years. The last time we had heard from him was in May 2008, in a story about the O.J. Mayo booster scandal; Maddox revealed that he had had surgery for a brain tumour, was living extremely modestly with his wife and children, and gave no direct statement as to whether basketball would be on the cards for him ever again. Nearly one year on, and still no comeback is underway.
The only change between then and now is the amount of time lapsed. Maddox has not been heard from since that Mayo story, he still has not signed elsewhere since leaving Cleveland in 2003, and the internet still does not carry any news of his current whereabouts.
Madsen was traded by the Timberwolves to the Clippers this summer as a part of the Craig Smith/Quentin Richardson deal thing. He then accepted a buyout from L.A, saving them $875,000 in the process, and reconsidered his options. Unsure of whether to continue playing, start a coaching career or go into the media, Madsen eventually chose the middle one, and became an assistant coach for the Utah Flash. I’m going to assume that this gig will not pay him $875,000 this season.
Madsen also made the headlines when it emerged that he had been the victim of domain name fraud. Tough times.
Like Maddox above, another former Fresno State basketball player was laid low to serious illness recently. Former Warriors swingman Renaldo Major had open heart surgery in October 2007 to replace a heart valve that was described as “loose.” The problem was found during a physical Major was taking for Serie A team Cantu, and the recovery from the surgery cost him the whole 2007-08 season. He has since spent two years in the D-League with the Dakota Wizards, and while his numbers have dropped off this year (down to 12.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game), his defence is still there. Major will probably never play in the NBA again, and should start looking for good continental money since he turns 28 next month. But he’s doing all right.
Lampe started the year in Israeli with Maccabi Tel-Aviv, but the version of Maccabi that he had signed with in the summer did not last very long. It didn’t take long before he was allowed to leave, at which point he moved to Russia to play for UNICS Kazan. In the Russian league he is averaging 14.7 points and 6.3 rebounds; in the VTB United league he is averaging 14.5 and 6.0 rebounds; in the EuroCup he averaged 16.9 points and 9.5 rebounds. The idea that Lampe was a combo 3/4 was never right in the first place, but it’s definitely not right now – he’s emerged as a good if inconsistent post player with occasional three-point range. He’s not Dirk, and he was never going to be Dirk. But he does have NBA talent, even if he didn’t exactly shine in the EuroLeague this year.
Lampley spent last year in Qatar, an extension of the Langhi tour that not even Dan himself has yet managed. He played for two teams there, and then auditioned at the KBL Pre-Draft camp back in July. However, he has not played professionally anywhere this season. Lampley was reported to be about to sign with his former Australian team Melbourne Tigers back in November, but never did.
Lampley recently lost his all-time Cal school scoring record to Jerome Randle. No shame in that, because Jerome Randle is pretty awesome. Won’t be drafted, but there aren’t many guys who can win any game single-handedly like he can.
Lang never lived up to his draft spot. Drafted in the second round seven years ago, Lang has spent his time since then in America, bouncing between the D-League and occasional NBA stints. He played briefly in Spain and very briefly in Israel, but has spent most of his time in the D-League, not really doing much developing.
However, his career took a tragic turn back in November, when he suffered a life-threatening stroke just after being released by the Utah Flash for health reasons. Lang was suffering from fatigue before the stroke, which is why he was waived; what no one knew at the time was that it was a precursor to this. All strokes are serious business, but Lang’s was particularly bad, leaving him partially paralysed (although hopefully only temporarily) and unable to speak. The internet carries no news of his condition after December. I hope he’s all right.
Klanger is in Turkey, playing his second season for Turk Telekom Ankara. His second season is going better than the first. Lang averaged 8.6 points and 4.6 rebounds per game in Turk Telekom’s EuroCup campaign (which ended a while ago), alongside 9.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game in the Turkish league. He still has that beard.
After Telekom were knocked out of the EuroCup, Turkish international shooting guard Serkan Erdogan left the team to go and play for Meridiano Alicante in Spain, Turk Telekom replaced him with Ricky Davis, who has averaged 13.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 3.2 steals in five games. Had he played enough to qualify, those numbers would make him first in the league in steals, and tied for fourth in assists. Neither is something you would normally associate with Ricky Buckets.
Langdon is playing his fifth season with CSKA Moscow. He is averaging 14.3 points per game in the EuroLeague, 10.8 in the Russian league and the same again in the VTB United League. He has no other statistics of note, which is why I’m not noting them.
His backcourt team mate, J.R. Holden, is now into his eighth season with the team. This may be the longest-serving backcourt partnership of any halfway-decent backcourt in Europe; it definitely has to be the longest import pairing. Imports just don’t spend that long on one team normally.
Langford is also in Russia. He joined Khimki this summer when they became a EuroLeague team, and averaged 15.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists in their campaign. He’s also averaged 15.6/4.1/2.0 in the VTB United League, alongside 12.9/3.3/2.6 in the Russian league. Put more simply, he’s very good.
The man with his own tour named after him has spent the year in Mexico and Puerto Rico, with a brief Korean moment in there. As if it could be any other way. After playing in nowhere but Asia and central America since early 2006, Langhi has stuck to his strengths and done the same again this year, spending the majority of the year with Halcones Rojos de Veracruz in Mexico. He averaged 13.0 points and 5.4 rebounds for the Mexican LNBP runners up, and now averages 10.8/8.8 for Indios de Mayaguez in Puerto Rico. He will probably do these two again next year.
Lasme was Lampe’s teammate at Maccabi Tel-Aviv, but unlike Lampe, he’s still there. He is averaging 6.5 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game in the EuroLeague, alongside 8.6/4.4/1.9 in the Israeli league. That 1.9 comes in only 19 minutes per game, and yet it’s good enough to rank second in the league. There’s not a whole lot of shot-blocking in Israel. (Former Duquense forward Shawn James leads the league with 2.8 bpg in only 25 mpg. He comes off the bench to do that.)
Bucknell graduate and one-time Spur Charles Lee is spending a second season in Germany, where, for whatever reason, he has forgotten how to score. Last year Lee averaged 13.2 ppg and 4.4 rpg for Bundesliga team Goettingen, but this year, played for the Artland Dragons of Quackenbrueck, those numbers have dropped to only 5.6 points and 3.1 rebounds per game. Lee is also averaging only 4.8 points and 4.6 rebounds in 24 minutes per game in the EuroCup. In 39 combined games Lee has only seven double-figure scoring outings, four of which have been followed by outings of two points or less. Lee has never been a great scorer, but he’s been an adequate scorer in both Belgium and Germany before this year. So it’s a strange drop-off.
Lenard last played in the 2005-06 season, when he appeared in 12 games for the Nuggets and 14 more for the Portland Trail Blazers. He has not been heard from since.
Rockets draft pick Leunen is playing in Italy with NGC Cantu. He is averaging 12.3 points and 5.5 rebounds in 32 minutes per game, shooting a Maarty Leunen-like 49% from three-point range. He’s also shooting 65% from two-point range, and should perhaps take more shots.
Due to his heritage – a heritage hinted at by his surname – Leunen is eligible for a Dutch passport. And having the passport of a country within the European Union is a great asset to any American basketball player, for it allows them to be counted as a European player, which gets them past the limitations on non-EU players that most leagues have (and therefore, they become more attractive to prospective teams). However, as far as I can tell, Leunen does not have a Dutch passport yet.
Fat Lever’s son, Anthony James Norwood Lever Pedroza Durazo, used to be a bench player for the University of Oregon, but has seen been a member of both the Spurs’ and Suns’ training camp rosters. Those were two of the only few times he has played outside of Mexico, which is the home town of his mother and where AJNLPD grew up. He was there this year as well, where he averaged 14.3 points per game on 48% three-point shooting for Soles de Mexicali.
Teammates there include former NBA draftee Dejuan Wheat, and awesomely named former NBA player Horacio Llamas. Speaking of Horacio Llamas, here’s Horacio Llamas.
Blazers draft pick Koponen is still only 21 years old, but is already playing his second season with Canadian Solar Bologna in Italy’s Serie A (known as La Fortezza Bologna until about two months ago). Last year he was something of a bit-part player in Serie A play, but this year he’s one of their best, ranking second on the team in minutes per game (26.8) and points (11.7). Koponen is shooting 44% from three-point range and is also third on the team in assists with 1.7 apg, a team where the team leader (Andre Collins) has only 2.6 in over 29 minutes per game. Good old Italy.
After two years of not playing in the NBA, Korolev went back to his native Russia, where he spent two years not playing in the Superleague. This year, to mix it up, he decided to get some playing time. Korolev entered the D-League draft pool and was picked with the last selection in the fourth round by the Albuquerque Thunderbirds. He played 20 games for the Thunderbirds and averaged 11.3 points and 5.8 rebounds, but was traded in January to the Reno Bighorns for Marcus Hubbard. And in 23 games for the Bighorns, Korolev’s numbers have declined down to 9.6 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. Better than Danny Granger yet? Not quite.
No matter how much hindsight you give it, the selections of players such as Korolev, Skita and Darko look no less ridiculous. In fact, they’re more ridiculous than ever – athletic young big guys with amazingly little to show on their CV and no defined skillsets picked in the NBA draft lottery, far above multiple established, more talented and simply better players. It was a very strange period for the game, that whole Euro phase, and it’s continually mesmeric quite how much the NBA is a copycat league. If they failed, it’s because they were set up to.
Wisconsin graduate Krabbenhoft went to summer league with the Blazers, and then made his way to the D-League. He was allocated to the Sioux Falls Skyforce, but left the team after only nine games to go and play in Korea for the Seoul Knights, for whom he averaged 11.7 points and 7.2 rebounds on 13% three-point shooting. When the Korean league season ended last month, Krabbenhoft returned to the Skyforce, for whom he has averaged 12.4 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 27 minutes of 16 games.
As mentioned in this rundown of the Napoli debacle, Kruger found himself some Italian volunteer work this summer. In five games for the team that wasn’t paying him, Kruger averaged 4.2 points and 1.8 assists before jumping ship in November. He later returned to the D-League and the Utah Flash, for whom he has averaged 15.1 points and 4.8 assists per game, shooting 47% from three-point range.
By the way, since that Napoli story was written, they have achieved their best loss of the lot, a narrow 169-29 defeat at the hands of Benetton Treviso. They were outscored by 140, outrebounded by 51, and outstolen by 30. Benetton shot 59-76 from two-point range and 16-36 from three: Napoli shot 7-25 from two and 4-25 from three. Five Benetton players had more than four steals, and even Daniel Hackett had 3, along with 6 assists and 4 rebounds in only 8 minutes. He did not score. Shouldn’t think he needed to.
Kurz is in the D-League playing for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. He is averaging 17.2 points, 10.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game, shooting 49% from the field and 43% from three-point range. It was reported that Kurz was going to leave the team back in January and sign with Aris Thessaloniki in Greece, yet the deal did not go through, apparently due to a dispute about the amount of buyout money. So Kurz stayed put.
Aris were knocked out of the EuroCup last night, blown out big style by a dominant Valencia led by Matt Nielsen and Sergei Lishouk. (Victor Claver also had two lovely dunks in that game, including a poster on Andy Betts.) They are also only eighth out of 14 in the Greek league (or 13 since Olympia Larissa were suspended for the rest of the year due to unpaid registration fees), and have nothing really left to play for this year. Yet they continue to crop up in all kinds of transfer rumours, even this late in the season. Just last week they were linked to Vuk Radivojevic (who left Crvena Zvezda due to lack of payment) and Derrick Low (whom Siauliai refused to let leave). Seemingly, David Blatt is trying to build his team for next year already. I can’t say I’m too surprised that he wasn’t overwhelmingly happy with Keydren Clark.
Croatian international guard Davor Kus moved to Benetton Treviso in Italy over the summer. He is averaging 12.5 points and 3.0 assists per game in Serie A play, shooting 52% from three-point range.
In the Benetton win over Napoli mentioned above in Kevin Kruger’s entry, Kus played 17 minutes off the bench and scored 21 points on 7-10 three-pointers. Furthermore, draft prospect Donatas Motiejunas played all 40 minutes and recorded 32 points, 21 rebounds and 6 steals. He outrebounded Napoli on his own.
Former Sonic Kutluay spent last year in the Turkish second division. He blew it up, averaging 26.8 points per game, but the Turkish second division isn’t very good. Kutluay retired at the season’s end, aged 35, and ran for election in the Turkish Basketball Federation elections. I don’t speak enough Turkish to know what happened with that, and nor do I speak enough to understand quite what this means. However, from what I can gather, it appears that he was the victim of an attempted blackmail recently. A more accurate translation would be welcomed.
LaFrentz was let go the Blazers this offseason and never signed elsewhere again. He never officially retired, but he never needed to, having spent the last three years unofficially retiring.
Slovenian international guard Lakovic is with Barcelona for his fourth straight season. His numbers are down across the board, but competing against a little-known player called Ricky Rubio for playing time might have something to do with that. Lakovic is averaging 7.0 points and 1.3 assists per game in the EuroLeague, alongside 5.5 points and 1.4 assists per game in the Spanish ACB. Barcelona currently lead the ACB with a 25-2 record, with Real Madrid in second at 22-5; the two are also matched up in the last eight of EuroLeague, where, as of last night, Barcelona have a 2-1 lead in the series. Real Madrid’s complete and total roster turnover is going to take another year before the cement dries.
Lamizana spent the year in China, which means he was covered in the emphatically unpopular 2010 CBA round-up from a couple of weeks ago. If you can’t be bothered to read his entry there, then I implore you to, because it’s more interesting than the above. Of all the people this series covers, none have better stat-lines than Rutgers finest, Herve Lamizana.
Whatever Antoine had, he spent, and he spent it on things with no redeemable value. Clothes, cars, drink, food, blackjack hands and dishonest associates. None of that means anything to a creditor. It’s all gone. Antoine is broke.
It’s also been well-documented of late that Walker had gone to Puerto Rico to start playing ball again. Playing in Puerto Rico is far from an abnormal thing for good basketball players to do; for many years now, fringe and former NBA talents have played there over the summer for some extra money. The Puerto Rican league takes place when most others don’t, and it’s in large part because of this that it holds the attraction for such talented players. It is a pretty high standard level of basketball, too; players to have there this year include former NBA talents Lee Nailon, DerMarr Johnson, Courtney Sims, Damon Jones, Robert Traylor, and all this lot. Puerto Rico is a regular stop for fringe NBA players grinding out their careers around the world, players who often play in the far East and central Americas in a rotation now known as the Dan Langhi Tour. It’s a common occurrence and, all told, a decent gig.
But Antoine wasn’t a fringe NBA player. He was a star, an All-Star, a big name, one of the biggest names in the game. While it is sensible and normal for Dan Langhi to be earning his living there, it represents a massive fall from grace for Walker.
Former All-Stars should not have to scrap for a living once their NBA playing days are over; instead, they should just slink off quietly, and waltz into a steady studio job with a major network. Not Antoine, though. He’s having to do something he’s never done in his career before – grind. It’s unsightly, unbecoming and unattractive for a man who once had so much.
And now it’s gotten worse; Walker has been released by his team.
Walker signed with Mets de Guaynabo a few months ago, doing so simultaneously with former Chicago Bulls forward Marcus Fizer. Fizer has played in Puerto Rico twice before, so this is not new for him, but it was Antoine’s first time. And like most first times, it ended disastrously and prematurely.
In eight games for the team, with only one start, Walker averaged 28.8 minutes, 12.4 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. Those are not bad numbers, but Antoine shot only 41% from the field, 22% from three and 52% from the foul line, his 99 total points coming on 94 total field goal attempts. More importantly, those numbers are relative to expectation, and by being the biggest name (and most expensive player) in the whole of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional, expectations for Walkah were exceedingly high.
His performances were not.
This news is a depressing story about a man’s life in turmoil. Antoine Walker used to have ridiculous amounts of money, but he spent it all on crap, and now he owes ridiculous amounts of money. But without a means of income, he will never be able to repay it. Antoine faces prosecution and possible incarceration if he doesn’t pay it, but he can’t pay it if he can’t earn it. He can’t earn if he doesn’t play. And unfortunately for us all, Antoine can’t play like he did any more. It gets no more complicated than that.
There aren’t many options available to you once you’ve been released by a Puerto Rican team. If you want summer money, you basically have to play there, unless you want to go to New Zealand (an option explored by Syracuse graduate Eric Devendorf, who is averaging 31.0 points and 5.3 assists down there for the Harbor Heat). Antoine’s options for the summer, therefore, are pretty limited. He can either:
1) Try and sign with another Puerto Rican team.
2) Come home.
In fact, that’s only really one option.
Of course, there is no mandate which says that he has to play this summer. He is still a free man, for now. However, Antoine did not play elsewhere during the early part of this season, and is a long long long way from being a good fit for the highest standards of European basketball. He has repayment schedules to meet if he is to avoid jail time, and employment is critical. But lacking. With his NBA candle burned out, China now looks like Antoine’s likeliest destination next season. Yet there’s no guarantees that the Chinese league – whose season does not start for another right months – will want him. And even if they do, the money is not what it once was in Chinese basketball.
Put simply, Antoine is running out of options.
With his money, Antoine had ten years better than any you or I can ever imagine. In one respect, then, it was not a waste. But it is increasingly uncertain what the next 40 will hold. He had a great twenties, but it’s been a bad thirties. And his forties are shaping up to be comparatively desolate.
Antoine still has time to turn this around, but it’s running out.
Spurs draft pick Karaulov played in the Russian second division last year for Nizhny Novgorod. He averaged 11.2 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, which aren’t bad numbers I guess. But to put them in some sort of context, Karaulov averaged 17.2 ppg and 9.5 rpg for a different second division team in the 2003-04 season, the year before the Spurs drafted him. So somehow, in the six years post hence, the soon-to-be 28 year old Karaulov has gotten less productive.
This year, he has upgraded from the Russian second division to the Russian Superleague. This is good. But what is not good is Sergei Karaulov’s performance this year. In 12 games for Krasnie Krilya Samara, Karaulov is averaging 3.8 points and 2.6 rebounds, totalling 45 and 31. Those aren’t very good numbers, but they’re even worse considering that 25 points and 9 rebounds of that (as well as 4 steals) came in one game, a late December loss to Dynamo Moscow. Therefore, outside of that one game, Karaulov has totalled 20 points, 22 rebounds and 27 fouls in 100 minutes.
Some Spurs draft picks pan out. Some don’t. This one didn’t.
Coby Karl went to camp with the Cavaliers, and made the team when it was determined that they needed some guard insurance in the wake of Delonte West’s whoopsy. He stayed on the roster until the guarantee date, yet played only five minutes in that time. After being waived, Karl went to the D-League for three weeks before being signed to a ten-day contract with the Golden State Warriors; in five games there he averaged 7.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists, shooting only 2-11 from three-point range. The Warriors didn’t bring him back for a second ten-dayer – instead signing Reggie Williams later in the year – and Karl returned to the D-League and the Idaho Stampede. In 21 D-League games this year, Karl is averaging 38.0 minutes, 18.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game.
Coby Karl looks exactly like his dad. And speaking of; get well soon, George Karl.
Former Magician Kasun is in Turkey, playing for Efes Pilsen. He is averaging 8.8 points and 4.6 rebounds per game in the Turkish league, and averaged 8.0 points and 5.8 rebounds in Efes’s EuroLeague run. Efes have had an ugly season of infighting and disappointment, but Kasun has been good, producing those numbers in only about 15 minutes of action, and outplaying the guys who play ahead of him. And he’s reined his fouls in, too.
Kansas graduate Kaun is finally breaking out. Playing for CSKA Moscow, he is averaging 12.9 points and 5.8 rebounds in 22 minutes per game in the Russian league, alongside 9.1/4.1 in the EuroLeague and 9.7/4.0 in the VTB United League. Kaun’s strong season has drawn the attention of the Cavaliers, who own his draft rights and are said to be looking to bring him over next season. Could he be worse than Shaq’s remnants? Not really, no.
The only professional Eritrean basketball player in the world, Thomas Kelati was a training camp signing of the L.A. Lakers this summer. The Lakers brought in several players even when they were fully aware that they weren’t going to keep any of them, so no matter how well Kelati shot the ball, he wasn’t going to make the team anyway. And inevitably, he didn’t. Kelati is playing for Valencia in Spain and averaging 8.1 points per game in the ACB, alongside 6.7 ppg in the EuroCup.
Tre Kelley also went to camp, this time with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He did not make the team either, and so went to China to play for Dongguan, where his performance is talked about here. Since the end of the CBA regular season, Kelley has moved to the Lebanon to play for Sagesse, but statistics are unavailable.
Billy Keys is not my lover, but he is a starting guard for Greek’s third-best team, Maroussi. He is averaging 11.1 points and 2.7 assists in the Greek league, alongside 10.8 points and 2.5 points in Maroussi’s completed EuroLeague campaign. And he’s managed to stave off being waived a couple of times in his two-year stay.
Viktor Khryapa is one of Europe’s assist leaders and one of the best players on the continent. As Kaun’s team mate on CSKA Moscow (pronounced Chessker, to rhyme with Albert Wesker from Resident Evil), Khryapa is averaging 28.9 minutes, 7.7 points, 7.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game in the Russian Superleague, 30.3/10.1/6.4/4.5 in the EuroLeague, and 27.1/9.3/6.5/4.4 in the VTB United League. He is third in Russia in assists, eighth in the EuroLeague and second in the VTB; second in Russia in rebounds, fifth in the EuroLeague and third in the VTB; third, fourth and second in steals. And he has also averaged 0.9 blocks per game in all three competitions. Khryapa doesn’t score much because he’s not a big scorer, but he’s doing everything else well. And now that he’s in a league where he doesn’t have to check LeBron James one on one, he’s doing damn well.
Kinsey spent last year on the Cavaliers bench, playing some garbage time minutes, and shooting the ball every touched it. He’s doing much the same sort of thing this year, only this time it’s in Turkey. Playing for Fenerbahce, Kinsey is averaging 9.6 points and 3.2 rebounds per game in the Turkish league, alongside 10.1 points and 3.0 rebounds in Fenerbahce’s long-since-completed EuroLeague campaign.
Kleiza left the NBA to get more money in Europe – it’s weird that it’s possible this way around now – and is now one of the best players there. He still can’t defend either forward position, but he scores prolifically from both. Playing for Olympiacos in Greece, Kleiza is averaging 15.2 points and 5.2 rebounds in only 23 minutes per game in the Greek league (Olympiacos often win in blowouts, and also take advantage of the fact that they go 12 deep), alongside 17.9 points and 6.9 rebounds in 30 minutes per game in the EuroLeague. The points per game average leads the EuroLeague, and if you’re the leading scorer in the second-highest standard league in the world, you’re a fine player.
Every year, there’s a cluster of veteran free agent American point guards who have survived in the league for a couple of years longer than perhaps they might, purely because of this veteran status, which seems to have particular resonance at the point guard positions. These players generally stay unsigned for at least one year, fighting for whatever midseason positions come up, and a couple of them get spots. Jason Hart has had a couple of turns this year, and Lindsey Hunter squeezed a year and a half out of the Bulls. Eddie Gill played 20 days with the Bucks last year, Chucky Atkins hooked up with the Pistons this year aged 58, while Anthony Carter and Kevin Ollie have made this into an artform. But Brevin Knight is one of the ones on the pile. He is unsigned, old but seemingly not retired, with a good career to his name so far. Seemingly, he’s just waiting for that call, that opportunity, that chance to prove he can still play.
Former University of Washington forward Bobby Jones was a second-round draft pick of the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2006, who was traded immediately to the Sixers. He signed a two-year deal with the team and played spot minutes of 44 games in his rookie year, before being traded again in the offseason to the Denver Nuggets as a part of the Steven Hunter/Reggie Evans swap. Denver played him in 25 more games but waived him before the contract guarantee date, at which point Jones signed two ten-day contracts with the Grizzlies. After the expiration of the second one came a fresh one with the Houston Rockets, quickly followed by two more with the Miami Heat, and one with the San Antonio Spurs, before Denver picked him back up for the last week of the season. Denver signed him to a contract that ran through the 2008-09 season with various guarantee dates along the way, and precisely because of that, Jones’s unguaranteed deal became a trade chip, one capitalised upon when he was traded along with Taurean Green to New York in exchange for Renaldo Balkman. The Knicks waived him a day later, which prompted the Heat to claim him off of waivers, yet he lasted only about a week there before Miami waived him prior to his contract guarantee date kicking in. A month later, Jones joined the Sacramento Kings for training camp, but did not make the team. And that was Bobby Jones’s NBA career.
Jones has not signed an NBA contract since. However, given that he played for six teams in two years, and was a member of 11 franchises in that time (including two of them twice), the NBA had probably gotten him pegged by then. Jones currently plies his trade in Italy for Bancas Teramo, for whom he averages 11.0 points and 3.9 rebounds in Serie A alongside 12.0 points and 4.9 rebounds per game in the EuroCup.
Damon Jones was also in Italy, but not now. He was a midseason signing of Martos Napoli, and played in nine games for the team, averaging 13.3 points per game. The self-proclaimed best shooter in the world took 42 two-pointers, 71 three-pointers and 0 foul shots in those nine games, also managing to record only six personal fouls in 325 minutes. Complete avoidance of physical contact? That’s our Damon.
Jones left Napoli when they went bankrupt. Indeed, everyone left Napoli when they went bankrupt. And when I say everybody, I don’t just mean American veterans such as Jones, Robert Traylor, Kevin Kruger and Travis Best……I mean everybody. Every first team player they had, every second team player they had, and every third team player they had. Every player that could command even the most basic pay check left the club, as the club had no pay checks to give. The only person to stay was assistant coach Federico Pasquini, who now coaches this cataclysmically moribund ragtag pile of dross.
To give you an example of quite how desperately pathetic things have been, Napoli have used 39 different players this season. In only 22 games. All losses.
When the team went bankrupt at the turn of the year, Napoli were last in Serie A with an 0-11 record. They had just lost 85-71 to Bobby Jones’s Bancas Teramo, a game win which Bobby Jones had 18 points and 9 rebounds, and Damon Jones scored 18 points on 16 three-point attempts. Over Christmas, the implosion began, and in their first game after Christmas, Napoli’s remnants lost by a staggering 70 points, 124-54, to Angellico Biella. Yet despite the hugeness of that loss, it was only the beginning.
Napoli lost their first 11 games by a total of 241 points, scoring only 673 points and giving up 914, despite all the former NBA talent on the roster. Their average final score was an 83-61, their closest loss being three points, and their heaviest being 40. But after the implosion, 40-point losses became the stuff dreams are made off, because the losses started reaching three digits. In their 11 games post-bankruptcy and mass exodus, Napoli have scored 595 points and conceded 1,591. Their highest scoring output was 82, and their lowest 37 (achieved twice); their lowest points-against was 117, while their highest was a staggering 181. That’s 181 points conceded, in a 40 minute game. Their average loss is 90 points, their smallest lost is 58, and their biggest loss is 126. Points. In a 40 minute game.
In these 11 games, Napoli have grabbed only 202 rebounds, for an average of 18.4 per game. They have given up 615 rebounds, for an average of 55.9 per game. Opponents have more offensive rebounds than Napoli do defensive ones, and this is in spite of the fact that opponents barely play their senior players against them any more. For example, in Napoli’s last game, a 176-50 loss to Carife Ferrara, no Carife starter played more than 20 minutes. Two of the starters were Luke Jackson and Sharrod Ford; Ford had 16 points and 10 rebounds in 17 minutes, while Jackson had 40 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks. That’s in 20 minutes, remember. Instead, Carife emptied their bench of youngsters, and gave them the opportunity to gain free minutes and free stats. And yet Carife’s deep bench were still so ridiculously far better than Napoli, hence the 126 point victory.
Carife also played a 40-year-old, Massimiliano Rizzo. Rizzo has been an Italian second division player for the majority of his career, and when Carife called him at the start of this season, he was down in the 5th division, playing for a team called Pordenone. Why Carife had called him up when he was so old and so far down the ladder is not immediately obvious, but nevertheless he had appeared in 33 minutes over 10 games, and totalled 4 points, 1 rebound and 6 fouls. So what did he do against Napoli? 21 minutes, 32 points, 14 rebounds, 16-17 from the floor. A forty-year-old man from the fifth tier of Italian basketball is easily, EASILY better than any player from a current Serie A team. It boggles the mind and offends the sensibilities.
It is simply amazing that they are allowed to continue operations, and even more amazing that they want to. There is literally nothing to gain from this weekly embarrassment; the team will not stave off relegation, will not acquire any new senior players, and will not acquire any new sponsors. They exist now only to fail, and fail they most certainly do. So therefore, God bless all those heavily-exposed teenagers for their valiant efforts, and for the remaining skeleton coaching staff who are trying to better some kids lives in the midst of complete and utter humiliation. Those are the heroes in an otherwise depressing tale of basketball failure.
As usual, Dwayne Jones got a training camp contract this October, this time with the San Antonio Spurs. He did not make the team, and went to play for Crvena Zvezda, but he was released after only a couple of days. No official reason was given for this; the unofficial reason was that they just didn’t feel comfortable with him, much like Hedo Turkoglu didn’t like the vibe from Portland after he got there. Or whatever.
Jones instead to the D-League to play for the Spurs affiliate, the Austin Toros, and down there he’s been averaging 40 minutes, 17.4 points and a league leading (if not world-leading) 16.0 rebounds per game. Jones is not much of an offensive player, but he should have been called up long ago. He rebounds, he defends, and he’s big enough to do both at the next level. And even if he can’t post or shoot, he gets to the foul line a ton and grabs a ridiculously big number of offensive rebounds. Those are two offensive skills. He is not hopeless there. And thus he should be in the NBA.
But he isn’t. He’s had his try-outs, including ones with Dallas and Washington this season. But for whatever reason, he can’t even get as much as a ten-day contract. I am starting to think that he walks into GM’s offices and craps on GM’s desks, because there appears to be no other obvious reason as to why he’s not in the league right now.
By the way, a day after I wondered aloud about why the Spurs hadn’t signed Curtis Jerrells, they went and signed Curtis Jerrells. Equilibrium is restored.
Jones was last with the Indiana Pacers, who received him along with two second-round picks in a trade from the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Shawne Williams, a trade they didn’t do their homework on. In this video clip (51 minutes in), Mark Cuban talks about how all NBA teams try to hide their “morons” so that other teams will take them on, and apparently Indiana did just that with this deal. Whoops. Jones was bought out by the Pacers, retired, and has gone a bit quiet since, although he did appear in an episode of Joes vs Pros last summer.
Fred Jones has spent the season with Angellico Biella in Serie A, where he has averaged 12.3 points and 3.1 rebounds in Serie A play. He missed a couple of months due to injury, returned to play in January, but has missed the last two months with another injury. In that time, Jones called a radio show to announce his desire to take the open Oregon University job, and when you consider that he turned 31 a couple of weeks ago, it’s perhaps not as surprising as it was. At that age, you have to be looking forwards.
Jones is also in Italy, playing for Pepsi JuveCaserta. He is averaging 13.8 points and 8.0 rebounds per game, with the rebounds ranking 5th in the league. He is averaging 33.0 minutes per game, and would be averaging more were it not for a 7-minute outing versus Napoli. Like I said, front line players don’t play against them much. That’s why the lopsided wins are even more disgraceful.
Former Magic guard Mark Jones last played in 2005-06 with BC Kyiv. Despite that season being only one year removed from his first (and only) NBA campaign, it was Jones’s last, and he retired to become a personal trainer. If you want to book him for an after-dinner speech, you can do so here.
Former Arkansas Little-Rock forward RJJ was a surprise addition to the Philadelphia 76ers training camp roster this October, surprising because he’s never done anything to suggest NBA proximity. Jones-Jennings once led the NCAA in rebounding, but he did so while grabbing more rebounds than points, even in the mid-major Sun Belt Conference. Last year, he averaged roughly 8 points and 10 rebounds, but that was in the German second division. If you can’t score more than you can rebound as those standards of play, you won’t score a single point in the NBA. And if you can’t score a single point in the NBA, you can’t play in it. Unless you’re Michael Ruffin.
Jones-Jennings went to Ukraine to start this year, but then moved to the French second division to play for Boulazac. He is averaging 8.6 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. The man is fearless and can board, but he needs to show more.
Siena product Antoine Jordan didn’t play for the first few months of the season, but signed with Goettingen in Germany in February to replace Cornell graduate Cody Toppert. He is averaging only 4.8 minutes and 1.8 points per game in the German league, playing on a team with eight other Americans. And a Canadian. And one German. True story.
Two of those eight Americans are former Villanova forward Dwayne Anderson and former Illinois guard Chester Frazier. Anderson is averaging 11.5 points and 4.0 rebounds per game; Frazier has already been covered in this list, but broke his hand last week and will be out for a while.
Former Clippers draft pick Jared Jordan is also in Germany, playing for Telekom Baskets Bonn, on a team with five Germans. They almost have more Germans than Americans, which is basically unheard of. Jordan is averaging 9.0 points, 4.4 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game; the assists are tied for fourth in the Bundesliga, fittingly with another guy called Jordan. Even better, his first name is Michael.
The finest Argentinian-German basketball player with the initials FK that you’ll ever see, former Blazers draft pick Kammerichs is in his native Argentina, where he was recently named an All-Star. Kammerichs is averaging 13.8 points and a league-leading 11.8 rebounds; the second leading rebounder has a mere 8.1. He’s also shooting 40% from three-point range, pours in 2.3 assists and 1.3 blocks per game, and is in his prime at age 29. Could he be the Blazers’ in-house replacement for Travis Outlaw next season?
Former Clipper and German national team member Jagla has spent the season with Prokom Sopot Gdynia in Poland. Gdynia are the best team in Poland and are also a EuroLeague team, which is why they have imports such as Jagla, Lorinza Harrington, Qyntel Woods and Daniel Ewing. They also used to have Pape Sow, but he left the team in February to sign in Spain. It was reported that Jagla had left the team with him, but that report was erroneous, for Jagla has spent the whole year there. He averaged 7.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in the EuroLeague, alongside an almost-identical 7.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in the Polish league.
Marquette product James didn’t get drafted last summer, partly because his numbers went backwards throughout his four-year career, and partly because he broke his foot down the stretch of his senior season. He did however land a training camp contract with the Milwaukee Bucks, but it didn’t last long; aware of his unlikelihood of making the Bucks roster, James asked for his release so that he could sign a contract with a Turkish team. That Turkish team is Mersin, and James has averaged 14.7 points and 4.3 assists with them this year. James has shot 31% from three and 62% from the foul line this season, numbers improved on last year’s career-ows of 28%/46%, but numbers still unbecoming of a point guard.
James was traded to the Wizards last season as an ever-so-slightly cheaper alternative to Antonio Daniels. He played in 53 games for the Wizards after the trade, starting 50 of them, and playing 1,575 minutes. It feels weird to say that Mike James played 1,649 minutes in an NBA season as recently as last year, considering how this year has transpired, but so it is.
This year, James spent most of the year on the inactive list, playing in only four games and 46 minutes. He shot 30% and sported a 1:1 turnover ratio, and was eventually bought out for his contract for a small $150,000 saving. It was reported that he might be an option for the Miami Heat, but that was more of an idea than it was news. James remains unsigned and now spends a lot of time talking about the Bible on Twitter.
Jaric was another player to have been bought out midseason. His contract was the price Memphis paid for swapping Kevin Love for O.J. Mayo, a trade which they did OK in but probably didn’t win. Unable to get a trade done for Jaric and his two years of remaining guaranteed salary, Memphis bought him out for a small saving, and Jaric went to Spain around Christmas time. Jaric is not the primary ball-handler at Real – that honour goes to Pablo Prigioni – but he’s able to play the point forward role that has always suited him best. In ACB play, Jaric is averaging 10.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game, dropping to 7.7/4.0/1.6 in the EuroLeague.
Jasikevicius is another former buyoutee, backing up another former buyoutee (Vassilis Spanoulis) who is now with Panathinaikos in Greece. He has played little this year, missing much of the first half due to injury and then having to wait his turn in Panathinaikos’ very deep rotation. He has played a combined 269 minutes all year, and is averaging 8.8 points and 2.6 assists per game in Greek league play. Saras also averaged 5.2 points and 2.5 assists in Pana’s EuroLeague campaign, but that’s ended now.
Javtokas was with Dynamo Moscow last year, a team that reached the quarter finals of the EuroCup. He left the team in the summer as Dynamo released all of their foreign players once they ran out of money, and he moved to Khimki, the Russian team based just outside of Moscow that lost to Lietuvos Rytas in last year’s EuroCup final. Because of that (somewhat) success, Khimki are a EuroLeague team this season, although they got knocked out in the last 16 a couple of weeks ago. Javtokas averaged 10.1 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 25 minutes per game in the EuroLeague, alongside 9.1 points and 5.7 rebounds in the Russian league, and 7.8 points and 4.3 rebounds in the VTB United League.
Fresno State product Chris Jefferies really didn’t have much of a career. He was drafted by the Raptors in the first round of the 2002 NBA Draft, did not play much to begin the year, before getting a lot of minutes (and ten starts) to close Toronto’s disjointed, Nate Huffman-riddled season. And when he got those minutes, he struggled mightily, scoring 197 points on 194 shots and having a 1:2 assist to turnover ratio. He played only eight more minutes for the Raptors the following season before being traded to the Bulls, for whom he shot 8-27 from two-point range in 19 games.
In that time, however, he managed to win my lifelong fandom. There’s something about 6’8 defensive-minded jump shooters with no NBA dribbling skills whatsoever, and whom look permanently a bit stoned, that just gets me right there. I roll with Chris Jefferies.
Upon being bought out by the Bulls after only two years in the NBA (meaning four buyoutees in this one post; I made that word up by the way), Jefferies joined the Visalia Dawgs, an ABA team located damn near to his home town of Fresno. They survived all of one season, and Jefferies survived all of about two games. This was in October 2004; he has not played since. Jefferies was injured around about this time – forgot what it was; seem to remember it may have been a torn Achilles – an injury from which he was still rehabbing 18 months later, yet it has now been nearly five and a half years since he last played. If he was willing and/or able to keep playing, he surely would have done so by now. Be it because of injuries or whatever, Chris Jefferies has not been playing, and doesn’t look like he’s ever going to again.
As for what he does do, Jefferies is now the Vice President of a Las Vegas-based concierge service called Allen Professional Services. Do you want his phone number and email address? Of course you do. And for good measure, here’s his Twitter.
Jefferson was waived by the Bobcats in training camp after they signed Ronald Murray for guard depth. He returned to the D-League to spend another season with the Utah Flash, averaging 17.5 points and 5.5 assists in 34 games as a constant figure in the team’s myriad of guards this season. However, Jefferson’s season ended prematurely late last month when he suffered a knee injury.
Former Pistons guard Horace Jenkins has not played in a year, after leaving Italian team Eldo Caserta last February. He had averaged 9.5 points per game for the team, which, at age 34, was not bad going. It’s especially strong considering that Jenkins didn’t start college ball until he was 24, didn’t leave until he was 27, and played only at Division III school William Paterson. In his first professional, Jenkins averaged 30.9 ppg in Italy’s LegaDue, which was the stepping stone to his good Serie A career that followed and his one year with the Pistons. Jenkins made his NBA debut in the 2004-05 season at the age of 30, and, in doing so, became one of only nine players all-time to have played in both NCAA Division III and the NBA. (Devean George is another notable one.)
It makes you wonder what he might have achieved in basketball had he not had those four gap years between 1994-98 to look after his family.
Baylor graduate Jerrells did not get drafted, yet was able to secure a $75,000 guaranteed contract from the San Antonio Spurs to attend their training camp. It had initially been announced that Jerrells had signed with the Pistons, but San Antonio’s improved amount of guaranteed money won them the day. Despite the money, Jerrells never really had much of a chance of making the Spurs roster, which therefore meant that they spent $150,000 (after tax) on a player that they knew wouldn’t play for them. The reason for this is obvious; it is not in any way coincidental that Jerrells later signed with the D-League and was immediately assigned to the Spurs affiliate (which they own), the Austin Toros. Essentially, they kept him in house and expanded their roster. They technically had no claim to him, but they had him where they wanted him, and where they had the inside track on his progress and abilities. And that’s surely the aim of signing anyone. It’s not illicit; it’s shrewd.
However, when the Spurs needed some ten-day contract guard help midseason, they instead opted to sign Cedric Jackson and Garrett Temple, not Jerrells. This was a genuine eye-opener. All that manipulation of the system to get the player where you wanted for when you wanted, and then you didn’t want him.
On the season, Jerrells is averaging 20.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game, shooting 48% from the field and 35% from three-point range. He totalled 98 points and 19 assists in his last three games, leading to player of the week honours.
Jeter started the year with Unicaja Malaga, but was signed on only a short-term basis. When that contract expired, Malaga did not renew it (replacing him with Shammond Williams), and Jeter moved to Israel to join Hapoel Jerusalem. Jeter comes off the bench there, but still plays the majority of the game, averaging 12.5 points and 2.5 assists in 25 minutes per game in the EuroCup and 18.1/8.2/1.7 in the Israeli league.
Johnsen has spent the year with Panellinios in Greece. He averaged 6.2 points and 3.2 rebounds per game in the Greek league, alongside 7.5 points and 4.1 rebounds per game in the EuroCup. However, he has not played for last six weeks due to a knee injury.
One thing I didn’t know until about Britton Johnsen until just now; a decade ago, he got into a fight with Amadou Makhtar N’Diaye (not Mamadou), who accused him of using the N word. I’m guessing Johnsen used the word “bigger” at some point, which N’Diaye misinterpreted. Either way, strange times.
Florida State product Johnson went to camp with the Utah Jazz this year, but despite 31 decent preseason minutes, he did not make the team. He then went to China to play for the DongGuan New Century Leopards. However, he got injured after only thirteen minutes in his first game and had to be carried off the court; it was the only CBA game he played. A couple of month passed while Johnson rehabbed his injuries, and then in late January he re-emerged in the D-League with the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
Johnson quickly became one of the best players in the league; in 19 games he is averaging 22.6 points and 11.2 rebounds, shooting 56% from the field and 75% from the line. However, the problem that marred his earlier NBA forays remain; put simply, Johnson makes mistakes. Not a Mike Greenberg-style racial epithet mistake, nor the Gilbert Arenas sort of gun-wielding mistakes, and nor the Mark McGwire type of mistake whereby you shoot protein-based poly-peptides into your veins to gain a competitive advantage using the ridiculously terrible defence that other people were doing it too. No, Johnson’s mistakes are instead made on the court. In addition to those good numbers above, Johnson also averages 4.0 turnovers and 3.0 fouls in only 32 minutes per game; this from the same man who averaged a foul every eight minutes in his NBA career with a turnover rate of 18.9%. For comparison’s sake, the notoriously turnover prone-Eddy Curry has a career turnover rate of 16.6%, with a single season high of 18.4% (2006-07).
It was never size, scoring ability or rebounding ability that hampered Johnson’s NBA prospects. He has enough of all those. Instead, it was the mistakes, the turnovers, the fouls, the free points and possessions for the opposition. Johnson is an NBA-calibre player even with this flaw, and is an entirely deserving call-up candidate. But he is now 27 and hasn’t cured this problem. If he does, awesome. If he doesn’t, the next couple of years will be spent on the fringes.
Missouri graduate Arthur Johnson last played in the 2007-08 season with Italian second division team, Eldo Caserta. He averaged 13.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.7 steals per game, shooting 61% from the field.
After that date, I cannot find him. And I’ve looked very hard.
As regular viewers of this site will know, the Chinese CBA and the Puerto Rican BSN are of particularly interest in these posts, for those two leagues house an unduly awesome amount of former NBA talent. Additionally, with the CBA taking place between December and April, and the BSN from March until June, a lot of players tend to take part in both. It’s two pay checks, after all.
Johnson is one who has done just that. As outlined in this post about Chinese Basketball Association statistics – a piece that has made me a figure of bilious hate and scorn amongst the Chinese basketball community, who feel slighted that an Englishman would write about their league while singularly misunderstanding that the reason it was only a look at statistics was because IT WAS ONLY A LOOK AT STATISTICS – Johnson totalled a very inconsistent 19.9 ppg and 5.8 rpg for Jiangsu, before leaving the team in January. He then moved to Puerto Rico for the start of their season, and averaged 11.9 points and 4.7 rebounds for Ponce Lions. However, he was released last week, along with DeAngelo Collins, to be replaced by Leon Rodgers and Andre Brown. All four are China/Puerto Rico duellists, which reinforces what I just said just now about that.
Johnson was covered not so long ago in the 1993 NBA Draft Recap WATN thing. Permalinks to those can be found in the menu down the side, and I implore you to read them. Because if 11,467 people do, I may just recoup the time I spent doing them.
Former Miami Heat big man Ken Johnson has spent most of the previous two seasons in Germany, where he was an All-Star last year. His averages were kind of strange – 7.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg and 2.1 bpg in 47 games – but the blocks per game led the country. This year, he packed up his toys and moved to Estonia to play for a team called BC Kalev/Cramo Tallinn. Johnson averaged 6.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in the Estonian league, and 7.4/5.0/3.1 in the Baltic league, before he was replaced last month by former D-Leaguer Kevin Owens.
Lint played for the Orlando Magic in training camp, and would have been a good fit and a good player had they been able to afford to keep him. He did survive two days on the regular season roster, but I’m not sure that counts. Since that time, Linton has remained unsigned, presumably waiting on the Bulls to bring him back again. If it wasn’t for the mere technicality that is Jerome James’s insurance payments, they probably would have done so by now.
Chris Paul favourite Trey Johnson (as he’s known) started the year in France, playing for BCM Gravelines Dunkerque Grand Littoral. Or, as Vinny Del Negro calls them, Dunkurt. He averaged 8.8 points per game in the French league and 11.3 points per game in the EuroChallenge, before leaving the team at the end of January. After a month on the shelf, Johnson returned to the D-League to play for the Bakersfield Jam, for whom he is averaging 19.4 points and a very uncharacteristically high 7.9 assists per game. Included in that was a 20 point, 20 assist game in only his second game for the team, a game in which he also had only two turnovers. This actually happened. For a career scorer like Johnson, this is quite the welcome surprise.
Joksimovic is a Slovenian national team undersized two guard who awkwardly shares the same name and birth year of a more famous Slovenian international footballer. He had played the last four years for Serbian powerhouse Hemofarm, but in the summer he moved to Russia to play for Lokomotiv Kuban. After averaging 7.5 points for them in the Russian league, N-Jock moved to Italy to play for Scavolini Pesaro, for whom he is averaging 5.8 points in the Italian league. He is averaging a better 10.9 points per game in the EuroChallenge, though, shooting 12-21 from three-point range, and 15-15 from two-point range. Those are Brent Barry numbers from the Slovenian Jon Barry.
Jomantas is a Lithuanian national team forward playing for Lithuanian team Lietuvos Rytas. He averaged 9.5 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game in the EuroLeague, a bizarre 6.3/3.8/4.3 in the Lithuanian league, and 10.5/5.3/4.5 in the Baltic league.
These last two players became personal favourites of mine during last year’s EuroCup campaign. I only have to like players for them to be on here. If you start seeing posts about Montana’s Derrick Selvig any time soon, that’ll be why.
Former Sixers draft pick and Nuggets training camp invite Alvin Jones last played in late 2008 with the Minot Skyrockets of the now-defunct CBA. Jones played a few games with the team while sporting a hamstring injury, then kicked off a bit, staged a walkout 20 minutes before one game and has never played anywhere since. I can’t find him either.
Lindsey Hunter was finally crowbarred off the Bulls roster a couple of weeks ago. This was a good thing; Hunter hasn’t been an NBA calibre player for some years, yet in all that time teams have believed so much in his off-court attributes that they have caved to his demands and signed him as a player, rather than as a coach. Never mind, it’s over now; Hunter was waived a fortnight ago to make room for Chris Richard, and immediately was hired (reclassified) as a player development assistant.
(By the way, for the last week or so, Courtney Sims’s name has been awesomely misspelt on Latinbasket.com. They’ve corrected the mistake now, but for a while there, you can probably work out what it said. [Note; very NSFW.] At least they still list Antoine Walker as “Anthony Walker.”)
Hunter stuck with the team until the contract guarantee date, playing all of 29 minutes in that time, recording 11 points and 12 rebounds. When waived, he went unsigned for a few weeks before joining the struggling Ilysiakos in Greece, currently last in the A1 with a 4-16 record. In two games for the team, Hunter has record 47 minutes, 17 points and 12 rebounds. One of those two losses was a 41-point defeat at the hands of Olympiacos.
Maryland graduate Ibekwe was having a good summer league for the Toronto Raptors this year, until he hurt his neck on a fall after performing a game-saving block on a Goran Dragic layup. Mercifully, it looked worse than it was, and Ibekwe suffered no permanent damage.
Ibekwe initially returned to Turkey to play for Kepez Bld Antalya, but he was waived before the season began. Later on came a tryout with Iranian team Petrochimi, but that also didn’t turn into a permanent gig, and Ibekwe remained unsigned. Finally, in mid-January, Ibekwe was able to hook onto another Turkish team called Genc Banvitliler. It’s quite the coup for Genc; Ibekwe was one of the best players in Turkey last year, averaging 19/8/2/2 for Mutlu Aku Selcuk Universitesi Konya and being named a Turkish league All-Star. But strangely, Genc Banvitliler are a Turkish second division team. I am not sure of the reason why Ibekwe has had to (or chosen to) drop down a division. Nevertheless, he is inevitably beasting there, averaging 20.4 points, 11.0 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 2.1 steals and 2.1 blocks in only 29 minutes per game. He is a cut above the competition athletically.
Former Nets draft pick Ilic spent last year in Spain with Cajasol Sevilla, but averaged only 2.2 points and 2.2 rebounds per game in the ACB. He spent the majority of this year unsigned, failing a physical with Crvena Zvezda back in November. However, earlier this month, Ilic returned to action with Serbian team Metalac. In his first game with the team, he record four minutes and two rebounds.
Australian international Ingles went undrafted this past summer, and then attended summer league with the Golden State Warriors. After that he moved to Spain and joined CB Granada, where he is averaging 11.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.6 rebounds in 29 minutes per game. He is shooting only 34% from three-point range and has taken as many threes as twos, which is less than ideal, given his slow release on them.
Ingles’s team mates at Granada include Jimmie Snap Hunter and Richard Hendrix, both recently covered on here. Another one is Icelandic guard Jon Stefansson, the emo one who once signed with the Mavericks. Stefansson had been little more than an average player in the German league when Dallas signed him, and since leaving he’s been little more than a bench player in Italy. So why did they sign him and stash him on the injured list for a whole year? Not sure. Either way, Stefansson is averaging 9.1 points for Granada this season, shooting 33% from two-point range.
If Stefansson can play in the NBA, then so can Andy Rautins. Then again, Stefansson never actually did.
Bulgarian international and Brooklyn native Ibrahim Jaaber was announced as a surprise inclusion on the Pistons summer league roster this year. Given his successful European career recently, he didn’t seem to need to be here – apparently he realised this as well, because he didn’t actually play, and stayed with Lottomatica Roma for one more season. Jaaber is averaging 14.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.1 steals and 2.5 assists per game in Serie A, and averaged 10.4/4.4/2.2/2.5 in Roma’s slightly underwhelming EuroLeague campaign this year.
I have heard four versions of how to pronounce his surname; Jab-BAR (as in Kareem Abdul), JAY-ber (as in Katelyn Faber), JAR-burr (as in Tiki Barber) or Jabber (as in the Hut). After some research, apparently the last one is right.
Former NBA journeyman Bobby Jackson retired this past summer after seeing out his final season with the Sacramento Kings. He now works as an ambassador for the team, helping with their fundraising activities and such.
The Kings are holding “Bobby Jackson Night” on April 6th. For only $24, you too can attend an exclusive pregame question and answer session with the man himself, as well as a ticket to the game. The first 10,000 fans will receive a commemorative Cache Creek Bobby Jackson poster. Be there or…..well, or don’t be there.
Former NBA journeyman Jermaine Jackson is doing the Langhi this year, and signed last month with a Mexican team called Durango. I don’t really understand Mexican basketball, but as far as I can tell, there appears to be two leagues; the LNBP and the CIBACOPA. The LNBP’s season finished just last week, as Halcones Xalapa beat Halcones Rojos 4-1 in the Finals, so now the CIBACOPA has just started. Durango are an LNBP team, so Jackson left the team upon their elimination and moved to Argentina to play for Central Entrerriano, the team currently in last place in Argentina’s LigaA with a 6-20 record.
For Durango, Jackson averaged 11.8 points, 6.8 assists and 3.8 rebounds. In his four games so far for Entrerriano, he is averaging 9.5 points, 5.0 assists and 3.5 rebounds.
Former NBA journeyman Jim Jackson last played in the 2005-06 season with the L.A. Lakers. He is now an analyst for the Big Ten Network.
Jackson still jointly holds the record for most NBA teams played for, tied with Chucky Brown and Tony Massenburg at 12. Drew Gooden is putting on a decent run at it, with eight in the book before the age of 29; if only he’d played a game with the Wizards in his week there. Bobby Jones and Josh Davis, previously putting on decent runs at the title, appeared to have moved on. (Kevin Ollie is at 11; he’s played for 12 different teams, but technically, the Seattle Supersonics and Oklahoma City Thunder appear to count as the same franchise. This seems unfair.)
Former NBA journeyman Luke Jackson has been in the D-League with the Idaho Stampede for at least some of the past three seasons, trying to find his way back to the NBA. However, now 28, Jackson seems to have changed plan slightly, and has moved to Italy. Playing for Carife Ferrara, Jackson is averaging 16.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.0 steals per game, shooting 46% from the field, 38% from three and 75% from the line.
Former NBA journeyman Marc Jackson was playing in Spain this year with Xacobeo BluSens Obradoiro in the ACB. He was playing well, too, averaging 14.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. In early February however, a couple of weeks after his 35th birthday, Jackson left the team, and retired from the sport to become a cowboy. True story. Or at least, that’s what he said he was going to do. I see no reason to doubt him.
Former NBA journeyman Casey Jacobsen has spent quite a lot of time lately in Germany, where he finds himself once again this year. Playing for Brose Baskets Bamberg, Jacobsen is averaging 11.0 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game in the German league, alongside 10.5/2.9/2.0 in the German league. His jump shot – which decided to stay in Germany when Jacobsen returned to the NBA for the 2007-08 season with the Memphis Grizzlies – is right by his side once again; Jacobsen is shooting a combined 38% from three-point range in the two competitions, and has a combined true shooting percentage of .596%.
“Journeyman” is not meant as a pejorative, by the way. It means you’ve put work in.
I wasn’t initially going to mention this, not until we got to Marko Tomas’s entry at least. But, prompted by Jonathan Givony, I will relent and do it now.
An amusing scandal has broken out in the world of Croatian basketball. A team called Cibona Zagreb are perhaps the best team in the country; they were in the last 16 of the EuroLeague just last month, and currently lead the powerhouse Adriatic League with a 19-5 record. Players on that team include former Bulls centre Dalibor Bagaric (whose name was brutalised into Dalibor Ballagachayridge by English commentator Roy Birch last week), former Real Madrid sharpshooter Marko Tomas, Slovenian shooter Samo Udrih (Beno’s brother and one-time Maverick), and former Mississippi State guard Jamont Gordon (covered here earlier this week). It’s a deep team that also houses upcoming draft prospect Bojan Bogdanovic (a tall wing player with a fine jump shot, if not much else) and Leon Radosevic (a 19-year-old big man who, in true Croatian style, does not rebound). Cibona have long had a strong youth movement, and this continues today.
Cibona Zagreb’s captain is 27-year-old Croatian national team veteran forward Marin Rozic. Rozic is currently injured and has been out of action for the last three months, but this doesn’t mean he hasn’t been keeping himself busy. News reports out of Croatia claim that, in a homage to former England captain John Terry, Rozic has been knocking off Radosevic’s woman on the side, despite the two being teammates. It was Radosevic himself who went to the press, and, via the awkward medium of Google Translate, here’s the gist of the story:
– I went to training and left to record their conversation. A day later I am still shocked and listen – told 24 hours Radosevic and briefly recounted the contents of their conversation.
– Euphoric spoke as she went with him into the apartment, but apparently nothing happened because they did not have condoms. Only the love.
…….
When he discovered the affair, called the girl and brought the completed act.
– First denied and then I let her recording of the conversation. Picked up the items and left the flat.
The gist of that, confirmed by this English language version of the story, is that Radosevic’s girlfriend told him that a (female) friend of hers was going to come over to their place while he was at practice. This prompted Radosevic to set up a covert recording of their liaison, as he claimed that he ‘liked to hear girls talk.’ When he returned from practice and replayed the tape, he found that his girlfriend’s actual visitor that day was Rozic, with whom she had been making out on the couch. (Although, as you can see above, apparently they avoided bumping uglies due to a lack of wraps. So they’re not animals.)
The seediness of Radosevic’s actions – who seemingly was covertly recording his girlfriend with another woman just to add to his own personal spankbank – has been overlooked by the two reports that instead seem to focus on Rozic’s moral disobedience and general douchebaggery, as well as the girlfriend’s deviance. This is, perhaps, fair enough. Yet I don’t believe it should be overlooked that, if what I can gather from the various reports is correct, Radosevic was illicitly recording other people’s conversations.
Radosevic has asked to be released at the end of the year; fortunately, with Rozic’s injury keeping him away from the team, they should be able to avoid any conflict between now and then. If there’s any justice, Rozic will be the one released, but he’s the better player and that often counts for a lot. So we’ll wait and see.
As for the girlfriend in question, she’s eight years older than Radosevic; in fact, she’s older than Rozic. She seems to be claiming that she and Radosevic had already broken up, and that her and Rozic are just friends. The tape would suggest otherwise. Rozic refuses to comment.
Iowa product and D-League veteran Jeff Horner started the year in Belgium, which is only fitting because he’s American. However, he was released by Aalstar after posting 0 points and 1 assist in 47 minutes, while still recovering from a twice-broken foot. He then took up coaching, starting at Des Moines area high school, moving to Grandview University, and has now joined Iowa University’s player development program.
Jeff Horner fact: Horner was the first player acquired in the history of the Iowa Energy D-League franchise.
Horry last played two years ago, and he’s not coming back now. In retirement, Horry has done a bit of TV work for ESPN, appeared in a reality tv show called “The Superstars” (which sounds like a tacky American imitation of the seminal British classic), and has opened a sports bar in Houston.
The last two years of the Daniel Horton Experience have not gone well. Last year, due to a combination of injuries and Pau Orthez’s struggles, Horton played in only four games all year, averaging 11.3 points and 4.0 assists. And this year has been even worse; now with a different French team (Hyeres-Toulon), Horton played the first three games of the French league season before getting injured. He missed two months of action and only returned in the new year; since then he’s played seven more games. Yet in these ten total games, Horton is averaging only 3.4 points and 3.0 assists in 22 minutes per game. He is shooting 10-46 from the field; 8-33 from two-point range and 2-13 from three. Toulon have now released Horton, who cannot get healthy, and remains unsigned.
Another Hyeres-Toulon player is Pierre Pierce. Now into his second year with the team, the infamous former Iowa player is averaging 14.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game, albeit shooting only 39% from the field, 28% from three and 56% from the line. (The assists rank fourth in the league.) Pierce is more notorious for his criminal history, which is rather well-sculpted; he was released from prison in September 2006 after serving 11 months for assaulting his girlfriend, serving 332 days after pleading guilty to intent to commit sexual abuse, false imprisonment, third-degree burglary and criminal mischief. Pierce is to stay on probation until October 2010, and has to register as a sex offender wherever he goes, and while he played in summer league for the Warriors in 2007 – and played rather well at that – in doing so he violated his probation and served 30 more days.
Fresno State product Hosley signed his first-ever NBA contract this past October when he joined the Portland Trail Blazers for training camp. However, he was an early cut, never challenging for a roster spot. Rebounding from that didn’t take long, as Hosley returned to Turkey and promptly began to beast. On the season for Aliaga Petkim, Hosley is averaging 18.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.9 steals per game. He’s fifth in the league in PPG, second in RPG, first in SPG, and only just outside the top ten in APG (Emir Preldzic is tenth with 4.0 apg). He’s arguably the best player in the country. But due to a lack of domestic support, Aliaga are 12th in the league with a 9-13 record.
Houston was never the compelling protagonist of his own amnesty clause, as was erroneously expected by a large contingent of the mainstream media. This is because he didn’t need to be; the Knicks knew that they could get a retirement exemption thing on Houston’s salary eventually, and they finally did so in October 2005.
Houston wasn’t done, however; he launched two comeback attempts, both with the Knicks, who signed him for training camp in both 2007 and 2008. However, Houston made neither roster, and the comeback attempts appeared to be more in hope than expectation. (If he really wanted to get back in the NBA, he wouldn’t have signed with the Knicks; the roster situation was always against him. Loyalties were a big factor.) It was, however, a more noble way to go out than before. Houston is now working for the Knicks as an assistant to team president , Donnie Walsh. He also co-owns the clothing label UNK NBA, and is a prominent charity event organiser.
Valparaiso graduate Howard is again in the D-League, and again he’s with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. This is his third consecutive season there, and he has improved every time. His first year, he averaged 11.1 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game, rising to 18.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists last year. He has had training camp contracts after the conclusion of both seasons, first with the Bucks and then last year with the Knicks.
This year, Howard – best on the defensive end – has improved his numbers even further. He is averaging 20.6 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game, shooting 46% from the field and 80% from the free throw line. Better still, he’s now shooting threes. In his first two seasons with the team, Howard went 0-16 from three in 95 games and 3,073 minutes, but this year he’s shooting 42-109 from out there, a 39% clip. Howard can’t improve his age (27) or his height (6’5 small forward), and he hasn’t improved his rebounding, but he has improved his jump shot range. So now he’s a 21 ppg defensive specialist. Can’t be bad.
Worse players than him have been called up before. Stick with it, Ron.
[EDIT; Howard left the Mad Ants two weeks ago to go and play in China.]
Like Howard, Hubbard is in the D-League. Like Howard, Hubbard has had training camp contracts the last two seasons; with the Hawks in 2008 and the Bucks in 2009. But unlike Howard, Hubbard is on the cusp of nothing. In 37 games this season, 17 with the Reno Bighorns and 20 with the Albuquerque Thunderbirds, Hubbard is averaging 8.4 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. But to get those numbers, he’s shooting only 37.6% from the field, with 312 points on 314 shots. And that’s as a 6’9 forward. Hubbard is athletic, but he mostly uses that for is to get elevation to take a lot of long twos. And at these percentages, that’s not getting it done.
Hudson last played with the Warriors in the 2007-08 season, when he appeared in only nine games and shot 29%. He has not signed anywhere since. Hudson was trying to make a comeback as recently as August, when he sponsored and played for a team in the Howard Pulley Summer League. The Howard Pulley Summer League is a summer league (obviously) centred around former and current Minnesotans; also involved were Trenton Hassell, Quincy Lewis, Rich Melzer, Khalid El-Amin, and pretty much every member of the current Gopher squad (including Paul Carter, Al Nolen, Ralph Sampson IIIÂ and Damian Johnson). He also had workouts with multiple NBA teams in the summer, including Detroit. But nothing came of it.
The website for his record label no longer exists, and there’s no word on whether his album’s sales figures ever cracked the three figure mark. However, Hudson continues to pursue an entrepreneurial dream. Hudson still has a website for his own musical endeavours, T-HudOnline.com (although it is remarkably out of date), and Nutty Boyz Entertainment has become Hudson Records, a subsidiary of Hudson’s larger company, Troy E. Hudson Enterprises. Included in Hudson Enterprises are the record label, a sports management firm, and Undrafted Pros, a sports recruitment firm of sorts.
In addition to this dream, Hudson is still “in the streets in every city and hood” promoting his music, and is also writing a book. More on that when it is known. Until such time, would you like to hear a Troy Hudson song? You would? All right. But make sure that you do before you play the following clip.
And if you’d like to see how that musical sensation was created, why not watch this behind-the-scenes video?
That looks like my old bedroom. Or the bedroom of one of many thousands of other teenage boys with musical dreams around the world. Good luck though, Troy.
Somewhere, I read that this transaction also marks the end of Hulett’s two-year ban from Dominican Republic basketball. However, I can’t find where I initially read this, and nor do I know what the ban (if any) was for. Any details welcomed.
Humphrey is playing for Grupo Begar Leon in Spain’s LEB Gold. He’s averaging 15.3 points and 7.5 rebounds in 26 minutes per game, shooting 56& from the field and 62% from the line. The Magic may once have tried to turn him into a small forward/shooting guard, but it hasn’t happened. And it’s not going to, either.
Brandon Hunter is playing for Hapoel Jerusalem, where it has been my very great privilege to watch him quite a few times this season. For those wondering, he is still really really really strong, still bald, and still an out and out post player that can’t (doesn’t) shoot outside of the paint. And he’s still awesome. On the year Hunter is averaging 7.9 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in the Israeli league, alongside 8.2 points and a surprisingly low 3.8 rebounds per game in the EuroCup.
Snap has been in Spain since early 2006, and is currently in his second season with CB Granada. He is averaging 12.5 points and 3.2 rebounds per game in the ACB, but is shooting only 28% from three-point range. As the one-time CBA Three-Point Shootout Champion, this is quite the drop off.
Hart first signed with the Timberwolves for training camp, and the depth chart alone was enough to help him beat out the other 470 competitors for the 15th man spot. However, despite the Wolves’ lack of a third point guard, Hart played only five minutes and ended up being traded away, twice. Sort of. The Timberwolves first had a deal with New Orleans that would have seen them trade Hart (or rather, his unguaranteed contract) to the Hornets in exchange for Devin Brown and cash, and the deal was so close to being done that a press release even appeared on the Timberwolves’ website. However, Phoenix snuck in at the last minute and offered Minnesota a better deal, giving them Alando Tucker and a second rounder for Hart instead.
Phoenix then waived Hart, and New Orleans eventually got their man when Hart signed a ten-day contract with them as injury cover when Chris Paul first went down. Since then, however, Hart has been unsigned. He can often be seen in the crowd of Syracuse home games, although there aren’t any more of them scheduled until November time now.
Harvey was covered in the 2010 CBA Season Round-up from last week. In his last two games, Harvey put up two of his three worst scoring outings of the season; 14 points, 15 rebounds against Guangdong, and 8/9 in the regular season finale against Zhejiang Lions. Never mind, though. A fine season.
Stanford graduate and ex-Rockets signee Matt Haryasz moved from Belgium to Israel in the summer, but it didn’t last long. After only three games with Bnei Hasharon, in which he totalled 17 points and 12 rebounds, Haryasz moved to Holland to play for Groningen. Playing in the slightly crap Dutch league (no offence) has done wonders for Haryasz’s numbers; he’s averaging 16.1 points and 8.5 rebounds in only 25 minutes per game on the season.
Holland borders both Belgium and Germany, and their basketball league shares the Belgian and German league trait of having far too many Americans in it. Haryasz is one of seven on his team, and they also boast a Canadian called Steve Ross. It seems excessive.
Siena graduate Hasbrouck was going to sign with the Miami Heat for training camp. He originally joined the team for their summer free agent camp – boringly, they didn’t enter a summer league team – and he had the Heat staff raving about him. The contract looked – was – inevitable. However, Hasbrouck got injured just before camp started, and he never signed with the team. The injury was supposed to take about a month to heal, but actually took a lot longer than that, and Hasbrouck did not reappear until late January when he resurfaced in the D-League. From there, he was acquired by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, and in 10 games for them Hasbrouck has averaged 16.9 points and 2.9 assists on 50% shooting.
The Heat are going to call him up later today as a replacement for Rafer Alston, who has been suspended for the remainder of the season. Alston walked out on the team last week after the Heat told him he would be out of the rotation for the remainder of the season, and also after his sister attempted suicide. He is said to be contemplating retirement. The Heat are not said to be contemplating Mike James.
Temple graduate Hawkins moved to Montepaschi Siena in the summer, who went undefeated in Italy’s Serie A last year. They’re doing it again this year, too, with a 21-0 record and easily on course for their fourth consecutive championship. (Pepsi Caserta are in second place with a 15-7 record. They are seven games behind in the loss column with only nine weeks left. It’s over.) Hawkins is a big part of Siena’s success this season, averaging 12.8 points per game in the Italian league and 11.2 ppg in the EuroLeague (from which Siena have been eliminated), while playing his usual brand of tough defence.
Former Rockets guard Hawkins turns 37 years old this summer, but was playing professionally until recently. But now he’s not. While playing for the Australian team Gold Coast Blaze in January 2008, Hawkins suffered a stroke that pretty much ended his professional career. It certainly ended his season. Hawkins did return to the Blaze the following season to play again, but his stats were way down, and he left after six games. He’s all right now, even playing on the freaking stacked Los Angeles Lightning IBL team last summer. But there’s no more seasons in Australia in his future.
Now in retirement, Hawkins is an active youth leader and fundraiser in the L.A. area who runs this. He is also an ambassador for the American Stroke Association, for obvious reasons.
San Diego State product Heath is in Cyprus, playing for APOEL Nicosia. Regular readers will be aware that there’s no Cyprish domestic league statistics available, but APOEL are also in the quarter finals of the EuroChallenge, so we have Heath’s stats from that. In 12 games, Heath is averaging 12.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.7 assists, shooting 41% from two-point range and 46% from three-point range despite the squiffiness of his jump shot release.
Henderson last played in 2007 with the Philadelphia 76ers. After being salary-dumped by them onto the Jazz at the 2007 deadline, Henderson was instantly cut by the Jazz, waited the prerequisite 30 days, then rejoined the Sixers for a meaningless last few games. It was reported that Henderson would re-sign with the Sixers for the 2007/08 season, but he didn’t. Nor did he ever sign anywhere again, ever.
Henderson maintained throughout his NBA career that he’d like to go onto medical school once it finished, but he changed his mind when the time came, deciding that it was too late. He now lives in Florida, and studies business at Indiana University through an online program. Henderson also used to be involved in the Alan Henderson Golf Invitational, but pulled out in a row about how the funds that were raised were being distributed. Therefore, the Alan Henderson Golf Invitational now no longer involves Alan Henderson. Which seems a tad strange.
Alan Henderson’s middle name is Lybrooks. That’s pretty unique.
Hendrix has moved to Spain for this season, playing for C.B. Granada. He is averaging 14.0 points and 7.2 rebounds in 26.2 minutes per game on the season, shooting 67% from the field and 57% from the foul line.
The Warriors have finally been able to replace him with Chris Hunter, but why a team that was outrebounded in 55 of their first 64 games would so undervalue the rebounding abilities of someone like Hendrix is mind-blowing. It’s not that Hendrix is brilliant; it’s instead that they seem not to know or care that their way of building a team with zero power forwards is not working out. Do the Warriors’ brain trust deliberately not get it, or are they all just simultaneously overlooking the obvious?
Herrmann is in year one of a four-year contract that he signed with Caja Laboral in the ACB this summer, but year one isn’t going too well. Hermann is averaging only 14.1 minutes, 5.9 points and 2.4 rebounds per game in the ACB, alongside 12.9/4.3/2.1 in the EuroLeague. He has played no more than 21 minutes in any EuroLeague game thus far, and had played only 49 ACB minutes all season through January 24th. He did however play all 40 minutes in Vitoria’s last game against Estudiantes, totalling 22 points and 8 rebounds. However, the rest of the team combined for only 36 and Vitoria lost by 16.
Former Nuggets draft pick Axel Hervelle started the season with Real Madrid, his sixth season there. He totalled 82 minutes, 13 points and 18 rebounds in seven ACB games, but was the subject of transfer rumours the entire season, including rumours of a trade between Real and Efes Pilsen that would have seen Hervelle swapped for Boki Nachbar. That particular deal never happened, but Hervelle did eventually leave, moving to Bizkaia Bilbao in January. In nine ACB games for the team Hervelle is averaging 24 minutes, 8.4 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game, shooting 73% from two-point range and 11% from three-point range.
His rights are now owned by the Houston Rockets, who acquired them as the suitably-arbitrary returning piece in the deal that saw Denver acquire James White. White never played for the Nuggets. Hervelle will probably never play for the Rockets either.
Gonzaga graduate Josh Heytvelt is one of the best players in Turkey. His team (Oyak Renault Bursa) are third-last in the Turkish TBL with a 6-16 record, but it’s not the fault of Heytvelt, who averages 16.6 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. The scoring ranks tenth in the league, and the rebounds rank second only to Jamar E. O’Davidson. Bursa won a massive game at the weekend when they beat the high-flying Turk Telekom; Heytvelt played all 40 minutes and put up 26 points and 13 rebounds. (Ricky Davis had 20 for Turk Telekom in his second game for the team. He scored 8 in the first.)
Providence big man Herbert Hill’s professional career has barely gotten going due to knee injuries. He was drafted by the Sixers in 2007 and stayed with the team all season, but never played in a game for them due to knee surgery, and the rehab from that overlapped into last year. Hill initially tried out for Le Mans in August 2008 but was not sufficiently recovered, and did not return to action until February, when he played the last 15 games of the D-League season with the Bakersfield Jam and Tulsa 66ers. Now healthy again, Hill has spent all of this season in South Korea with the Daegu Orions, a team whose name I keep misreading as the Daegu Onions. (Chuck Swirsky would love them.) Hill is averaging 19.1 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in 32.2 minutes per game.
Hill started the season with Meridiano Alicante, playing his second season for the ACB team that he had helped win promotion from the LEB Gold last year. However, he averaged only 5.9 points in 17.0 minutes per game, and left the team when Serkan Erdogan was brought in last month, moving to Serbia to play for Hemofarm. In his two games for Hemofarm so far, Hill has totalled 48 minutes, 2 points and 3 fouls.
Hill was drafted out of Eastern Illinois by the Mavericks in 2001 with a pick that they had received in 2000 from the Rockets. Houston traded the rights to Eduardo Najera and a 2001 second (Hill) to Dallas in exchange for the rights to Dan Langhi. Dallas then traded those rights back to Houston in 2001 as a small part of the multi-player Glen Rice/Shandon Anderson deal that saw Dallas trading Hill’s rights to Houston and Howard Eisley to New York in exchange for Muggsy Bogues, who never played for the team. It was a salary dump of Eisley’s $41 million salary, but why Dallas had taken on that salary only one year before is a mystery.
Arkansas centre Steven Hill started the year in training camp with the Chicago Bulls, but was waived after a week and appeared in no preseason games. He has spent the season in the D-League, bouncing on and off the roster of the Tulsa 66ers. In the 11 games he has managed, Hill has averaged 8.1 minutes, 1.0 points, 2.0 rebounds, 0.7 blocks, 0.6 turnovers and 1.0 fouls. He’s still a seven foot athletic shot-blocker, so he’s still intriguing. But he also still lacks for certain skills to an NBA level.
Hill last played in December 2003 for the Miami Heat, and is now an assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks. He turns 42 years old on Friday. You’re now feeling old too.
NC-Greensboro graduate Hines is doing that thing that he does where he puts up a boatload of defensive stats. Playing for Prima Veroli in Italy’s LegaDue, Hines is averaging 18.7 points, 8.4 rebounds, 3.6 steals and 1.3 blocks per game, shooting 65% from the field and 56% from the line.
Only six players in the history of NCAA basketball have ever recorded more than 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 300 blocks for their careers. Those six are David Robinson (1st overall pick, 1987), Pervis Ellison (1st overall pick, 1989), Derrick Coleman (1st overall pick, 1990), Tim Duncan (1st overall pick, 1997), Alonzo Mourning (2nd overall pick, 1992, behind only Shaquille O’Neal) and Kyle Hines (undrafted, 2008).
One of those things is not like the others.
[Incidentally, Shaq was 59 points short of said milestone.]
Hite was playing with JuveCaserta in Italy’s Serie A as recently as last week, but was released this week for reasons not immediately known. He had averaged 12.7 points and 3.7 rebounds in three games for the team, and in 10 games for Sigma Montegranaro earlier in the year he had averaged 9.3 points and 2.6 rebounds.
Hodge burnt a lot of bridges in Australia last year. He was playing to a LeBron-like standard, outrageously good for a guard without a jump shot, but then he walked out on the Adelaide 36ers amid a wave of controversy. Various reasons were cited ranging from racial taunting in the crowd to a payment dispute; whatever the reasons, things got acrimonious and then some. Yet apparently Hodge didn’t burn every bridge there, because against all odds, he returned to the country (if not the 36ers) to play again this season. In the now-completed NBL regular season, Hodge averaged 17.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.9 assists for the Melbourne Tigers. And in typical Julius Hodge fashion, he shot 49% from the field, 59% from the foul line, and 0% from three-point range.
Hoiberg’s role in the Timberwolves front office is now officially the Vice President Of Basketball Operations. Job titles tend to carry different meanings for different teams; for example, John Paxson is the Vice President Of Basketball Operations for the Bulls while Gar Forman is the General Manager, but while Gar does a lot of the leg work, Paxson ultimately has final say. In contrast, other Vice Presidents Of Basketball Operations include Tom Penn (Portland), Sam Hinkie (Houston) and Mark Warkentein (Denver); the last one is fully in charge, while the other two aren’t. It’s not exactly a uniform title, but in Hoiberg’s case, it means he is second to President of Basketball Operations, David Kahn. As for the difference between Hoiberg’s role and that of General Manager Jim Stack, I couldn’t say. And as for what Rob Babcock does as assistant GM, I don’t know. Either way, there’s no Kevin McHale any more.
Ex-Bulls forward Holcomb was playing in Spain’s LEB Gold with Caceres, but left in January. He averaged 10.4 points and 4.5 rebounds in 17 games, and is currently unsigned.
Holcomb is now a Libyan citizen, turning up randomly on their national team in the summer under the name Raed Farid Elhamali.
As always, J.R. Holden is with CSKA Moscow. This is his eighth season there now, and he has one more left on his contract after this. On the season he is averaging 11.6 points per game in the Russian league, 10.3 points per game in the EuroLeague and 8.5 points per game in the VTB United League. In eight VTB, games Holden has not yet taken a single foul shot; he has only 32 in 37 combined games overall. But never mind that.
No J.R. Holden commentary is complete without this clip of his steal and championship-winning basket in the dying seconds of Eurobasket 2007. Michael Jordan in the 1998 NBA Finals? Nah. J.R. Holden all the way. This is how you do it without a push-off. (Try and overlook how bored the commentator sounds.)
The Ho-Man is the starting power forward for Marousi, Greece’s third-best team who have put on a damn fine showing in their first EuroLeague campaign. As mentioned in the Jamon Gordon entry, Marousi have now been eliminated, but it was a good campaign nonetheless. On the season, Homan is averaging 8.8 points and 6.3 rebounds in less than 20 minutes per game in the Greek league, and averaged 9.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game in the EuroLeague.
After two years out of the game, Air Force graduate and former Nuggets camp invite Antoine Hood returned to basketball when he signed with the D-League and was drafted by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the 6th round of the draft. Hood was released by the Vipers without playing a game for them, but he moved to the Czech Republic at the start of this month to play for BK Nova Hut Ostrava. In the first four games outside of America in his incredibly short career, and in his first professional games for nearly three years, Hood has averaged 21.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.3 steals, good numbers all for a 6’4 guard. He’s had to go to a lower standard of professional basketball to do it, but it’s a start.
One final Mengke Bateer note – while I called him Mongolian earlier, he’s actually from Inner Mongolia, which is considered part of China, in much the same way Vermont is considered part of the USA. I didn’t realise that there was a difference between Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, but there is, and so I will bring that difference to you now. Always learning.
Hardaway last played in December 2007 with the Miami Heat. Finding anything that he’s done since then has not been easy. His website is just a shade out of date, and if he has business interests then I don’t know what they are. What we know for sure is that two years ago he gave a million dollars to the University of Memphis two years ago, because John Calipari has a way of making things like that happen.
Thunder draft pick Hardin played in Greece last year, but now he’s back where they can keep an eye on him. Hardin is with the Thunder’s D-League affiliate, the Tulsa 66ers, but he’s not doing very well there. In 27 games with 20 starts and 20.5 minutes per game, Hardin is averaging only 5.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game, with 155 points on 122 shots and a foul every eight minutes. It should be somewhat simple for an NBA-calibre big man to put up near-double-double stats in the D-League; even Chris Richard managed to do it, when his 9/8 for the 66ers was deemed sufficient to be signed three times by the Chicago Bulls. But Hardin hasn’t done it, nor has he come close to it. His minutes have affected somewhat by the Thunder’s assortment of assigned players, including big men D.J. White and B.J. Mullens at various times, as well as injury. Yet it’s not heading the right way.
Harpring was a member of the Thunder’s roster until just after the trade deadline, when the Thunder quietly waived him. Before that time, Harpring was doing TV work for the Utah Jazz; after that time, he still is.
Dallas’ deadline deal for Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood was proof, to an extent, of what I said at the time about the deal that first brought Harpring and Eric Maynor to Oklahoma City. Had OKC held on to that cap space longer, I believe they could have gotten more for it; by offering some long-term salary relief (which OKC could do), as well as short-term salary relief (which OKC could do even better than Dallas), OKC could have received the package that Dallas did instead. The Thunder are already very good, but put Brendan Haywood on this team, and they become amongst the West’s very best. This was doable. And so while Maynor is a nice player for them, I still think it was premature, and a misappropriation of their unrivalled resources. (Of course, this can never be proven. But the Dallas deal suggests it was the case.)
Also, by not getting under the luxury tax despite trimming so much salary, Utah fails. Close, but close wasn’t enough. Since it’s the kind of thing I like to wonder about, I wonder if there were avenues available to them to do so that they just deemed to be too far. For example, OKC and Presti were the ones who gave C.J. Miles that contract in the first place; is there no conceivable way in which Utah could have palmed him off there, even if it’s only for Kyle Weaver? Just thinking out loud here. Maybe they decided dumping three rotation players just to save money was too much to justify. But whatever the reason they had for not getting under the tax – be it by choice, or because they couldn’t get it done – Utah know that it’s possible to dump a good player on an average salary and pick up a comparable player for the minimum. They know this because they’ve done it, and so if they could have done it one more time with this Miles to OKC deal, then perhaps they should have.
The counter argument to that says that, if C.J. Miles is so readily replaceable with a cheaper player, then OKC could just pick up the cheaper player instead should they need to. That counter argument makes a valid point. And so perhaps that answers my own question as to the viability of a Miles-to-OKC deal. (The fact that the Thunder have acquired Thabo Sefolosha and James Harden since that offer sheet was signed is also not insignificant. Oklahoma City no longer have a place for Miles.)
But the larger, general point remains. You see it a lot, when D-League players come in and contribute at least 85% of what the multi-year veteran they’re replacing can give, to a watching audience shocked by their competence. This happens every year, and this year has been no different, with players such as Sundiata Gaines, Reggie Williams, Anthony Tolliver, Chris Hunter and others readily contributing to NBA teams. Utah themselves kind of did this when they brought in Wesley Matthews in the offseason, a man so beautifully competent that he made Ronnie Brewer expendable. About 40 or so NBA rotation players are entirely replaceable by players outside of the NBA, who would be deemed to have NBA talent had they had the opportunity/fortune of those in front of them. This is particularly the case with wing players, but also applies to all positions, and it’s not just something that’s been the case since the D-League existed. For example, for all these years Calvin Booth has been bringing in pay checks and signing multi-year contracts, how much worse than him has Zendon Hamilton been? Pretty much no worse at all, really. But Booth had opportunity and fortune, and Hamilton did not. So Hamilton grafted for whatever money and employment he could get, while Booth got a prolonged career based off one timely summer. It’s somewhat unfair, but it’s just how it is. (And despite how it may appear, that’s not meant pejoratively towards Booth. Take what you can get, Calvin, and God bless you for that.)
The NBA prefers familiarity, and familiarity breeds the opposite of contempt. Some players get more than they deserve, while their comparable peers run up the air miles just trying to find the right situation. There is nothing especially wrong or flawed about this circumstance, and it sure as hell applies to all works of life in some way. Yet it perhaps should be less of a surprise when a D-Leaguer or undrafted free agent is brought in and is able to be a consistent distributor in an NBA rotation. It’s normal, it’s sensible, and it’s worth considering when you start giving average players MLE money. Any team that does its homework can find minimum salary talent. Utah are one such team – they’ve since done it again with Othyus Jeffers – and it’s a shame they didn’t have one more left in the gun.
Every year, I mean to keep a list of players who were bought out of their D-League contracts midseason to go and play somewhere else around the world. And every year, I forget. I do keep a list of NBA call-ups and assignments, but that’s not the same thing. I’m talking about moves such as Carlos Powell to Liaoning, Courtney Sims to Puerto Rico, Zabian Dowdell to Unicaja Malaga, etc. But I never remember.
One such move that was entirely overlooked was that of Adam Harrington, who started the season with the Springfield Armor before being bought and moving to Poland to join SKK Kotwica Kolobrzeg. (The very same.) Harrington averaged 8.7 points and 4.0 rebounds for the Armor, compared to 11.2 points and 2.0 rebounds for Kolobrzeg.
Junior Harrington is also in Poland, playing for Asseco Prokom Gdynia. Gdynia are still in the EuroLeague, preparing for a quarter-final matchup against the mighty Olympiacos. So despite how much they’ve achieved just to get this far, they’re in trouble now. Harrington is a small part of this run, averaging 3.5 points and 1.7 assists in the Polish league, alongside 1.8 ppg, 1.4 apg and 1.3 spg in the EuroLeague.
Othella played three games in the D-League last year, after taking a long time to recover from knee surgery. He did not play very well in them, yet they were his only games all season. And this year, Othella has played three fewer games than that. He tried out for a spot with Petrochimi in Iran back in December, but did not make the team. He remains unsigned.
Harris has had three stints in the NBA this year. He started with the Thunder, with whom he signed for training camp before being waived in favour of Ryan Bowen, and later returned to the Rockets for a couple of weeks, for whom he appeared in 2 games. Later on came a ten day contract with the Wizards, for whom he played 13 minutes and scored 4 points. And in between those gigs has been the D-League, where Harris once again finds himself. For the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Harris is averaging 27.0 points and 10.3 rebounds, leading the league in scoring and ranking third in rebounds per game.
Syracuse grad Harris started the season in training camp with the Utah Jazz, but that earlier rant should give you an inclination of how that worked out. Harris got injured in camp and never appeared in a preseason game, and even though he was later taken eighth overall in the 2009 D-League Draft by the Maine Red Claws, he hasn’t played in the D-League this season either due to the injury. Harris declared after his junior year, and could be on the #1-ranked Orange right now, but as it is, he sits unsigned in the D-League player pool rehabbing an ankle injury. This isn’t the ideal way to start a professional career, but bad luck can’t be helped.
Paul Harris looks pretty freaking similar to Mike Harris in that picture, does he not?
Harris started the year in France, but it didn’t go too well. Upon being released, he returned to America and joined the D-League, being acquired by the Maine Red Claws. In inconsistent playing time over a few months, Harris has averaged 6.0 points and 2.5 rebounds per game, yet shot only 32% from three-point range.
Harrison was covered in the 2010 CBA Season Round-up from last week. The CBA regular season just finished, and Guangdong won with a 30-2 record. Seasons are finishing and yet I’m only up to H in the alphabet. Eep.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
Robert Whaley arrested for carrying drugs in his backside
March 12th, 2010
The cheerful-looking person in this picture is former Utah Jazz and Toronto Raptors big man, Robert Whaley. You may remember him, or you may not. But if you do, it’s probably because either:
a) you’re a Cincinnati Bearcats fan who remembers Whaley for the one underwhelming year he brought your team in 2003-04 before being forced to transfer due to off-the-court issues,
b) you’re a Raptors fan who remembers Whaley’s inclusion as a throw-in in the trade that ended the Rafael Araujo Experience, or
c) you’re a Jazz fan who remembers Whaley as being the one that was arrested alongside Deron Williams back in 2005, in an incident that saw them humiliate themselves by giving false names to the police.
Either way, your memories of Robert Whaley probably aren’t great.
A recurrent theme in that list is Whaley’s trend of getting involved in off-the-court issues. Largely unbeknownst to me until today, Whaley has been making a habit of that over the last few years. In the early hours of this morning, per the Salt Lake Tribune, Whaley was a passenger in a car when he was arrested by “gang detectives”, whatever they are, and found to have marijuana in his buttocks. Upon being processed, it also turned out that Whaley was a wanted fugitive in the state of Michigan after being convicted of running a drug house back in 2008. The obligatory mugshot follows.
2008 also marked the last time Whaley played professional basketball, and his entire career, dating back to the end of his high school years, was not exactly dignified. After almost winning Mr Basketball in the state of Michigan in 2001, Whaley spent two years at Barton County Community College, averaging 16.9 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, before moving to Cincinnati for his junior season. Once at Cincinnati, Whaley had more field goal attempts than points scored, and grabbed only 4.3 rebounds per 40 minutes, before being kicked off the team and forced to transfer.
Whaley moved to Walsh University, a team in the NAIA (and, not coincidentally, then-Cincinnati head coach Bob Huggins’s alma mater), and things improved a bit. Considering how far he’d moved down the basketball ladder, they rather had to. Whaley averaged 19.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game, was named the NAIA Division II Player of the Year, and led Walsh to their first and to date only NAIA National Championship. That, plus the magical word “potential”, was enough to get Whaley drafted that summer 51st overall in the NBA. No matter that he was a poor rebounder, wouldn’t play defence, was out of shape, was highly inconsistent with his scoring, had attitude concerns, suffered from big turnover problems and multiple off-court issues, had barely played to a Division I standard, and hadn’t played well when he did; he was a scoring big man who moved OK. And that’s what the NBA always feels it needs most.
Whaley’s first season in the NBA was also his last. It started ominously when Whaley earned himself a two-game suspension for throwing a punch at Adam Parada (then on the Lakers’ training camp roster) in a preseason game. And then when he started playing, it got little better. In 23 games, Whaley averaged 2.3 points, 1.9 rebounds, 0.6 turnovers and 1.8 fouls per game, shooting 40% from the field and 50% from the line. For per-36 minute fans, that’s 8.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 7.0 fouls and 2.6 turnovers. Whaley then missed the majority of the season after knee surgery, and then topped off his season with the incident with Williams. Robert and Deron were both with a Class C violation for lying to police after an early morning altercation at a club. A Denver Nuggets fan with the slightly awesome name of Affan Arslanagic (sounds more like a suppository) started having a go at Williams and Whaley in a club, eventually throwing a bottle at them. All three got thrown out of the place, but the fight continued in the street. When police arrived, Whaley said that his name was “Bobby Williams”, and Williams said his name was “Torrey Ellis”. It didn’t work.
At some point in the altercation, Whaley also cut his hand. He then lied about this to the Jazz, claiming that his infant son accidentally cut it with a knife. His cunning ruse was soon rumbled, however, and he was fined and suspended for two games by the team.
After the season ended, the Jazz traded Whaley as filler in the Kris Humphries/Rafael Araujo swap, and the Raptors waived him two weeks later, just before draft night. Whaley has never sniffed the NBA again. He played on the Jazz’s summer league team at the Rocky Mountain Revue in 2006 – even after they had traded him away a mere month before – and then split the 2006-07 season between the Dominican Republic, the ABA and Iran, but no NBA. In 2007/08 Whaley went to the D-League, but in 21 games with the Los Angeles D-Fenders he averaged only 4.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.8 fouls in 12.9 minutes per game. This was the last professional basketball gig of his career; as outlined at the top of the post, it appears he found a new source of income elsewhere.
Whaley’s criminal history also includes two felony counts of aggravated battery after partaking in some kind of brawl in 2003, to which he was sentenced to a year’s probation. And that history is perhaps highlighted – if that’s the right word – by a rape trial in 2001 involving a 13-year-old girl. Whaley was eventually acquitted in that case after a mistrial was declared, but that incident is what first crippled his stock and necessitated the two years at community college.
You’re getting the idea by now. Whaley has spent his adult stumbling from incidental. In a mini Twitter homage, we may now have to call him Failwhale.
Speaking of Twitter, Robert Whaley appears to have an account there, and he didn’t even use an alias to register it. On it is what appears to the harrowing story of his son being knocked down and killed by a car this summer, as well as some messages to current Jazz players. There is no reason to doubt that it is, or was, him.
Whaley has not used the account for a while, and he’s probably not going to do so soon either. Nevertheless, its existence asks an obvious question; if I can find Robert Whaley from Europe just by searching Twitter, why couldn’t Michigan State police?
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