I feel obligated to write something about the Bulls/Celtics playoff series. It has been untold drama, brilliant excitement, and well worth the fortnight of 7am finishes. It’s been better than Megan Fox’s shadow, worse than De Niro’s moustache in Cop Land, and awesome to a fault. And I feel inclined to write something that describes it all.
But the truth is, I don’t want to. I don’t think I can. The series has been so unilaterally brilliant, so unrivalled in its drama and so and flawlessly flawed in its execution, that I’m not capable of writing the words to accurately describe it. I don’t think anyone is. It’s as though someone decided the Coach Carter series of films should rival Police Academy, wrote six of the most implausibly cheesy scripts ever written, and nailed them all on the first take in front of an audience of millions. The drama, for lack of a better word, is perfect.
Disregard game three for a minute. (The Bulls forgot to turn up to that one, so it’s best we pretend that it didn’t happen.) Over the other five games, the other 275 minutes, and the 1,000 or so possessions, the difference between the two team’s aggregate score is one freaking point. There have been seven overtimes in four games, and one game that was decided in the final second of regulation. Never before has there even been more than two overtime games in a series. And yet we’re at four already, with one still to play.
It is almost unfathomable how close these two teams are. It will never happen again. It doesn’t matter now about the peculiar series of events that made it this way; what we have now, quite possibly, are the two most evenly-matched teams in the sport’s history. All the planets have aligned, and this is the basketball equinox.
How many plays have there been that, if only minutely different, would have meant the series was over by now? How many things only had to go ever so slightly differently for the result to be different? What if Rajon Rondo was called for the goaltend of Kirk Hinrich’s lay-up? What if Eddie House knew where the three-point line was? What if Ray Allen hadn’t tiptoed it, twice? What if Ben Gordon didn’t kick the cooler and get a technical? What if Joakim Noah didn’t gamble for that steal? What if he missed it? Does Brian Scalabrine then get his Horry on? What if they called Paul Pierce dragging his pivot foot six yards in the first OT?
What if John Salmons doesn’t take that airball three at the end of regulation? What if the moving screen on Glen Davis that set up the House two was properly called? What if Hinrich hadn’t MISSED THAT LAYUP?!?!?? What if Brad Miller had thrown a shot up at the end of OT? What if Pierce hadn’t turned down passing to an open Allen? If Joakim Noah misses that gambled steal, does Scalabrine put the Celtics up 126-123? What if Pierce hadn’t fouled him?
And those are just from the last 16 minutes of game five. What about the other 287 in the series?
Everything that has happened in this series has happened in reverse, too. Brad Miller has choked in the clutch and won a game down the stretch. Ben Gordon has almost won games single-handedly, and done his best to lose them too. Derrick Rose showed that he’s ready for both the big time and bedtime. Kirk Hinrich, one of the worst clutch performers of the decade (a man who shot 14% in the clutch last season) has turned up for the big stage. Ray Allen has been brilliant or non-existent. Paul Pierce can gut out a win, but only sometimes. Everyone has been brilliant for stretches and terrible in others. (Tyrus Thomas even went a game without sucking. That’s rare.) The only consistencies have been bad officiating, worse coaching, John Salmons’s relentlessly gormless “my beard is so heavy it’s pulling my bottom jaw to the ground” face, and Kevin Garnett’s unabashed “personality”. Just those and all the overtimes.
And then on top of that, we’ve had all the bonus drama. Rajon Rondo’s carnal desire to hurt someone. Kirk Hinrich’s swag. Ray Allen being really, really, really, really good. Joakim Noah showing the world what Bulls fans knew since January. The long-overdue debut of Aaron Gray’s playoff beard. Doug Collins’s fluctuating opinions on how tall Ben Gordon is. Tony Allen’s death threat. Kevin Garnett’s injury. Ben Gordon’s injury. Leon Powe’s terrible luck early in the series. The huge plays down the stretch. Danny Ainge’s heart attack. The terrific individual execution. Brad Miller’s permanent “tickle me again and I’ll throw a paddy right here and now” scowl when things go badly. Vinny Del Negro’s palms being welded into his armpits. Stephon Marbury losing games through being afraid to shoot. Brian Scalabrine getting key minutes while sporting a head like an upside-down carrot cake.
It’s brilliant. I just only wish the stage was bigger.
At the end of game six, I called my friend, finding myself with a desperate need to explain to someone what I’d been watching. They probably didn’t appreciate the call at 7.45am on a weekday, but they got it anyway. I tried to explain what I’d been watching, why I was so excited, where this series placed in the all-time history of the sport, how there’d been so many if-onlys and impossible shots that even Matthew McConaughey would have turned down the script. She didn’t quite understand, or even really try to. But she meant well when she said;
I love to read when I’m on the toilet. Love it. Can barely go without it, in fact. Unfortunately, I don’t own many books. So I tend to read the same ones over and over again.
True to form, I am currently mid-way through a repeat reading of “When Nothing Else Matters” by Michael Leahy, a exposé-type book about Michael Jordan’s comeback with the Wizards. It’s quite good fun, particularly if the Wizards-era Jordan was the only Jordan era that you were around to see, as was the case for me. I’m particularly enjoying reading about all the other characters in the story, like Doug Collins, Tim Grover, Jerry Stackhouse, Rip Hamilton, Tyronn Lue, Chris Whitney, Kwame Brown (who, it’s fair to say, struggles for good news throughout), Juan Dixon, Bobby Simmons, Courtney Alexander and others. But I am especially mindful of one name that I’d forgotten about, that of Tyrone Nesby, the former defensive specialist and hater of passing that had a few years of coming off NBA benches after picking up a surprisingly generous contract from the Clippers of all teams.
Because of this, I decided to look up what T-Nes was doing these days. The last I had heard, he’d become a rapper, but that was about two years ago, now, so I looked again.
After the Wizards’ 2001/02 season, Nesby’s $9 million contract had run out, and the Wizards looked elsewhere. No other NBA team seemed to want him, and Nesby hit the European trail, signing with Larisa in Greece and averaging 17.8 points per game. He then went to 2003 summer league with the New York Knicks, but didn’t get a full contract, and went back to Europe the following year visiting both Italy (13.4 ppg for Varese) and Serbia (21.1 ppg for Relfex Beograd). In the 2004/05 season, Nesby signed with Lietuvos Rytas in Lithuania, for whom he averaged 16.3 points in the ULEB Cup and 13.5 ppg in the Lithuanian league. Nesby’s only other basketball stop was in the 2006/07 season, when he co-owned an ABA team called the Las Vegas Venom. (Note: if ever you’ve wondered what co-owning an ABA team is like, write yourself a cheque for $5,000, then set light to the corner of it and use it to burn down your house. It’s a bit like that.) They folded after a few months, getting little further than playing seven games and designing a logo in that time, and that was the end of Nesby’s basketball efforts. (Nesby was also the head coach and the star player for the team. Four months well spent.)
You can’t keep a good man down, though, and Tyrone Nesby found his true talents when he started to make it big in Lithuania as a rapper called T-Nes. Nesby released an album there called “Serious Business”, and it featured Nesby rapping in English to some seminal Lithuanian choruses. Samples of some T-Nes songs can be found on Nesby’s website, Nesby World, as well as a frankly stupendous gallery, feature nude pictures of Nesby’s upper body and a touching moment with a Luke Jackson lookalike. Truly something for everyone there.
In addition to this, Nesby has also seemingly gone back to university to finish his criminal justice degree (he left UNLV after two seasons), information which I learnt from reading this. That page also gives an incorrectly-spelled link to Nesby’s other website for his non-profit foundation, the aptly named ‘Tyrone Nesby Foundation’. (The foundation’s site no longer works, even when spelt properly, and is only viewable via this archive version. But it’s something.) The Hoopcoach link also speaks of Nesby’s desire to become a coach one day, and, on his Linkedin page, Tyrone alludes to his dream of becoming a casino host. The man knows what he wants at least occasionally. And I can respect that.
It’s all rather positive stuff. A decent basketball career, playing to a decent standard for good money, a reasonable sideline in the music industry, many years spent running a foundation with genuine (if wildly overambitious) intentions to give back to his community, and a man who went back to school to complete his degree mindful of its importance to achieving what he wants to achieving. There’s a potential biopic to be made out of that somewhere.
There are however some less positive bits.
Nesby was arrested in the Wizards locker room back in April 2001 after a March 1999 arrest warrant was issued for him after an October 1995 incident. (If that makes sense.) In the initial incident, Nesby was alleged to have punched, kicked and broke the nose of a man named David Collins in the face during an argument about the verdict in the O.J. Simpson murder trial (which might explain his decision to major in criminal science), and the assault led to a charge of misdemeanour battery. Nesby was sued over the incident in a civil judgment back in 1998, and lost, having to pay the victim $16,500, but the criminal charges were later dropped, despite the six years they took to come to fruition. After this came two contempt of court arrests, the first in mid-2007 and the second in January 2008, both times for failing to appear in court at hearings for outstanding child support payments. The second arrest saw Nesby sentenced to 22 days in jail for contempt, with the initial hearing being about a child support case that saw him owing over $65,000. A lot of money.
If that was the end of the money owed, then it would be bad enough. But it isn’t. Reportedly, at the time of that arrest, Nesby owed “at least $1 million” in child support in various other judgements, not least of which is a $300,000 or so debt in Illinois, where records of so-called ‘delinquents’ are made publicly available on a website. Nesby’s entry currently shows that, despite the most recent payment being in this calendar year, he owes almost half a million dollars in this one case alone, and that’s not counting the judgments in other states around the country. At the time of Nesby’s aforementioned arrest in January 2008, this debt was only – if you can call it that – around $300,000; apparently, subsequent payments notwithstanding, it’s somehow gone up $100,000 in less than 18 months.
What Nesby is doing to earn the money to pay the debts is unclear, and not really any of my business. But whatever he’s doing, he’s surely not earning $3 million a year any more. Yet the payments would appear to have been set back when he was. Is that fair? I don’t know. It doesn’t seem it.
Either way, help out. Buy Tyrone Nesby’s music. Together, we can make poverty history. Just buy two tracks a month, or whatever you can afford. Please.
od invented the internet so that we could feel more closely acquainted to professional athletes. It’s the reason they have online chats, it’s the reason they have their own websites, it’s the reason we try and become their Facebook friends, and it’s the reason that their team contractually obligates them to humiliate themselves for the sake of a few YouTube videos. For this, we must give our eternal thanks, because God never fails to satisfy us. And nor does Joakim Noah.
During a Bulls game last week, a halftime segment aired that showed Noah, Derrick Rose, Tyrus Thomas and Luol Deng participating in a ‘Name That Tune’ style challenge. The four players paired up, and one player had to sing whatever tune was playing in his headphones, with the other player charged with guessing which song it was that they were butchering. The girl’s job was to guess which team won.
The whole debacle was caught on camera.
A closer inspection reveals that this isn’t the first Bulls players karaoke segment of the season. Three other officially licensed videos exist, showing the same players (as well as Kirk Hinrich, Aaron Gray, and the now-departed Drew Gooden and Thabo Sefolosha) taking part in a singalong to various TV theme tunes. The tunes range from seminal to forgettable, yet they are, to a man, bludgeoned.
If anyone emerges from this with any pride, it might be Drew Gooden. Gooden – whom we already know to be always up for a tinkle – demonstrates, if nothing else, a semblance of a sense of rhythm, humility and personality, although he does appear to struggle with the difference between a saxophone and a piccolo. Hinrich continues his galvanising makeover from the shy and retiring elfin-like creature of his rookie year to the matured and forthcoming comedy god that he is today. Tyrus Thomas sings like he plays (with plenty of effort yet little to show for it), as does Luol Deng (who sings, let’s say, differently). Most worryingly of all, Derrick Rose seems to sing in the same way that he talks – in a monotoned unrelenting B flat that never shows any signs of breaking out into a fit of inflection or interest. Give me another half hour of Gooden, instead. Thanks.
However, if you thought that other Bulls starlet Ben Gordon had gotten lucky and avoided it all, then despair not. Despite the fact that those videos were probably made during Gordon’s entirely awkward contract negotiations, Ben has been seen to have brought the noise before. In this first video, Ben is caught chiming in with a vital contribution to the seminal Chicago Bears theme song, “Bear Down Chicago Bears”. (Note: a version with Hinrich in it is out there somewhere, but apparently I’ve lost it.)
And in this second video, Ben does what so many ballers feel obligated to do eventually; he stars in a rap video.
(Note: That last video appears to have been an advert for a product called Mioplex. A quick Google search reveals that Mioplex is a “male orgasm intensifier.” This would explain why he felt fifty feet tall. My work here is done.)
This will be the last instalment for this season of this series of posts, one which has gone on forever and seen more than a couple of jokes be repeated. It has come to its rightful end, ending as it does with the human conversation killer, Eurelijus Zukauskas. I’ll still take requests, but these lengthy diatribes are being put to bed. With that in mind, let’s get on with it.
– David Young averages 12.0 points and 2.7 rebounds per game for the Aishin Sea Horses in the Japanese JBL. You should know who David Young is, but, if you don’t, Young is a shooting guard who was a second-round draft choice and subsequent training camp signing of the Seattle Supersonics back in 2004. This came after a season that saw him put up 20/5 for North Carolina Central, a Division II team that isn’t really comparable to the real North Carolina. Before that, Young spent three years coming off the bench for Xavier, averaging no more than 8.1 ppg in any season. Along with his Sonics stint, Young has also played on summer league teams for New Jersey, Milwaukee and Sacramento, Last year, he played to a decent standard with Pau Orthez, averaging 13.1 points per game in the ULEB Cup, but the move to Japan represents a downgrade from that. You have now learnt about David Young. My work here is done.
– Another Sonic training camp signing from that year was also called Young, and also played for an imitation UNC. Former Bucks draft pick and North Carolina-Charlotte standout Galen Young made their training camp roster that year, and put up 4.5 points and 4.0 fouls in four preseason games before being waived. He had also made the Sonics’ 2003 training camp roster, as well as the Pacers’ one in 2001, and the Bucks’ camp roster in 1999, the year in which he was drafted 48th overall. However, Young never made a regular season roster or appeared in a single game. Now 33, Young is still going, although he was waived earlier this month by his Philippines team, the Alaska Aces, and before that he was kicking around what’s left of the CBA. But still. It’s something.
– Former Northwestern star Jitim Young is signed with Polonia Warszawa in Poland, averaging 7.1 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 1.9 assists per game, shooting all of 27% from the field. Jitim never made a training camp roster, but he was added to this website way back in 2005, because I thought he did. Must have confused him with Galen. Ah well.
– Former UCLA guard Ray Young went undrafted in 2003, and spent the 2003-04 season with the Gary Steelheads of the CBA, averaging all of 4.9 points. Young was signed by the New Orleans Hornets for 2004 training camp anyway, surviving all of five days before being cut. Young then went back to the Steelheads for the 2004-05 season, playing part of the year there, and then signed with the Golden State Warriors for 2005 training camp. He didn’t make the team, and has not played anywhere in the ensuing three and a half years. Now 29, I’m assuming he’s given up the game, although I can’t find a single thing that says what he does these days. By the way, what’s the common theme running through this Ray Young section? Answer: Baron Davis. The two played together for one year at UCLA in 1998-99, and clearly cemented some kind of firm bond – Davis was a star for the Hornets in 2004, and was traded to the Warriors in 2005. Is it a coincidence that a man like Ray Young was signed by those two teams, without the benefit of an NBA calibre resumé, conveniently while his good friend was a star on those teams at the same time? No. So if Young joins the Clippers any time soon, even after four years out of the game, then don’t be too surprised.
– Xue Yuyang is in the elite company of players like Ramon Van De Hare and Sergei Karaulov, surviving as a testament to just how emphatic that turn-of-the-century “let’s draft a seven-foot foreigner who has decent mobility, CV and skillset be damned” trend was. Drafted 57th in 2003 by the Mavericks, the Nuggets traded a future second-rounder (later used on Vassilis Spanoulis) for Xue’s rights….and that’s where the good times ended. Xue has spent the ensuing six seasons playing for the Xinjiang Gyang Hui Flying Tigers in his native China, where, quite frankly, he’s not even one of the best Chinese players on his team. Indeed, he’s barely rotation-calibre at this point. If you’ve been following this series of posts at all, you will know that numbers for fringe NBA players in the Chinese league are amusingly inflated, with players such as Bonzi Wells and Rodney White averaging well into the 30 ppg+ range. But Xue is nothing like that; he averages 6.9 points, 2.2 rebounds and 0.2 blocks in 18.3 minutes per game, not exactly big man numbers from a seven-footer. (If you want those numbers in some sort of context, former NBA big man Mengke Bateer is also on that team, and he averages 16.6 points, 10.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.2 blocks per game, and the team’s lone American import – former D-Leaguer Myron Allen – averages as-near-as-is-22/6/6. Just a FYI.) Worse still, despite being the team’s tallest player, Yuyang seems content with being a three-point chucker – Xue has attempted 131 three-pointers to his 98 two-pointers, with only 38 free throws shot all year. Off the top of my head, Quinton Ross went undrafted in the 2003 draft, and surely there was others of some significance that would have been more sensible selections than Xue Yuyang. Even Ray Young would have done. But nope. Thankfully, this trend looks to have died down.
– While we’re on the subject of Mengke Bateer and Xue Yuyang, you’ll probably be interested in what became of Wang Zhizhi. After his NBA career died away, Wang did the expected and returned to China, now into his third season with the Bayi Fubang. He averages 22.5 points and 7.7 rebounds in 31 minutes per game, which would have made him the leading scorer amongst all the Chinese players had he played in enough games to qualify, as well as third in the rebounding averages behind Bateer and Zhang Kai. Bayi didn’t sign any imports for this season, despite the success that imports always seem to be – however, since Bayi just missed the CBA playoffs, maybe they now realise that they should have done. [UPDATE: Oh, turns out they can’t by rule. Well, then.]
– Former Warriors and Nets point guard Derrick Zimmerman is signed in Ukraine with Budivelnyk Kyiv, averaging 11.7 points, 3.9 assists, 3.5 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 1.0 blocks through 33 games. Zimmerman has not hit a three-pointer all year, even from the shorter three-point line, but those defensive numbers are pretty beastly from a point guard, and his numbers were enough to make him a Ukrainian league All-Star this year. His team also won the Ukrainian Cup, and finished second in the UBL regular season.
– Finally – really finally this time – mid-90’s draft pick Eurelijus Zukauskas is back in his native Lithuania, averaging 5.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game for the smouldering dregs of Zalgiris Kaunas. Zukauskas’s rights are still technically owned by the Bucks, but he’ll be 36 in the summer, and I think a 36-year-old Eurelijus Zukauskas is one of the few players that we can confidently claim Dan Gadzuric is better than. Fun Eurelijus Zukauskas fact: not only is his name inconsistently spelt all over the internet, but his draft rights (alongside those of the mighty Jeff Nordgaard) were traded on draft night 1996 for the rights to Eric Snow, who once started for an NBA Finals team. Shrewd move, in hindsight. (As for Jeff Nordgaard, he is averaging 0.5 points per game in the Polish league.)
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As a bonus, here are some requests of yours.
– Pervis Ellison retired in 2000 and is working (unpaid, apparently) as the basketball coach for New Beginnings Academy, a brand new school in Chester with all of about 60 pupils. He is also paying for the scholarships of five troubled kids in the area, and is also a football coach for the Lawnside Jaguars, whoever they are.
– Anthony Bowie retired in 2001, and became the head coach of the Bishops Moore High School basketball team in 2003, but doesn’t seem to be there any more.
– Anthony Bonner just spent three years as the head coach of Vashon High School’s boys basketball coach, but quit last month.
As another bonus, here are a few transactions that have taken place since the players in question were covered:
– Sofoklis Schortsanitis has been suspended by a month by Olympiacos, essentially ending his tenure there. He’s also gone from huuuuuuuuge to being HEEEEEEYOOOOOWWWWWWWGGGGGE. It’s scary.
– Sammy Mejia’s Greek team, AEL Larissa, have gone into a bit of a crisis, and Mejia has left the team.
– And Ira Newble has signed in Israel with Bnei Hasharon.
Ira Newble seems like a good note to go out on. We’ll resume this in nine month’s time.
– Donell Williams is a training camp signing of the Clippers in 2007 who hasn’t done anything of note before or since. A 28-year-old 6’3 guard, Williams spent his first two collegiate years at West Los Angeles Community College, before transferring to Fayetteville State for his final two years, averaging 15.7 points and 6.0 rebounds in his senior year, 2004-05. D-Will then went back to school for the 2005-06 season to complete his degree, even though he wasn’t eligible to play for the basketball team. The following season, his basketball career finally started, with Williams now aged 26. Williams played in the 2006 JBL Pro-Am League, a largely unheard-of American minor league that takes place between April and May, in which he averaged 27 ppg, 16 rpg and 5 apg. He then did nothing for the next 16 months, between May 2006 and October 2007. And then he was somehow signed by the Clippers. After unsurprisingly not making the team, Williams went to the D-League, totalled 38 points and 21 rebounds in 18 games with the Bakersfield Jam, and was waived in January 2008. He hasn’t played anywhere since.
Of all the random training camp signings we’ve had over the years – Brad Stricker, Rashid Byrd, Ajani Williams, etc – I think this one is the most random.
– Corliss Williamson retired in the 2007 offseason and became an assistant coach at Arkansas Baptist College. Whether he’s still there or not, I can’t tell. Here’s a story he’s in from a reunion of the 1994 Arkansas Razorbacks.
– Kevin Willis is now 46, and presumably not going to make another comeback. Then again, we fell for that once before. According to this story from October, Willis was running a custom jeans company called Willis & Walker. However, the company’s website no longer exists, which doesn’t bode well.
– Roderick Wilmont started the year with Solsonica Rieti in Italy, totalling 13 points and 10 fouls in three games, before moving to join Aliaga Petkim in Turkey. Wilmont has averaged 11.0 points and 2.4 rebounds in 20 games in the Turkish league.
– Kennedy Winston did the opposite, starting in Turkey and then leaving. K-Win averaged only 6.2 points and 3.3 rebounds in 16 games for Turk Telekom, before landing a plush gig at Real Madrid as the replacement for Quinton Hosley. Winston has totalled 6 and 3 in his two games there.
– DaShaun Wood averages 5.6 points, 2.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists for Benetton Treviso in the EuroCup. He has barely played for the team in the Italian league, presumably due to some rules limiting the amount of foreigners or something, but he has totalled 23 points, 20 assists and 18 rebounds in the 5 games he has played there.
– Loren Woods – the original L Train, thank you Austin Carr – was waived by the Rockets this offseason due to a combination of their eternal tightness, the need for roster spots, and his inabilty to prove he was worth it. He then signed in Lithuania for Zalgiris Kaunas, and averaged 12.3 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in the EuroLeague, 8.4/5.8/1.4 in the Lithuanian league, and 7.8/8.5/1.5 in the Baltic League. He left the club in December after the near-bankrupt team released all its foreign players in a bid to stay solvent. Woods then signed in Zaragoza (a Spanish city with a tiny airport, albeit with a funky roof), and has averaged 13.0 points and 10.0 rebounds in his two games for the team. To think that I passed within a few miles of Loren Woods recently and didn’t know about it. Oh the shame.
– Qyntel Woods started the season with Fortitudo Bologna, and averaged 12.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.0 steals per game in the Italian league, alongside 14.3 ppg and 4.3 rpg in the EuroCup. He then left in January and signed with Prokom Sopot, for whom he has averaged 11.3 points and 3.7 rebounds in the Polish league, alongside 12.2 points and 3.0 rebounds in the EuroLeague.
– Bracey Wright started the year with DKV Joventut Badalona, where he averaged 14.0 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists in the Spanish league, alongside 12.1 points and 2.8 rebounds in the EuroLeague, before being released by the team at the start of the year after he missed a few games due to “family issues”. A bit of a soap opera then unfolded; it was widely reported that Wright had signed with KK Zadar in Croatia, but he hadn’t, and he eventually re-signed with the team he played for last year, Aris Thessaloniki. However, that was six weeks ago, and Wright still hasn’t played for them yet due to conditioning problems. This article says that the team might replace him.
– Finally, former Pacers draft pick Rashad Wright is in Germany, playing for ALBA Berlin, a team absolutely stacked with Americans who managed to make it impressively far in this year’s EuroLeague before becoming overmatched. Wright averaged 8.8 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists in EuroLeague play, along with 8.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists in the German league, while being part of a fearsome backcourt rotation that also features Casey Jacobsen,Immy McElroy and Julius Jenkins. .
– Ajani Williams hasn’t played anywhere since scoring one point in two preseason games for the Atlanta Hawks in 2005. Probably not even Hawks fans remember this. That’s how insignificant Williams’s impact on the NBA landscape was. (No offence intended there, but….well, he’s so unheard of that Googling his name returns this website as the fourth result. And that should never happen.) His career before this is obscure, too – starting as a walk-on with Georgia Tech, Williams transferred to Eastern Michigan, where he didn’t play much, and certainly didn’t star. Tours in Bulgaria, the Philippines (where he became a bit of a hit) and the USBL followed, amongst others, and then Williams was signed by the Magic for 2004 training camp after (presumably) impressing in summer league that season with the Mavericks. He didn’t make the team, though, and returned to Bulgaria for a second stint, before the Hawks came a-calling the next season. Seemingly, being able to score one point in an official NBA game (if not a regular season game) was a satisfactory conclusion to Ajani’s professional basketball dreams, and it seems he hasn’t played anywhere since then, despite still being only 32 years of age. Williams is now the president of the Jamaican Basketball Association, choosing to help develop his homeland’s game in preference to taking a player development job at the NBA’s head office in New York. Also, according to this, AJ is the author of a guide called “How to become a PRO Basketball Player – The Complete Guide and Manual”, which I can’t seem to find anywhere. Then again, since it was apparently made in ring binders, that shouldn’t seem surprising. (I did find this, but I’m assuming it’s not the same person.)
I spent an hour looking up all that Ajani Williams information, so please don’t skim-read it.
– Speaking of Jamaican ex-training camp signings with the surname Williams, former Raptors signee Corey Williams spent the year in Australia playing for the Townsville Crocodiles. “Homicide” killed it, averaging 18.7 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.4 assists in 32 games, albeit while hitting only four three-pointers all year.
– Ezra Williams has had a weird career. After going undrafted in 2003, Williams spent the 2003-04 season playing in the NBDL, USBL and WBA in that order, and then spent the 2004-05 season in the CBA, finishing second in the league in scoring. For that, Ezra was rewarded with a training camp invite to the Seattle Supersonics, but he was an early cut. Williams spent the 2005-06 season in the NBDL again, averaging 12.5 ppg for the Austin Toros, and then tried the summer league route again in 2006 with the New Orleans Hornets. It didn’t work, though, and Williams spent the 2006-07 season playing for Mersin in Turkey, before trying the summer league route again in 2007, and again with the Hornets. Again, it didn’t work, and Williams sat out last season before returning to the Toros this year, where he averages 11.2 points and 4.0 rebounds in 39 games, shooting 44% from three-point range. In all those years, he’s seen only one stint in Europe, which seems a bit odd; Williams is not far short of his 30th birthday, and he won’t have earned much money from his professional basketball career to date. So why not visit the finest continent in the world and get the money up a bit? Is he excessively jingoistic? Xenophobic? Scared of flying over water? I need an answer on that, or else I’ll have to make one up.
– Jawad Williams was one of five training camp signings by the Cavaliers, and the winner of the battle for the 15th roster spot after a 13-point, 5-rebound, 3-assist outing versus Boston. Why they chose to keep him around until the contract guarantee date, I’ll never know, since they never actually played him, but they did it anyway before waiving him to save money. However, seemingly unwilling to see the end of the Jawad Williams Experience, Cleveland then re-signed him for two ten-day contracts, giving him more money that they must then double for tax penalties, further proving to LeBron James that they’d spend whatever it took to create a winning team. (“Don’t leave us! We’ll even spent over half a million on the 15th man!”) Williams ended up appearing in nine games for the Cavaliers, totalling all of 10 minutes, and managing to score four points in that time. After the Cavaliers finally gave up on him, Williams latterly joined the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the D-League, where he averages 23.8 points and 3.9 rebounds in 12 games.
– Jerome Williams retired unusually early as the victim of the Knicks’s ‘Allan Houston provision’, and became a community representative for his beloved Raptors. Three years on, I’m assuming that he is still there, due to a lack of evidence to the contrary.
– Justin Williams played for both the Bobcats and Warriors in training camp this season, but didn’t make either team. He then tried out in China for Shandong in China, and didn’t make that team either. After that, he tried out for Besiktas in Turkey, but they sent him home, reportedly unsatisfied with his practices and conditioning. As a result, Williams has not played all season outside of a few scant preseason minutes.
– You’ll know Marcus Williams’s story, but here it is anyway; once a very highly-touted high lottery pick, Williams’s stock plummeted on draft night, and he ended up being drafted by the Nets behind Renaldo Balkman, much to everyone’s amusement. However, it turns out it was justified – Williams proceeded to do little in two seasons with the Nets, was traded to the Warriors this summer for a future first-round pick, but totalled only 12 points and 13 assists in nine games before being waived earlier this month. He is now unsigned, although a shot at redemption will probably come from somewhere this summer.
– The other Marcus Williams – Spurs draft pick and former Clipper swingman Marcus E. Williams – is in the D-League with the Austin Toros, and absolutely beasting. Williams averages 22.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 1.8 steals and 0.6 blocks per game, and was named a D-League All-Star this season
– Scott Williams is now doing a media career. Williams called games for the Cavaliers for two seasons, then spent last year as a pre- and post-game analyst for Bucks games, before leaving once again to join the Suns for this season as a colour announcer once again. Seemingly he’s doing a tour of all his former NBA teams, so maybe he’ll soon be replacing Stacey King.
– Georgian starlet Shammond Williams is playing for Pamesa Valencia, where I recently had the privilege of watching him play. In the first minute, he got a cut under his eye that required stitches, and he returned in the second half to throw the ball away repeatedly during crunch time. Good times. Nevertheless, other games have gone better, and on the season, Williams averages 13.4 points and 3.9 assists per game in EuroCup play, alongside 9.8 points and 3.7 assists in the Spanish league.
– Finally, Walt Williams’s NBA career dribbled to a stop in 2003, and he has disappeared off the radar since then. But we can rest assured that, no matter where is or what he’s doing, he’s still the man. He just is.
– Robert Whaley barely played in the D-League last year, averaging 4.0 points and 2.7 rebounds per game for the L.A. D-Fenders, and he has not signed anywhere this season. He also barely played in 2006/07, spending his time between the ABA, the Dominican Republic and Iran. Nevertheless, Whaley still received a full year of NBA salary back in the 2005/06 season, in spite of his relative failings in the professional game. He’s about to turn 27, he’s not yet played to a D-League standard, he’s got a lengthy criminal history, he lied to the police to his name to the Jazz about the cut in his hand, and he’s not even the most famous person with that name. But he made it briefly, and he got paid.
– Davin White is signed in Serbia with Swisslion Takovo Lions Vrsac. White averages 4.8 points, 3.3 fouls and 2.0 assists in the Balkan league, but no word on whether his finger nails are still really, really pink.
– Jahidi White has not played since an unsuccessful training camp bid with the Cavaliers in 2006. Since then, his only news-making appearance was in a non-speaking role on a sci-fi channel show called Showdown at Area 51. He played an alien.
– Rodney White started the year with Maccabi Tel-Aviv, fell out of favour after one game and got waived. Not one to be kept down, R-White signed in China with the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions, and he leads the country in scoring. Considering how easy it is to score in China if you’re American and/or able to jump off the floor, this is no mean feat. White averages 1.1 blocks, 2.4 steals, 5.1 assists, 8.3 rebounds and 36.4 points per game. (See what I did there?) In his last game, White played all 48 minutes and put up 62 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists. If you want to know why American players like playing in the Chinese league…..well, the answer is staring you in the face.
– Chris Whitney is long since out of the game, which is a shame, because he was a straight baller.
– Jason Williams requested a reinstatement from his retirement last month, but it was vetoed by several teams (any reinstatement needs to be unanimous, and I think six teams rejected it). The fact that he’s seemingly not injured at all would suggest that perhaps he retired like he did because he regretted signing with the Clippers in the first place. It’s something to consider, Baron.
– Aaron Williams’s one-year waiving anniversary is due soon. Nothing has really happened since then, though.
– Alvin Williams is also unsigned, and since two years have passed since he last played, it’s about time he tried another comeback. Especially since he just lost his Raptors all-time assists record to Jose Calderon.
– Eric Williams, the former journeyman forward, is retired. Eric Williams, the former Wake Forest centre, averages 9.9 points and 5.1 rebounds for Air Avellino in the EuroLeague. Eric Williams, the former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, is dead.
– Frank Williams, the former Knicks point guard, is in the D-League, where he averages 17.2 points and 3.5 assists per game. Those 17.3 points per game, though, come on an inefficient 36% shooting, and this is because Frank Williams attempts two three-pointers for every one two-pointer. This man, who used to have a bad jump shot, is now pretty much a three-point specialist. He’s not a special three-point specialist, as evidenced by the 37% success rate from back there, but it’s all he does now, and he averages nearly eight long range attempts per game. Fair enough.
– Finally, Jay Williams is now a pundit for ESPN’s college basketball coverage, where he gets to hear first hand quite how brilliant Hubert Davis’s vowel sounds and over-enthused fake laugh are.
Also, because this entry kind of sucked a bit since everyone in it is retired, I’m calling it early: Javaris Crittenton, Brendan Haywood and Mike James to Dallas in exchange for Jerry Stackhouse and Matt Carroll. Done only on the condition that Dallas can’t find a better use for Stackhouse’s salary, which they may well do. Washington later pawns off Stewie Griffin to some sap to help dodge the tax, and Dallas gets a decent centre for a year and a further 2010 saving. This prediction is largely baseless but well intentioned. If it doesn’t happen, then neither did this post.
– Charlie Ward retired in 2004, and briefly became an assistant coach with the Rockets. However, he left that gig, and has instead found a place and a job that caters to his three biggest passions in life; basketball, American football, and Christianity. Ward is now the head football coach at Westbury Christian School in Houston, Texas, as well as an assistant coach on the basketball team. He also recently quarterbacked again, albeit only for a fun day. Question: if you were to ask Charlie Ward whether he regrets turning down an NFL career for his decent if underwhelming NBA career, what would he say? Genuinely intrigued by that.
– Darius Washington signed with the Bulls for preseason, and played very well in one of the preseason games. He didn’t make the cut, though, and nor was he ever going to. Washington then signed with Ural Great Perm in Russia, where he is averaging 13.0 points and 3.6 assists per game in the EuroChallenge, along with 14.6 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game in the Russian league. Did you know that Darius Washington is now a Macedonian citizen? Fun fact.
– Pistons draft pick Deron Washington is averaging 15.3 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.2 blocks per game for Hapoel Holon in Israel. He recently helped the team to win the Israeli Cup, but is only shooting 23% on the year from three-point range. So he still can’t shoot. But he’s also still an athlete who covers ground on both ends.
– Darryl Watkins did not make the cut from the Spurs training camp, and then went to Tianjin in China. Everyone loves Chinese numbers, and a post on this subject may well be soon appearing, so until then wrap your lips around this bad boy: 20.8 points, 14.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists.
– Jameel Watkins is also in China, playing for the Jiangsu Nangang Dragons. His numbers are highly comparable to the other Watkins, but slightly worse: Jameel averages 20.7 points, 13.5 rebounds, 4.6 fouls and 2.1 blocks per game.
– Chris Webber now does TV work on both NBA TV and Inside The NBA, and is supposedly writing a book, presumably one about basketball and not metamorphic rock identification or anything. He also just had his jersey number retired by the Sacramento Kings. Fun fact: did you know that Chris Webber released an album back in 1999? You may well have done. But I didn’t. Genuinely intrigued by this, too.
– Frederic Weis recently moved from Iurbentia Bilbao to ViveMenorca, both Spanish ACB teams. Weis averaged 2.3 points and 4.4 rebounds in the ACB for Bilbao, and has totalled 6 points and 19 rebounds in the 60 minutes that he has played for Menorca through three games.
– Jiri Welsch is playing for Unicaja Malaga, averaging 7.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists in the Spanish league, alongside 8.5 points, 2.6 rebounds and an insignificant number of assists in the EuroLeague. His stats from previous seasons can be found here, on his personal website, as can a deeply sinister picture of him looking like a recently goosed Frankie Dettori.
– David Wesley was traded as an unguaranteed contract twice in the 2007 offseason, and was waived by New Jersey before the season began. He hasn’t signed since, and isn’t going to, either. Fun fact: did you know that David Wesley is Michael Dickerson’s cousin? No, me neither.
– Finally, you probably already knew that Bonzi Wells signed in China this season, and you probably knew that he has since left. And you probably knew that he stuffed the stat sheet in every plausible way during his time there. But you might not know the specifics, and so I’m here to oblige you with that.
On the season, in only 14 games, Bonzi averaged 42.1 minutes, 34.3 points, 8.9 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 3.8 steals per game. He shot 45% on the year, and 70% from the free throw line, and certainly wasn’t waived because he wasn’t producing. But a closer look at the numbers reveals a man who miiiiiiight not have been optimising his play. In those 14 games, Bonzi shot 156 three-pointers, which for maths fans out there is a shade over 11 attempts per game. This seems like it’s too many (‘ooh, you think?’), but particularly so for a man who hit them at only 33%, and who hasn’t shot the three-pointer well since a fluke season in 2001/02. (For comparison’s sake, Bonzi shot 50 three-pointers combined last season in 73 NBA games for the Rockets and Hornets, hitting 12. And he hit 11 combined the previous two seasons.) Bonzi started out with a bash, averaging 47 points through his first four games, shooting a Damon Stoudamire-like 57 threes in that span. But he scored only three points in a foul-plagued fifth game, and averaged a far more normal 32.2 ppg after that. The threes continued to go up, though, and with the foul-plagued fifth game excluded (in which he shot only three), Bonzi never attempted less than seven three-pointers in any game. I do not know why.
Bonzi Wells would be in the NBA right now, earning about $8 million, if Geoff Petrie had had his way. Something to consider.
I don’t know how to tell you this; there’s also only about three of these Where Are They Now posts left before we reach the human terminus that is Eurelijius Zukauskas. And I’ve already played my joker with the (simply astonishing) Ejike Ugboaja story. And I’m not going to start again. You’re going to promise to keep reading this website once they’ve dried up, right? Don’t go elsewhere. You’ll like it here.
– Former Hornets second-round draft pick Marcus Vinicus has gone back to his native Brazil, where he averages 19.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.0 assists
– Minor league veteran Fred Vinson retired this summer aged 37 after a season in the IBL, and became an assistant coach/director of player programs for the Los Angeles Clippers, the team that gave him his final shot at the NBA. Presumably, this new role means that he rebounds a lot of Zach Randolph three-pointers.
– Former Wake Forest centre Kyle Visser is into his second season with the New Yorker Phantoms in Germany. Last season, Visser averaged 9.8 points and 4.3 rebounds per game on 58% shooting, and this season he’s up to 10.6 points and 6.0 rebounds per game on 62% shooting. Visser’s team features nine American players on its roster, which seems like at least five too many, regardless of the team’s name.
– 7’5 former Knicks and Blazers centre Slavko Vranes is averaging 3.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game in the EuroLeague, alongside 5.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game in the Adriatic League, for Partizan Belgrade in his sort-of native Serbia.
– Former Hornet, Sun, Bull etc Jackson Vroman is playing for Saba Mehr for Iran. Iranian numbers are, it seems, unlookupable.
– The future of the Knicks, Milos Vujanic, averages 10.9 points per game in the EuroLeague for Efes Pilsen. That’s a good scoring output, but, when you consider that M-Vuj averaged 25.8 points per game in the EuroLeague back in 2002-03, it kind of puts those numbers into some sort of context. Milhouse also averages 10.0 points and 2.7 assists in the Turkish league.
– Former Cavaliers and Warriors guard Dajuan Wagner is unsigned. After being cut by the Warriors in late 2006 due to more health concerns, Wagner sat out the rest of that season, and then joined Prokom Sopot in Poland last season, where he averaged 11.7 ppg and 2.5 rpg in the Polish league, alongside 8.3 ppg and 2.5 rpg in the EuroLeague. He was waived in February – I don’t know whether it was due to bad play, bad health, or something else – and resumed workouts with Tim Grover to try and make an NBA comeback. But it hasn’t happened, and Wagner remains unsigned.
– Former Bucks, Spurs, Pacers, Lakers, Heat, Wizards and Mavericks big man Samaki Walker started the season in Lebanon, but thankfully saw the light and moved to China, unselfishly giving his time for our enjoyment. Good man. Here are his stat lines in his three games, earliest first:
– Former Celtics forward Brandon Wallace started the season in Turkey playing for Mersin Buyuksehir Belediyesi, but played in only one game, totalling 6 points, 3 rebounds and 3 blocks. He then moved to Poland with the incomparable Bank BPS Basket Kwidzyn, where he averages 7.4 points and 5.5 rebounds.
– Summer league perennial Judson Wallace is playing with Benetton Treviso, where I enjoy the luxury of being able to watch him quite regularly. Wallace averages 10.2 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.0 steals in the Italian league, alongside 8.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game in the EuroCup.
– Finally, former Heat and Nets swingman Matt Walsh is in Belgium playing for Charleroi. He averages only 6.0 points and 2.6 rebounds in the Belgian league, as his jump shot hasn’t turned up yet, shooting only 25% from three in Belgian league competition. But he fairs better in the EuroCup, where he averages 13.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists, shooting 44% from downtown.
– Larry Turner is signed with the powerhouse Vermont Frost Heaves in the even more powerhouse Premier Basketball League. Averages don’t appear to an option, but here’s a recent boxscore. Would you be able to look at that box score and pick out Larry Turner, of all people, as a former signing of the L.A. Lakers? No. But it happened. How bizarre.
– Samo Udrih averages 9.2 points and 3.4 fouls for Estudiantes Madrid. All things considered, he’s better than Beno.
– Cory Underwood started the season with the Albuquerque Thunderbirds in the D-League, averaging 11.6 points and 5.1 rebounds in 25 minutes per game. He then negotiated a release from his contract, whereby he promptly signed in China and tore his meniscus. After a 23-point, 12-rebound debut for the DongGuan New Century Leopards, Underwood then put up 8 points and 4 rebounds in his next game, followed by a 0/0 performance, then a 0/1 performance, culminating in a 32-minute, 7-point, 4-rebound outing in his final game before the team released him. If they were unhappy with his performance, then maybe they shouldn’t have made him play on a torn meniscus. Underwood has since returned to the D-League and the Thunderbirds, and has not played a game for them since returning.
– Ramon Van de Hare is about to turn 27 years old, and currently averages 8.2 points and 6.3 rebounds in the incorrigible Cypriot league for AEK Larnacas. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – that whole “draft any seven-foot Euro that averages 1 point per game” trend of a few years ago was excessive.
– The only Nick Van Exel sighting that I’ve got is an appearance at a Cincinnati Bearcats practice last month. No word on what he actually does with his time now.
– The same is true of Keith Van Horn, the luckiest man alive, whom I can only assume is back doing what he was before being handed a free $4.3 million; spending time with his family and not intending to play any basketball.
– Ratko Varda is playing for Khimki in Russia, signed as a replacement for the injured Maciej Lampe. Now let me tell you something about Ratko Varda – he’s only 29 years old, but he’s the slowest 29 year old that you’ve ever seen. It’s amazing to think that this man’s professional life calls for him to do a lot of running and jumping, because he really can’t do it. However, he is immensely strong, and, having grown a lot of hair and a beard and covered his body in tattoos, he looks pretty menacing at all times.
– Jeff Varem was playing in Iran, but has since moved to the Alaska Aces of the Philippines. I have no numbers for you, but I am assuming that you don’t really want them.
– Fran Vazquez averages 8.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game for Barcelona in the EuroLeague, alongside 10.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game in the Spanish league. If you’re a Magic fan buoyed by those numbers, and now inwardly believing that those represent the makings of your future backup centre, and that all hope may not yet be lost, allow me to step on your feelings again by reminding you once again that Orlando picked Vazquez over Danny Granger.
– Vladimir Veremeenko is with UNICS Kazan in Russia, where he plies his trade as a dangerously slow small forward, albeit to decent effect. Veremeenko averages 11.8 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game in the EuroCup, alongside 9.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in the Russian league. He has also stopped bouncing the ball quite so much before shooting a foul shot.
– Finally, here’s the story that I have been absolutely itching to tell you for about six weeks. It’s all true too (apart from a few slightly tweaked names to protect people’s identities) and that’s why it’s potentially interesting.
About two months ago, I travelled across the country to go and visit my friend Phil up t’north. On the Saturday night of my visit, we decided to go out, partly because we’re young twenty somethings, but also because his flatmates were annoying. (And also because the gas boiler was making bad noises and we thought it might blow up or something. Later on, it kind of did.) It was me, Phil and his girlfriend that hit the town, and we found the pub nearest to his house and settled down for some hardcore soft drink consumption. (We know how to party, we do.)
It was in this pub, on that night, at that time that Phil and his girlfriend had a fight and split up, right there in front of me. (The argument was something to do with a sofa. Didn’t quite understand it to be honest.) As you may have gathered, the situation became a little bit awkward. Not knowing what to do, I did what any good friend would do – I got the drinks in, sat back, and listened to a lengthy rant. As Phil’s heart bled all over my shoes, I helped him shove the entrails back into his still-twitching corpse, and suggested that we leave it for tonight and see where things stood in the morning. He agreed, but, unfortunately, this left us with nothing to talk about. The break-up was a massive elephant in the room, sitting between us, astride the table, thrusting itself into our faces at all times. We had decided not to talk about it, but we couldn’t seem to help it. Whatever conversation we tried to force out, we both knew that the other was processing what had just happened in their head. Therefore, with the alternatives lacking, we decided to do what any like-minded men would do in the situation; we’d talk to some random people about football.
It worked a treat. Soon, we had entered into a random back and forth with a Nigerian man named Ben, with whom we were having an impassioned chat about what intangible qualities John O’Shea brought to the Manchester United defence. The discussion was insightful, humorous, and made me feel like I had more than one friend in the world, a rare and special feeling indeed. At some point, though, we started getting hungry, and decided to continue this conversation back at Phil’s house with a pizza while watching Match Of The Day.
Ben bought us our food, which was nice of him, and we set off for home in the pissing rain. When we got in, the football conversation picked up where it left off, now further buoyed by the tantalising arrangement of undercooked imitation pizzas. Conversation soon got around to the continued influx of foreign players into the Premiership, and about how detrimental it was becoming to our national game. Communally, we agreed (somewhat baselessly) that what was needed most from the national game was a sense of humility within the players, and greater respect for authority.
It was at this moment Ben brought up a basketball parallel, when he mentioned about how a basketball playing friend of his had to learn a similar lesson in humility. At this moment, Phil said “Mark likes basketball, you should talk to him about it”, slumped back in his chair, and then didn’t speak for the next 90 minutes. Ben persevered, and quickly followed up this opening gambit by stating that this friend of his was recently drafted by an NBA team. Excitedly, I ask “who was it?”. He replied “Ejike Ugboaja“.
The conversation flowed from there. It soon turned out that Ben is one of Ugboaja’s closest friends, a fact he quickly validated by showing me both of their Facebook accounts. A lengthy story followed, in which Ben (whose name isn’t really Ben, by the way) told me as many anecdotes as I could goad out of him about the Nigerian national basketball team, a team with which he is closely affiliated if not an actual member. Amongst these anecdotes was the story of how Ejike was selected out of a group of players (including Ben) participating in a national team tryout. Upon making the team, Ugboaja developed a bit of an ego, and started acting moody and aloof with his former friends. However, a quick word from former Charlotte Bobcats coach Sam Vincent (who was, at the time, the head coach of the Nigerian national team) saw a change in Ejike, and he dropped the ego, dispensed with the swagger, and reverted to being the humble, generous man that he always was, willing to learn, accepting of criticism, and keen to “give back” to his homeland. It was a tender and touching story befitting of any Associated Press fluffpiece. I would have wept if I could have understood half of what Ben was saying. (His accent was kind of strong. This is why that story took about 90 minutes to tell.)
More importantly, Ben quickly proved that he knew more about Ejike Ugboaja than I did. I asked where Ejike was playing right now, as I was almost certain that he was unsigned. Every resource I could find supported this; I knew he had played in the D-League last season, but that he wasn’t in it this year, and I was basically certain that he was currently unattatched. (Readers note: I don’t memorise all the current player’s destinations deliberately, but when you spend as much time following them as I do, some of them tend to stick with you. Ejike’s was one that stuck.) So, at one juncture, I asked Ben where Ejike was playing, and Ben responded that he was playing in Iran. Sure enough, he was right; upon closer inspection, Ugboaja is playing for Azad University Tehran BC, information that was very hard to find out back in January (and which isn’t easy to find out now, either – only if you know in advance to to add “Iran” as a suffix to your Google searches do the results become plentiful.) Ben had proven his worth, made my night, advanced my life, and bettered this post. Completely by accident, and in a country where Kenny Gregory used to be an MVP candidate, I had met one of the best friends of an NBA player. And not just any NBA player, either, but a FRINGE NBA player with a hard-to-spell name. The best kind of NBA player, that. Good times.
(Other stories include a seminal tale about Olumide Oyedeji’s inability to find a bed in the whole of Nigeria that fitted him. Oh, the fun we had with that one.)
We stayed up until 7.30am that night, talking about more basketball, football, the break-up that we’d just witnessed, how cantankerous and manky the pizza was, amusing ways to pose with an umbrella, why goth chicks are far hotter than they should be, the sheer thrill of Northern Irish women’s voices, and all manner of other intelligent and high-brow conversations. But nothing will ever top the random discovery of Cleveland Cavaliers second-round draft pick Ejike Ugboaja’s closest chum in a pub near Preston. Nothing.
(Note: inviting random men back to our house is not something that we normally do on a Saturday night.)
– Lucas Tischer was recently waived by his Israeli team, Altshuler Saham Galil Gilboa, presumably for poor performance. Tischer averaged a stonking 3.6 points, 2.3 fouls and 2.1 rebounds in the Israeli league
– Anthony Tolliver bounced back and forth between the NBA and the D-League this season, first going to camp with the Spurs, then making the team, firing up a load of threes, missing them, being assigned to the Austin Toros, being recalled, being waived, being acquired by the Iowa Energy, getting a 10-day contract from the Hornets, not playing a game for them, and then returning to the Energy. However, he’s since given up, and left the Energy to sign with Galatasaray. Tolliver put up 12 points and 8 rebounds on his Galatasaray debut, averaged 12.4 points and 8.5 rebounds with the Energy, averaged 17.8 points and 7.8 rebounds for the Toros, and 2.7 points and 2.2 rebounds for the Spurs.
– Marko Tomas is still with Real Madrid, where he’s been on and off now for about four years. Tomas averages 7.3 points and 2.1 rebounds in the EuroLeague, alongside 5.5 points and 1.1 rebounds in the Spanish league.
– Jazz draft pick Ante Tomic is with KK Zagreb, where he’s been now for six years. Tomic averages 14.6 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists in the EuroChallenge, alongside 15.1 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists in the Adriatic League. Perhaps worryingly, though, this 7’1 player has 26 total blocks in 30 combined games. It’s not a Sundov, but it’s not great either.
– Ali Traore is averaging 12.5 points and 5.2 rebounds in the EuroCup, and 12.7 points and 6.3 rebounds in the powerhouse French league, for ASVEL Villeurbanne. And my decision to add him to this website was probably a tad overzealous.
– Robert Traylor is still trying to rebuild a career that fell apart on him. After injuries, heart problems and legal trouble ruined his NBA career back in 2005, Traylor has had to start all over again. 20 months out of the game followed, and Traylor only reappeared on the scene in March 2007, when he played the final six games of the Spanish LEB Silver (the third division) season with Gestiberica Vigo. Traylor then spent two seasons in the Puerto Rican league (which, you’ll remember, starts when most other leagues are finishing), and averaged a double-double with almost three blocks both times. Traylor then persuaded the Cavaliers to give him a spot in this year’s Vegas Summer League, where he averaged 5.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 3.0 fouls per game, not a getting a roster spot for his efforts. Since then, Traylor has moved to Turkey, where he is playing for Kepez Bld Antalya, and actually playing really well. Tractor averages 14.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.8 blocks per game, and not only was he voted a Turkish league All-Star; he won the MVP award for the game, too.
– Cezary Trybanski’s season has gone far less well. He hasn’t played or signed anywhere all year, after leading the Greek second division in blocks last season.
– Jake Tsakalidis is also currently unsigned after spending last year with Olympiacos. Not sure why.
– Question: is Nikoloz Tskitishvili good yet? Answer: not exactly, but at least he found his role. Skita averages 8.3 points and 4.3 rebounds for Fuenlabrada Madrid in the Spanish league, being used primarily (and secondarily) as a spot-up shooter. Skita has shot 61 three-pointers on the year to only 10 free throws, but he is hitting them at 46% (the three-pointers, not the free throws).
– P.J. Tucker is averaging 19.7 points and 6.4 rebounds for BC Donetsk in the Ukraine, in only 12 games. Tucker missed three months of the season through injury, and has averaged only 15 ppg since his return. Although saying “only” 15 ppg sounds a bit disingenuous.
– Finally, Clay Tucker started the season with BC Kyiv, and averaged 15.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per game in the Ukrainian league, but he was waived when the team cut all its foreign players to save money. Tucker has since signed with Cajasol in Spain, where he has averaged 17 points through two games.
– Jamaal Tatum was the strange beneficiary of a training camp contract by the Portland Trail Blazers this summer, but unsurprisingly lost out on the 15th roster spot (which, surprisingly, Shavlik Randolph won). Tatum promptly returned to his D-League team of last season, the Idaho Stampede, for whom he averages 12.1 points and 3.7 assists per game, while shooting less than 40% from the field.
– Bryce Taylor is with Premiata Montegranaro, the team that Shawn Kemp nearly played for. Taylor averages 11.1 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 0.5 assists per game, this coming on a team that features starting point guard Kiwame Garris averaging only 2.5 apg himself. I think I might have mentioned that before somewhere, but it’s hard to remember, because these posts are starting to all run into each other in my mind, into a big gloopy ball of confusion and doubt. Apologies if you’re suffering from the same.
– Donell Taylor has spent the year with Egaleo in Greece, averaging 13.2 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.
– I think we all thought that Maurice Taylor was done. He hadn’t played since 2005/06, hadn’t played well since 2000/01, and had spent a long time unsigned, out of our hearts and minds. He was waived by the Knicks in September 2006, signed by the Kings a few days later, was kept over Justin Williams, and was later waived in January when Justin was re-signed, not playing a single game for the Kings in that time. Two years then passed, and it was assumed that that was all she wrote. But it wasn’t; in January this year, Taylor signed a three-year deal with Milano, albeit one which only allows him to play in EuroLeague games. Taylor has since played in three games, which read like this (earliest first):
Make of those what you will, but I’ll call it progress.
– Mirza Teletovic is into his third season with Tau Vitoria, and recently signed an extension that will keep him there until 2014. An inside-outside scorer, but primarily a shooter, Teletovic averages 12.6 points and 3.8 rebounds in the Spanish league, alongside 15.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in the EuroLeague. Those EuroLeague numbers come from a total of 225 points on 147 shots, leading to a points per shot average of 1.53 PPS. Love that metric. Love it. It’s like true shooting percentage, except you can calculate it yourself in 12 seconds. Good times.
– Reyshawn Terry started the year with Vanoli Soresina in the Italian second division, averaging 16.5 points and 8.3 rebounds, before getting the call-up to the slightly bigger dance. Now in Serie A with La Fortezza Bologna, Terry averages 13.0 points and 5.5 rebounds in the EuroChallenge, but also has a strange drop-off to 4.8 points and 4.6 rebounds in the Italian league, where he hasn’t hit a three yet.
– Off The Street Billy Thomas is now back on the street, after being released by the Colorado 14ers for reasons that I am not aware of. Thomas had averaged 16.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 steals in his time with the Fourteeners, so it certainly wasn’t because of his play. Before that, Thomas was in Greece playing for Kavala, where he averaged 8.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.7 steals.
– Former Suns training camp invite and Iowa bench player Doug Thomas is with the mighty Sundsvall Dragons in the Swedish league. The Swedish league is so anonymous that I can’t even give you his numbers, but I can give you this slightly confusing box score. I think it says that he had 5 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists in a recent win. Yay Doug!
– James Thomas is technically the property of Upim Bologna – with whom he is signed through next season – but he is currently on loan to Erdemir in Turkey. I don’t know if Americans are familiar with the prospect of loaning players, but if not, all you need to know is that it’s a great idea that the NBA should totally consider. In the Turkish league, Thomas is doing his usual thing, averaging 10.2 points and 11.3 rebounds per game in only 30.5 minutes per game. He’s also not fouling as much as usual, recording only 2.3 per game. It’s strange how this undersized power forward can rebound far far far better than many of his bigger peers. Certain people can learn from this.
– John Thomas was still pushing for another go around in the NBA, even at the age of 33, when he joined the Bucks for 2008 summer league. Further to that, he spent last season in the D-League, averaging 12 and 8 for the Fourteeners. But now, age 33, he might just be willing to go where the money is. Or at least, that’s my conclusion based off of the fact that he’s currently playing for Al Jalaa Aleppo in Syria. I have no numbers for him. (Roderick Riley, another big man who enjoyed a flirtatious grope from the Atlanta Hawks back in 2005, was also on the Bucks summer league team this summer, and is now also a member of the Al Jalaa Aleppo team. Play close attention, Joe Alexander.)
– Omar Thomas is averaging 10.8 points and 5.6 rebounds of Solsonica Rieti in Serie A, the highest standard of basketball that he’s played so far in his professional career. His team want him back.
– And finally, Dijon Thompson is with Azovmash in the Ukraine, where his scoring is strangely down. Thompson averages 11.0 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists an 2.0 steals in a whopping 35.8 minutes per game in the EuroCup (remember, they’re 40-minute games), alongside 13.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.8 steals in 29 minutes per game in the Ukrainian league.
– Vlade Divac is currently trying to become President of the Serbian Olympic Committee. Never thought I’d say that about anybody, but there it is.
– Nigel Dixon was in China to start the season, but left in the new year. Dixon averaged 26.3 points and 9.8 rebounds for the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions, with 69% FG and 44% FT percentages, before being replaced by Jelani McCoy. By the way, speaking of Nigel, the eagle eyed and really regular viewers of this site may have noticed a few weeks ago that every player’s name had been changed to “Nigel” when viewing either the rosters or player index pages. This wasn’t a childish joke, but merely an error that I forgot to fix. I’ll explain; hile trying to make some changes to the dull technical bits (specifically, we were creating the ability for players to appear on two rosters at once), we noticed that the changes that we had made didn’t take. Unsure of why this was, we reasoned that maybe the host company had a setup, whereby any user’s changes to certain Javascript files were not parsed until the following day. So, to test this, we changed the setup again, making it so that all player’s first names would be changed to Nigel if it worked instantly. If it didn’t work instantly , then we’d know that our original theory (about changes not taking until the next daily server rest) was correct. It didn’t work instantly, and so our theory was correct. But then my stupid arse forgot to delete the Nigel version, and so everyone was Nigel for a day. So there you go. ShamSports.com – run by an amateur, and assisted by a friend of a similar mental age.
– Michael Doleac was not re-signed by the Minnesota Timberwolves this summer, clearly satisfied that they had enough crap big men. Doleac has not signed elsewhere, or created news of any kind that I can find.
– The other MD, Marcus Douthit, is into his second season with Altalya Belediye in Turkey. (There’s a third word in their name, but I can’t spell it.) Averaging 13.2ppg, 6.5rpg and 1.2apg last season, Douthit has regressed slightly as a scorer this season, averaging 11.6 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists in Turkish league play, on percentages of 44% and 62%. You can guess which way around those percentages go, but here’s a clue – they’re not the same way around as Nigel Dixon’s are above.
– Former Virginia Tech guard Zabian Dowdell is in the Italian second division, playing for Fastweb Casale Monferrato, and averaging 20.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 2.8 assists. Good numbers, but remember they’re from the second division.
– Dion Dowell started the season in Belgium, averaging 9.2 points and 3.0 rebounds for current league leaders Dexia Mons-Heinault. However, Dowell left earlier this month, probably due to his limited playing time, and Dexia’s Midnight Runners replaced him with former San Antonio Spur draftee Bryan Bracey. Dowell then signed in Israel for Altshuler Saham Galil Gilboa, for whom he has totalled 17 points and 11 rebounds in two games. I don’t know if Dowell is a German passport holder (he was born there, and lived there for 7 years), but, if he isn’t, he should be. It would greatly enhance his fledgling European career.
– Tadija Dragicevic is playing for Crvena Zvezda in Serbia, averaging 9.0 points and 2.4 rebounds in Adriatic League play. As expected, he didn’t sign with the Jazz this summer, because he’s not ready. But apparently no one told Rotowire.
– Christian Drejer signed a three year contract with Lottomatica Roma last year, which lasted only 6 games. His recurring left foot problem recurred, and, after an extended absence and more operations, Drejer decided he had to retire. This quote comes to your courtesy of Google Translate, from this page:
I’ve really tried to get my feet in order, but it has never really succeeded, so even though it is sad to have to stop, it has not been a difficult decision. I simply can not play,” explains the 25-year-old Christian Drejer.
So, Nets fans, your dreams of the enigmatic point forward are now officially over. Or they should be.
– Roberto Duenas has also retired (really), and is now pursuing his dream of being a professional underwear model. (Not really.)
– Predrag Drobnjak is playing for Efes Pilsen, where he has averaged all of 2.3 points and 1 rebound in EuroLeague play. Speaking of Drobnjak, here’s a thing. Once upon a time, about 10 to 15 years ago, my dad’s car was broken, and so we had to hire a taxi to get me to football practice. As I was practicing, my dad and the cab driver hung around for the duration, chatting away, because there wasn’t really enough time for my dad to go home and come back. My dad said that the taxi driver man seemed nice. However, 9 days later, his face (the driver’s, not my dad’s) appeared on the front page of the local newspaper after he was arrested for kiddie fiddling. And that man looked a bit like Peja Drobnjak. Therefore, in a way, I was nearly bumraped by Peja Drobnjak. That’s all I have to say about that.
– Finally, Josh Duncan is signed with Pau Orthez. Pau may be one of the few French teams that you’ve ever heard of, but this year, they’re in last place with a 2-12 record, including an 0-7 start. Duncan isn’t really helping – he played in only 5 games, averaging 7.0 points and 3.2 rebounds, before getting injured in early November. (I seem to remember that he blew his knee out, but can’t find proof. Apply within.) They also lost every game that he played in. So it’s not gone well.
– D.J. Strawberry is with Fortitudo Bologna, the same team as GMAC Bologna, but not the same team as La Fortezza Bologna. Can’t stress that enough. Strawberry averages 14.7 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.5 assists in EuroCup play, alongside 13.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.2 assists in the Italian league. Strawberry however is a combined 16 of 76 from the three-point line, confirming once again that his major weakness is still a weakness.
– Brad Stricker has been on and off of the Dakota Wizards roster all year, averaging 11 minutes, 2.6 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.1 fouls per game. His playing time wasn’t exactly consistent; his last ten games with the Wizards saw him play 5, 4, 3, 5, 2, 2, 8, 30, and 8 minutes respectively. Stricker eventually asked the Wizards for an unconditional release, as he wanted to play for a team closer to his home due to some family issue. He was granted it, and now plays for the Albuquerque Thunderbirds, where he averages 17.6 minutes, 3.6 points, 3.6 fouls, 1.8 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per game.
– Erick Strickland now works for the Mavericks in a capacity that I’m too confused to understand. Here’s Erick himself with an explanation. Did you know that Erick Strickland’s real first name is Demerick? Me neither. Fun fact.
– Rod Strickland is the Director of Basketball Operations for the University of Memphis, while also taking classes there to finish his degree. Ever since his hire in 2006, Memphis have gone on to be slightly brilliant. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. But, since Strickland’s role entails things like organising travel plans, checking on student’s academic scores, and scheduling visits for recruits, it probably is.
– Curtis Sumpter averages 10.8 points and 5.9 rebounds for Chorale de Roanne Basket, the third-best team in France and the subject of a slightly seminal 1978 song by The Police.
– Bruno Sundov this week left Cibona Zagreb (in Zagreb) to join Vive Menorca (in Menorca). He also started the season with ASK Riga in Latvia. Sundov has not yet played for Menorca (who also feature Frederic Weis, so that’s going to be a hell of a frontcourt), and he totalled only 16 points, 5 rebounds and 8 fouls in his 30 total minutes for Cibona in the Adriatic League (36 minutes, 13 points, 8 rebounds, 5 fouls in the EuroLeague). However, for Riga, Sundov’s numbers shot up to 18.8 points and 8.8 rebounds in the EuroCup, along with 14.8 points and 4.5 rebounds in the Baltic league. Somehow, though, the 7’3 Sundov has managed to block only eight shots all season, in a combined 33 games and 621 minutes.
– Allegedly, Bob Sura’s girlfriend stabbed him with some keys when she found him at a restaurant with another woman. These allegations and many more can be found in scurrilous parts of the internet. Read with caution.
– Mike Sweetney is missing. Not just missing in that I can’t find out anything about him, and not “inform the police” kind of missing. Just sort of missing. After never losing and keeping off the necessary weight, even when the guaranteed money ran out, Sweetney’s contract expired with the Bulls and he became a free agent in the summer of 2007. He has not been heard from since, and has not played anywhere, not even in summer league. Sam Smith mentioned in a column at some point last season that not even the Player’s Association could find him any more. Not even Facebook can help us on this one. I hope he’s all right. If you know anything about Mike’s whereabouts and well-being, let me know.
– Szymon Szewczyk – another one of those turn-of-the-century “let’s draft a Euro! You never know!” second rounders, this one by the Milwaukee Bucks – is still in Russia with Lokomotiv Rostok. He’s doing rather well at a decent standard of basketball, averaging 14.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game in the EuroChallenge, as well as 12.3 points and 6.7 rebounds in the Russian Superleague. However, he’s also now 26 years old, and was picked with the 35th pick, so it’s still been a reach. (Still, it could have been worse. Players picked after Zoochick that year included Nedzad Sinanovic, Paccelis Morlende, Slavko Vranes, Ramon Van Der Hare and Xue Yuyang. You know about the lack of achievements by some of them already, and as we get further through this list, you can see just how little some of the others have done too. Should be fun!)
– Yuta Tabuse scratched around in the D-League for a few years, trying to find a route back to the NBA. He barely got off of the bench, though, and this season returned to his native Japan, where he speculated that a season of beastly numbers would get the job done. (His hefty paycheck this year won’t hurt, either.) However, he hasn’t exactly been as brilliant as he might have hoped for – for Link Tochigi Brex, Tabuse averages 34.1 minutes, 11.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 2.3 steals per game, shooting 23% from three-point range. Still, the assists and steals totals lead the JBL, so he’s still one of the better players amongst weak competition.
– Finally, Chris Taft’s career progression has been minimal. Taft played only 17 games in his underwhelming rookie season of 2005/06 with the Warriors, before suffering prolonged chronic back injuries, and was waived that offseason with a year still guaranteed on his contract. He then didn’t sign anywhere until early 2008, when he played eight games for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, averaging 4.0 points and 2.5 rebounds. True to form, Taft is currently unsigned, but he has recently been approached by Philippines National Team Director Rajko Toroman about whether he would be interested in becoming a naturalized Filipino citizen, with any deal contingent on the health of his back. Clearly, it’s still not quite right.
Of this list, only D.J. Strawberry played in the NBA last season. We’re scraping the barrel for you here today.
– Tiago Splitter is into his sixth season with Tau Vitoria, averaging 16.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game in the Spanish league, alongside 15.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in the Spanish league. Splitter recently missed a couple of weeks with a torn muscle and the death of his sister, but he returned to be week MVP of the EuroLeague last week, which is not bad going.
– Ondrej Starosta is in the LEB Gold, averaging 4.0 points and 4.8 rebounds for Plus Pujol Lleida.
– Vladimir Stepania hasn’t played since March 2004, which, for calendar fans out there, was five years ago. The last thing that I’ve got for him is this ominous-sounding forum post from November 2006. I’m guessing it didn’t work out.
– Blake Stepp has not played since 2006 after a stint with Valencia in Spain. The only thing that I know since then is that he’s started playing a lot of poker. Whether it’s a full time thing for him now or not, I don’t know, but he did cash at the 2008 World Series Of Poker. Another former Gonzaga player, Nathan Doudney, is also playing a lot of poker now, and doing better than Stepp.
– After Michael Stewart’s six-year contract ran out with the Hawks in 2005, he managed one more basketball stint with Huelvas in Spain, averaging 7.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. He has not played since April 2006. This old version of his Wikipedia page says that Stewart is now a businessman living in Florida, and, while it’s not the most fool proof of sources out there, I see no reason to disbelieve it.
– Frans Steyn is in China, averaging 15.6 points, 11.8 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game for Qingdao Double Star. This means that Olumide Oyedeji is about twice as good as him. Steyn also shoots 66% from the field, 48% from the line, and averages 4.1 fouls per game.
– Curtis Stinson is performing one of the finest Magic Johnson impressions ever seen in the modern era. Playing for the Iowa Energy, Stinson averages 14.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, 7.7 assists and 1.9 steals per game. He’s like a prime Jason Kidd, except he shoots worse. And shooting worse than Jason Kidd is not easy to do. Stinson’s percentages read 42%, 16% and 70%, none of which are even average. But seven rebounds a game from your 6’3 point guard is pretty epic. So is the 43 minutes a game that he averages.
– Awvee Storey went to China, but disgraced Americans everywhere by not dominating. However, he’s getting there; Storey averages 23.1 points and 7.1 rebounds, which is good if not great, but he started by averaging only 12.7 points and 5.2 rebounds through his first nine games. He’s since countered that by averaging 31 points and 8.3 rebounds in his last 15 games, restoring national pride and perhaps preventing a war.
– Finally, Damon’s cousin Salim Stoudamire signed with the San Antonio Spurs for quite a lot of guaranteed money this training camp, but then didn’t make the team, being beaten out (not off) by Desmon Farmer, who had none. This is because Salim could barely play due to a strained groin. Having not signed anywhere since, I’m guessing it still hurts.
The following post will make you hate the word Smith.
– Charles Smith is with everyone’s favourite delicatessen, Efes Pilsen, where he averages 14.7 points in the Turkish league and 12.0 points in the EuroLeague.
– Donta Smith is in Australia, which sort of has a Chinese league thing going on with its American imports, albeit thankfully not as exaggerated. For comparison’s sake, Donta started the year in China, so I can give you his Chinese league numbers (22.5 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 4.7 apg, 2.8 spg) and you can compare them with his Australian league numbers (14.1 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 3.0 apg, 1.2 spg). Smith’s team, the Melbourne South Dragons, are currently playing in the NBL Grand Final Series Thing, and Smith led the team to a victory in Game One with a 19-point, 11-rebound, 5-assist performance. On this night, the team gave away 6,000 posters of Donta to the crowd.
– For what seems like years now, I’ve been talking about how Jabari Smith became a nationalised citizen of Qatar. But actually, he didn’t; he applied for citizenship, but, for whatever reason, he didn’t get it. I’m not sure why he wanted or needed it, unless he was wanting to enhance his career in the Qatarian leagues, but still. Jabari isn’t signed at the moment, having last played in Iran.
– JaJuan Smith played with the Mavericks in summer league, fired up jumpers mercilessly, hit a few, got a training camp invite, got cut, waited around, went to Slovenia, got cut within days of arriving, and is now in France. In five games for the struggling Pau Orthez, Smith averages 8.8 points and 2.8 rebounds, having shot 12 two-pointers, 4 free throws, and 31 three-pointers.
– Jamar Smith (not the transferred Illinois one, but the one formerly from Maryland) is in the Italian second division, averaging 14.0 points and 7.9 rebounds for Fastweb Junior Casale Monferrato, whom INSTANTLY you will recognise as also being the home of David Thorpe’s mate, Zabian Dowdell. Or at least you would if you’d been paying extreme, obsessive-compulsive attention.
– As seems to be the case with everyone that the Wizards ever sign for training camp, former Virginia Tech and Bowie State forward Jon Smith is in Argentina, averaging 11.7 points and 6.0 rebounds for Lanus Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires. Now, I’ve not heard of Jon Smith before, and only found out about him when it emerged that I needed one more Smith to pad this post out. But here is his basketball career thus far:
a: Spent three years on the fringes of the rotation for Virginia Tech. b: Transferred to Bowie State for his senior season, and averaged 13.9 ppg and 7.3 rpg. c: Played a combined five games in his first professional season (2003-04) between the CBA and the USBL. d: Signed by the Wizards for training camp in October 2004, then inevitably waived. e: Played in the USBL again in 2004-05, as well as the IBL. f: Spent the 2005-06 season in China. g: Averaged 14.0 ppg and 4.3 rpg in Portugal the following season. h: Spent last year in China and Puerto Rico. i: Has played for two teams in Argentina this season.
From this, I conclude that Jon Smith has never played a particularly high standard of basketball. Wizards excluded, Virginia Tech might have been the highest-calibre basketball that he played on that list, and yet he barely played there. (Note: no jokes about the current Wizards please.) So what, then, did Washington see in him? Not sure, but I begrudge him nothing.
– Leon Smith has spent the last few years doing a tour of Central and South America, a tour that has encompassed Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and now Chile again. L-Smoove is playing for Deportes Castro, and while I don’t have Chilean league numbers, I can tell you that Deportes Castro recently took part in the Liga Americas (a club competition for the Americas teams). In the three games he played, Smith scored 32 points, then 10 points, then 1 point. This might have something to do with the fact that they played a back-to-back-to-back.
– Steve Smith was a commentator for the Atlanta Hawks, but now works for NBA TV. I have been meaning to do a “rate the commentators” list for some time now, but haven’t got around to it, and nor am I particularly ready to draw ire.
– Steven Smith is with VAP Kolossos in Greece, averaging 18.4 and 5.2 rebounds, while shooting a Steve Smith-like 47% from three-point range.
– Despite persistent rumours to the contrary, Morrissey continues to deny rumours of a The Smiths reunion.
– Theron Smith is in China with TianJin Rongcheng. He averages 24.4 points, 9.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists. Only 24/10/5, that’s a bit tame, isn’t it?
– Still, if you think that’s disappointing, pay attention to Tommy Smith’s season. The ex-Bulls and Bucks forward spent the 2005 and 2006 seasons in Germany, never averaging more than 7.3 points per game. (I know he’s a defensive-minded player, Tommy, but it’s Germany.) He spent last season in Syria, averaging unknown numbers, and then signed earlier this season in China. Did he averages 30 points per game? 25? 20? 15? Nope. Smith averaged only 1 point per game in all of two games (totalling 45 minutes) before being waived and replaced by Chris Alexander (who has somewhat restored order with a 16.8 point, 12.0 rebound per game average). I will have to assume injury, because otherwise, that does not compute. Since then, Smith has remained unsigned, and last month was arrested for kidnapping and assault after punching his girlfriend in the face. Quite a few months, all told.
– The whitest man in showbiz, Tyler Smith (not the Tennessee player, but the former Penn State forward) is in Japan, averaging 7.8 points and 2.5 rebounds per game for the Hitachi Sunrockers. (Great name.) Smith writes a blog of sorts for Eurobasket.com about his experiences in Japan, but for the life of me I can’t find a single entry currently.
– Finally, here’s the season so far for all of the Smith’s in the NBA.
Craig Smith is averaging 9.1 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.45 PPS despite his incompatibility with the rest of the Timberwolves big men.
– Chester “Tre” Simmons is signed with Maccabi Tel-Aviv, but is not in the rotation, averaging only 9.7 minutes and 4 points per game in the Israeli league with several DNP’s thrown in. Simmons was also this week reportedly involved in a fight in (and outside) a nightclub that saw teammate D’Or Fischer have his face slashed by unknown assailants, resulting in micro-surgery needed to correct nerve damage. Allegedly, this group of unknowns had gone to the club to seek vengeance on Fischer’s father, who was visiting Fischer at the time and with whom they had had a “run-in” earlier on. However, Fischer’s father, who was at the club, had already left, and that’s when it all kicked off. Simmons was unhurt, and it was him who took Fischer to the hospital, but by being out at the club in the first place, the two were violating a team rule, and so will probably be punished. In Simmons’s case, give how little they seem to need him (or like him), he might get released.
– Courtney Sims is back in the D-League after his second ten-day contract with the Suns expired anonymously last month. He has totalled 53 points in the two games since his return to the Iowa Energy, and averages 23.0 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game. The blocks per game numbers are coming way down, however, as Sims found it a tad tricky to keep up the average of 8 blocks per game that he held during the first two contests. (He had a 22-point, 17-rebound, 11-block triple-double on his debut for the Energy. That’s Olumide Oyedeji-esque.)
– Ha Seung-Jin’s mate Nedzad Sinanovic is on loan from Real Madrid to Burgos in the LEB Gold (Spanish second division), where he frankly still underwhelms. Sinanovic averages 9.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.1 fouls in 17.3 minutes per game, still seemingly extremely raw despite being about to turn 26. Nevertheless, regardless of his non-existent NBA prospects, his aborted attempt at a duel with Ha during the Blazers’s 2005 offseason will forever cement his legacy as one of the game’s true greats, even if his play is ultimately insignificant. Here is a picture of Ned, as well as a crudely translated and uninsightful interview with him.
– Ramunas Siskauskas, who declared for the NBA draft one year too early, is the best player on a CSKA Moscow team that is arguably the best in Europe. Siskauskas averages 12.1 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists in the Russian Superleague (where CSKA are undefeated), and 10.6 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game in the EuroLeague (where they nearly are).
– Marcus Slaughter started the season with Bremerhaven in Germany, but left after eight games. He did, though, manage to average 18.8 points, 10.0 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 1.3 blocks per game in that time. Slaughter then moved to France, where, playing for Le Havre (I’ve been there!), he averages 14.2 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.5 steals in the French league, alongside 12.2 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.5 steals in the six games he played for Le Havre’s EuroCup campaign.
– Tamar Slay is playing for Air Avellino, a struggling Italian team. Slay averages 14.7 points and 4.0 rebounds in the Italian league (admittedly in only three games), along with 9.2 points and 4.4 rebounds in the EuroLeague. Slay returned from a six-week layoff on Sunday and scored a game-high 17 points for Avellino in their Serie A match against La Fortezza Bologna. They lost anyway.
– Uros Slokar is signed with Fortitudo Bologna (not the same team as La Fortezza Bologna). Slokar averages 4.7 points and 5.0 rebounds in the Italian league, but he hasn’t played since late December. A quick scan of his Facebook wall shows a post that says “hi uros how is your hand?”, leading me to believe that Uros Slokar has broken his hand. And this is why adding fringe NBA players to your Facebook friends list is worth it.
– Kirk Snyder is in China, so we’ll cut the sizzle and give you the steak; Zhejiang, 32.8, 10.1, 4.4.
– Jefferson Sobral averages 14.1 points and 5.5 rebounds for Joinvile of Brazil. But before the next entry, a short quiz.
Q: Who is Jefferson Sobral? A: He’s a man who won a training camp spot with the Lakers in 2002, and again with the Nuggets in 2006.
Q: How did he do that? A: Don’t know.
– D-League starlet Pape Sow is with Armani Jeans Milano, where he recently underwent surgery for a broken nose. (Or at least, this is my interpretation of the Italian sentence “Pape Sow e’ stato operato nella mattinata al setto nasale”. For the record, I can’t speak a word of Italian.) Sow averages 8.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game in the Italian league, alongside 7.9 points and 5.0 rebounds per game in the EuroLeague.
– Finally, Vassilis Spanoulis is with Panathinaikos, where he has been since the whole NBA thing went wrong for him. Spanner averages 9.3 points and 3.7 assists per game in the EuroLeague, alongside 9.0 points and 2.5 assists per game in the Greek league. I’m now off to watch one of his games. See ya.
– Renaldas Seibutis is part of a deep Iurbentia Bilbao team, averaging 10.7 points and 1.6 rebounds in the EuroCup, alongside 6.6 points and 1.7 rebounds in the Spanish league.
– Now is the time to refamiliarise yourself with Warriors great, Mladen Sekularac. Mladen was drafted in the second round by the Mavericks back in 2002, coming off a season that saw him average 17.6 points in the Saporta Cup, the predecessor of sorts to the EuroCup. From there, Sekularac (whose name I’m finding really hard to abridge) went to Bologna in Italy, where he didn’t play much and was released mid-season. In 2003/04, Rac averaged a more modest 10 ppg back in the Adriatic League, and then saw his rights traded to Golden State as a minor part of the Erick Dampier trade. It was at that moment that it all started to go south. Sekularac had signed with Buducnost to start the 2004/05 season, but left after they stopped paying him; he then signed in December of ’04 with Apollon in Greece, but appeared in only two games, totalling 0 points. Since then, Kula has been in Belgium, where a series of injuries have seen him go from the fifth-leading scorer in the country in 2005/06 to a fringe starter in the present day. Sek is now 28, and has not panned out despite once being touted as his nation’s best prospect for a generation. And guess what? Right now, he’s currently injured. Larac signed a two-year contract with Charleroi this summer, and then got injured in his debut, back in October. He hasn’t played since, and has all of two points to his name on the year. Bad times.
– Mouhamed Sene was waived by the Thunder on trade deadline day to accommodate Thabo Sefolosha. The team have since waived Joe Smith, thus opening up a roster spot for Sene’s return. But it’s not going to happen. Do you know why it’s not going to happen? It’s not going to happen because Saer Sene is not an NBA-calibre rotation player. Not now, and probably not ever. Remember that before you tout him as a signing for your team, as so many of you seem to be doing. (Note: if it happens, this post will self-destruct.)
– Josip Sesar – a 2000 second-round draft pick of the Sonics, later traded to the Celtics – has never left the Balkans. In fact, the only times he’s played for a team outside of his native Croatia have been for teams in Bosnia, and that’s where he finds himself now, with a team named BC Zrinjski Mik Company Mostar. The team don’t even appear to have a website, so I can’t tell you what Sesar averages. But then, he’s 31, he’s been producing less over the last few years than he was when he was 21, he never joined the NBA, and he’s never going to..
– Ansu Sesay is playing for ALBA Berlin, a team who managed to make it far in the EuroLeague before their triumphant run ended last month. Sesay averaged 9.1 points and 4.4 rebounds in EuroLeague play, alongside 12.4 points and 4.5 rebounds in German league play. Six of ALBA’s top seven scorers are Americans (a list that includes Casey Jacobsen, Adam Chubb and Rashad Wright, as well as Sesay), and the seventh is a Serbian named Aleksandar Nadjfeji. German national basketball is looking healthy, then.
– The most important update of this entire series is finally here. Ha Seung-Jin was traded by the Blazers to Milwaukee in the 2006 offseason, as a part of the trade that took Jamaal Magloire to Portland. He was waived during training camp, kicked around for a couple of months, and was then acquired by the Anaheim Arsenal of the D-League. Ha played in 26 games for The Arse, with 16 starts, but only averaged a frankly disappointing 2.7 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.0 fouls in the size-starved D-League. Ha did not play last year, and this year he is back in his native Korea playing for KCC Egis. But there is hope at last – Ha has played in 37 games with the team this year, averaging 22 minutes, 9.3 rebounds, 7.4 rebounds, 1.3 blocks and 1.3 fouls per game, shooting 66% from the floor and 43% from the foul line. Those are, if nothing else, numbers. And you can only obtain numbers by playing in games. So this means that Ha is at least playing in games. And for that, we are grateful. The dream is not yet over.
– Mustafa Shakur was a recent signing for Panellinios in Greece, where he backs up Anthony Grundy and averages 6.0 points and 1.2 assists. I watched a Panellinios game a few days ago, and, after Shakur committed two admittedly rather dumb fouls in the first 30 seconds, the commentators spent the remainder of the game doing little else but talk about how bad Mustafa Shakur is. They did this unapologetically and relentlessly, despite Shakur scoring 18 points in 13 minutes right in front of their eyes, on a relentless sequence of superbly effective drives.
– Doron Sheffer has retired for the fourth time. The first time came back in the year 2000 at the age of 28, when it transpired that he had cancer. He returned in early 2003, and managed to avoid retiring again until October 2005, when he retired again due to the “sleepless nights” he got from the “waste of time” that basketball was to him. That solemn vow lasted for all of six weeks before he unretired again in December, and Sheff saw out the season with Hapoel Tel-Aviv, playing in only five games before breaking his hand. Guess what he did then? Yep, he retired, this time in April 2006, and this one lasted until July 2007, when Sheffer returned to play one final season with his original team, Hapoel Galil Elyon-Golan. This time, he managed a full season. And then he retired again after the season ended. We can only guess that this is really it this time, even if the evidence is decidedly stacked against it.
– Ricky Shields is arguably the best player in Slovenia, leading his team, the league-leading Krka, in both points and assists with averages of 15.1 points and 2.7 assists respectively, along with 4.8 rebounds per game. If “best player on the best team in Slovenia” isn’t the ultimate CV boost, then I don’t know what is.
– Joe Shipp is playing for Minas Tenis Clube in Brazil, a team who strangely favour basketball over tennis. (They should, of course, but the branding seems off.) Shipp averages 19.7 points and 5.6 rebounds in the Brazilian league.
– Paul Shirley’s blog on ESPN.com over the summer alluded to the idea that his 2008 stint in Spain with Vive Menorca might have been his last-ever professional basketball player gig. It wasn’t, because Shirley signed a one-month contract this November with Unicaja Malaga as an injury replacement for Marcus Haislip. However, that’s over now, and Shirley is again unsigned, seemingly not looking too hard for work either. He’s now writing a lot for ESPN about music.
– Finally, some good news. After almost two years out of the game, Wayne Simien is back and playing, albeit not at the standard that he once was. Simien is with Caceras in the Spanish LEB Gold [second division], averaging 16.8 points and 8.2 rebounds a game. It’s a start. Despite how few NBA games he played, though, Simien has still appeared in the second-most out of anyone on this list, with 51 games, albeit way behind Ansu Sesay’s 127. (Sene and Ha both appeared in 46, Shirley in 18. The rest have appeared in 0, and probably never will.)
– Jamal Sampson started the year in China (woop!), but unfortunately his averages were rather normal. Sampson averaged 10.7 points and 10.7 rebounds for the DongGuan New Century Leopards, before being replaced in early February by Cory Underwood, the team clearly realising that if Olumide Oyedije can average 20/20, then Sampson should at least average 35/26. But he didn’t.
– Ricky Sanchez, whose rights are owned by Philadelphia, is embroiled in a bit of a soap opera. Sanchez played last season in his native Puerto Rico for Grises de Humacao, but hasn’t played in the few months since that season ended. Currently, there’s an argument going on within Puerto Rico as to who he can and can’t play for. At some point in time, Sanchez was traded to the awesomely named Ponce Lions, but the Puerto Rican season is about to start, and Sanchez refuses to play for Ponce. The reason given by his agent is that Sanchez plans to attend “some” NBA camps this season (something clearly he considers to be possible), and he doesn’t want to be tied into a contract with a BSN (Puerto Rican league) team should an NBA offer come his way. Someone should tell him that it won’t, and ease the crisis. The dispute rages on, as FIBA have banned Sanchez from playing in the Venezuelan league. Apparently you need a formal letter of transfer to leave the Puerto Rican league, even if you’re a free agent. Harsh. A hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.
– Melvin Sanders is playing for Gran Canaria in Spain. He averaged 14.3 points per game in eight EuroCup games, and averages 10.2 points per game in 19 Spanish league games. He also has 24 total assists in those 27 games. Sanders recently picked up a Georgian passport, via means I have absolutely no explanation for. This means that the Georgians, should they so choose, could feature a backcourt of Melvin Sanders, Shammond Williams and Tyrone Ellis. Some classic Georgian names there.
– Patrick Sanders is in the D-League, averaging 14.7 points and 3.9 rebounds per game for the Iowa Energy.
– If you remember Adam Parada’s entry on this list – in which I listed a long list of listed places where Parada had previously played, and in amongst this list of random places was the Sacramento Kings – then you’ll notice how this following entry is going to be much the same. Eric Sandrin is (maybe) a current members of the Singapore Slingers, a Singapore-based team who were formerly competing in the Australian NBL. However, they dropped out, and decided to tour Asia instead. In additional to this, Sandrin was recently drafted by the Samsung Thunders in the [South] Korean basketball league’s “Ethnic Players Draft”, which is their wording and not mine.
n 2007/08, Sandrin had played in Korea for Mobis Phoebus, which sounds like a believable baddie in a Power Rangers episode. Sandrin had previously split the 2006/07 season between Poland and Portugal, and split the 2005/06 season between the CBA and the ABA. The 2004/05 season saw him play in the ABA, then in Brazil, then for the Harlem Globetrotters, and before that he had played in Brazil, Austria, Luxembourg, and the NCAA Division II. And somewhere in amongst all that, Sandrin did enough to win a 2005 training camp invite with the Kings.
– Viktor Sanikidze is another Georgian, but unlike Melvin Sanders, Sanikidze can claim to have actually been born there. Sanikidze is playing for TU/Rock in Estonia, and averaged 8.5/4 in two EuroCup games, 4.6/3.8 in 5 EuroChallenge games, and 8.1/6.8 in the Baltic league.
– Daniel Santiago is with Barcelona, and averages 5.2 points, 2.2 rebounds and 0.9 blocks in Spanish league play, alongside 6.4 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.8 blocks per game in the EuroLeague. David Thorpe is a fan.
– Romain Sato is into his third season with Montepaschi Siena, the team that is absolutely running away with the Italian league. Sato averages 10.1 points and 3.4 rebounds per game in the EuroLeague, along with 12.1 points and 4.5 rebounds in the Italian league. Sadly, his website, www.starinanylanguage.com, no longer seems to exist. But you can find some archived versions of it here. It’s basically just him talking.
– Alex Scales started the season with BC Kyiv, averaging 12.1 points and 3.1 rebounds in the Ukrainian league, before leaving the team after they dumped all their foreign players due to bankruptcy. Scales has since joined GMAC Bologna, but for reasons I’m not sure of, he has to wait until March 8th until he can debut. Fun Alex Scales fact: Alex Scales has appeared in one NBA regular season game, when he totalled 9 seconds of court time for the San Antonio Spurs at the end of a first half of a game in November 2005, defending an inbounds play. For this, I will always be a fan.
– The Don, Luke Schenscher, averaged 16.9 points and 10.8 rebounds this past season for the Adelaide 36ers, and won player of the month for January/February. He has grown his hair out long, thus enhancing his likeness to Janae Timmins from Neighbours, but he’s also grown a beard that prevents the similarity from being faultless. That would be bad. I don’t want to be attracted to Luke Schenscher.
– Finally, you will probably already know of the common factor in Sofoklis Schortsanitis’s career; he gets out of shape and gets suspended, undermining his fine scoring talents. I haven’t yet seem him play this year – although I do have an Olympiacos game in amongst 25 or so NCAA games that are queued up on my Sky Plus – but he still plays very few minutes, so I’m guessing he’s still out of shape. Sofo averages 7.9 minutes, 4.8 points and 1.8 rebounds per game in the EuroLeague, as well as 9.6 minutes, 5.2 points and 1.7 rebounds per game in the Greek league. He has 43 total rebounds and 47 total fouls. So you can see how the evidence is stacking up against him. However, despite this cycle seeming like it’s gone forever, Sofoklis is still only 23, giving Clippers fans something to cling onto.
I suppose I ought really ask – are you enjoying these? Really? I’d like some feedback on this. I mean, even if you don’t enjoy them I’m doing them anyway, because despite how tedious it can get trying to find new and exciting ways to list someone’s rebounding averages, I’ve come too far to quit. And I’m also kind of enjoying doing it. But I need to know if you are too. If you’re not, please say so, as your opinion is important to me, even if it might be ignored.
– Jason Richards is unsigned, perhaps unsurprising due to the knee injury he suffered in training camp that ended his season before it even began. Speaking of, if any Heat fans out there are wondering why Jason’s getting a full $442,114 salary from the Heat this year (see salary page), it’s not because the Heat signed him to a guaranteed deal. They actually signed him in July to a deal with a small $50,000 guarantee, enough to convince him to choose their training camp over anyone else’s. However, because Richards was hurt while directly playing for the team, his contract is guaranteed until such time as he is able to return. And since he’s out for the year, that means he’s getting paid for the whole of this year. (The same has happened to Mike Wilks, formerly of Orlando and now of Memphis.) It’s kind of a bugger for Jason that he’s had such a serious knee injury in the first season of his professional career, but the $370,000 extra compensation that he got for his troubles will numb the pain a bit. I can only hope that this doesn’t lead to a spate of fringe NBA players signing training camp contracts for nominal or no guaranteed money, just to then take a dive and pick up a fat check for a year. This would be bad, if alarmingly smart.
– Norm Richardson – a legend in my eyes for reasons not even I really understand – has already retired at least once from professional basketball. Clearly it didn’t work out, though, because Norm is back and playing in Germany for TBB Trier. N (it’s like Q, only N) averages 10.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game, numbers that extol the virtues of his greatness better than my mere words ever could.
– Anthony Richardson’s senior and junior years at Florida State were far less productive than his junior season, but he began his NBA career in earnest anyway. Richardson didn’t play in his first professional season (if that makes sense), but for the 2006/07 season he signed with the fantastically-named Butte Daredevils of the CBA. From there he played in the USBL for a bit, where he was a 20 ppg scorer, and then went to 2007 training camp with the New Orleans Hornets. Richardson did sufficiently well there that he scooped a training camp spot with the team, although clearly he didn’t make the regular season roster. Richardson then went off to Germany, where he scored 53 points in seven games, and is signed this season with Eiffel Towers Den Bosch, a team which you may remember are deceptively located in Holland. Richardson averages 12.3 points and 4.9 rebounds per game in the Dutch league, along with 15.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in the EuroChallenge.
– Rick Rickert spent the year with the New Zealand Breakers, who equally confusingly play in the Australian NBL. Rickert averaged 13.5 points and 8.3 rebounds per game in the Australian regular season, which has now finished. In the semi-final game Friday, which saw the end of the Breakers’ season, the Breakers lost 103-97 to the Melbourne Tigers, via 26 points by personal favourite Ebi Ere. Rickert had only 7 points and 10 rebounds.
– Former Cavaliers great Filiberto Rivera is in Germany, playing for Brose Baskets Bamberg. Rivera averages 10.4 points, 2.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists. Per game. Obviously.
– Lawrence Roberts is averaging 11.6 points and 7.7 rebounds per game in the EuroCup for Crvena Zvezda, alongside 9.8 points and 5.8 rebounds in the Adriatic League. Unfortunately, despite the fact that I’m going to go and watch a Crvena Zvezda game as soon as I finish writing this post, Roberts won’t be in it, for he injured himself back on the 7th February and is not active at the moment. Damn. Might go back to bed instead then.
– Dennis Rodman is currently appearing on Celebrity Apprentice, where he has demonstrated a stubborn refusal to bake cakes.
– Bryon Russell is reportedly wanting to mount a comeback at the age of 38. This seems odd, given that he was done at the age of about 32. But good luck with that. I just don’t think it will happen.
– Finally, Walker Russell has emerged from somewhere as being one of the best point guards in the D-League. Russell averages 15.9 points and a league-leading 11.4 assists per game for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. Is this further evidence of Isiah Thomas’s ability to scout young talent? Seems so. Shame about his ability to scout old talent.
The results [result] are [is] in – one person likes these lists, no one said they didn’t, and everyone else absconded. That’s good enough for me, and the risk of alienating folks is minimal given that I seemingly have a readership of about 12 people, so here’s a long list of people called Robinson.
– I don’t mean this in a harsh way, but I’m not sure of what Antywane Robinson has done to earn training camp invites in back-to-back seasons. Robinson briefly made the rosters of both the Hawks in 2007 and the Sixers in 2008, but the season in between saw him average only 9.9 ppg and 5.6 rpg. An athletic and defensive-minded player he may be (and is), but those still aren’t impressive numbers for Antywane, particularly in the not-especially-competitive French league. Nevertheless, Antywane is back in France again this season, where his inability to spell his own name will help him blend in well with the French. A-Rob averages 11.1 points and 5.1 rebounds for Cholet.
– Bernard Robinson blew out his knee in training camp with the Nets in October 2007, and hasn’t played since.
– Brandon Robinson is in China. This means that good times will ensue. Brandon was also in China last year, where he averaged 22.7 ppg, 10.8 rpg, and 2.3 apg for the Shaanxi Dongshen Kylins. This year, for the same team again, Robinson has upped the scoring numbers, up to 25.7 ppg, 9.7 rpg and 2.3 apg. Is Brandon Robinson getting better, or is the Chinese league getting worse? Probably both. Also, for points per shot fans, that’s 1,052 points on 661 shots, for a 1.59 points per shot average. If Bra-Rob could up his three-point percentage from 32%, and his free throw shooting from 68%, he could shoot for the Radenovic.
– Cliff Robinson is retired, and forming a sports management company. As far as I can tell, he hasn’t been arrested since retirement.
– Dawan Robinson averages 10.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists for Prima Veroli in the Italian second division.
– Bulls fans who don’t like Eddie Robinson very much (of which there is more than one, although I’m not one of them) might enjoy this next entry. E-Rob was bought out of his Bulls contract in the summer of 2004. He has played for precisely two teams in the interim four and a half years – with the Hornets in the 2005 summer league, and a season with the Idaho Stampede in the D-League in 2006/07. At the latter, he torched the nets with a 15.6 ppg average, albeit with a less-than-sizzling 13% from three-point range, before being waived due to injury. At this point, Robinson has very little chance of rejoining the NBA, with any shot ruthlessly snuffed out by the introduction of the new dress code that outlaws inactive list players from wearing paisley sweaters. Or at least, I think it does.
– Frank Robinson has had a busy week, being waived from Olimpia Ljubljana in Slovenia and signing with EnBW Ludwigsburg in Germany. Robinson averaged 6.8 points and 3.3 rebounds in the EuroLeague for Ljubljana, which explains the lure of such an otherwise baffling basketball destination to the untrained eye.
– Glenn Robinson hasn’t been heard of for four years, after winning a ring with the Spurs. Not a bad ending to a career, all told.
– Former Heat guard Jamal Robinson finished off his career last year in Argentina.
– Finally, Nate Robinson has gone and gotten rather good.
– For Orlando fans wondering how Milovan Rakovic is doing, here’s some numbers; for Spartak St Petersburg in Russia (not Florida), Rakovic is averaging 7.2 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.4 fouls through 16 games in the Russian league. But as underwhelming as those numbers are – particularly those rebounding numbers from a 6’10 centre – you might take some solace in the fact that they’re not too dissimilar from those of Fran Vazquez. Or you might not, considering that Vazquez was picked ahead of Danny Granger.
– Fan favourite Peter John Ramos started the year with Fuenlabrada Madrid in the ACB, averaging 6.7 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, but has since returned to his native Puerto Rico. Ramos has signed with the Quebradillas Pirates, but hasn’t played a game yet, largely because the Puerto Rican league hasn’t started yet. The Puerto Rican league has something of a Chinese league thing going on there, whereby fringe and former NBA talent go there to achieve something that they never previously attained in the NBA – stardom. Players either signed for the upcoming BSN season, or rumoured to soon be, include Ramos, Rodney White, Ricky Sanchez, Ruben Wolkowyski, Robert Traylor, Esteban Batista and Marcus Fizer. Not a bad front seven, that, especially as it would see Fizer playing point guard, just like he’s always wanted.
– Allan Ray is in Italy, where he started the year not playing all that much for Lottomatica Roma (6.8 ppg in the EuroLeague, 12.9 in Serie A), before being waived and joining Carife, where his numbers have improved to 16.9 ppg, 4.6 rpg and 2.4 apg.
– You had probably assumed that, when the Clippers quietly waived Zeljko Rebraca in April 2007, that that was it for him. Struggling with chronic back injuries, Rebraca hadn’t played the entire 2006/07 season, and had managed only 29 unspectacular games the season before. But if you did think that, like I did, then you’d’ve been wrong. Rebraca kicked around for a few more months, before returning to give it one final shot with the powerhouse Spanish team Pamesa Valencia. It kind of worked, too – Rebraca returned to play in six games with the team, totalling 34 points, before retiring in December 2007, far more satisfied with this conclusion to his career than he would have been with the quiet waiving for Will Conroy that he had before. Good for you, Zelly!
– Justin Reed was one of the better players in the D-League last year, and made the training camp roster of the Philadelphia 76ers. However, he was then waived before camp even started (I never found out why, but I’m guessing it was injuries) and replaced by Cory Underwood. Reed later rejoined his D-League team of last year, the Bakersfield Jam, but his numbers have slipped from 20.3/7.1/3.7 to 11.4/4.9/2.2.
– If you are eagerly awaiting and utterly dependent on any new shred of Don Reid news, there’s something wrong with you, and I can’t help with it.
– Jared Reiner is in Germany, averaging 10.5 points and 9.0 rebounds for Bremerhaven, but he hasn’t played for nearly a month. A quick search reveals that this is due to a problem with his Sprunggelenksverletzung. I would love to play Scrabble in German. You’d need a big table, though.
– Felipe Reyes, Real Madrid forward and one of the better European big men for a while now, has made a big leap forward this year. Already good, Reyes has gotten even better just before his 29th birthday, and has taken last year’s Spanish league numbers of 13.8 points, 6.9 rebounds, and and turned them into 17.4 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. He also averages 13.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game in the EuroLeague. Unfortunately, he’s still undersized and unathletic, so his effectiveness in the NBA would be less spectacular. But if Luis Scola can make it, then Felipe Reyes can make it. I just don’t think he’ll bother.
– Former Virginia standout J.R. Reynolds is with ASVEL Villeurbanne in France, the team that Tony Parker just bought a chunk of. (Also, for whomever it was that sent me an email asking what kind of standard ASVEL played to, sorry I forgot to respond, but here goes; a decent one. The French league is weak when compared to other leagues such as the Italian, Spanish and Greek, but it’s OK compared to everyone else, and ASVEL are the league leaders right now. They were also in this year’s EuroCup, the second-tier European club competition, although they didn’t get very far. But Nick Fazekas and Chevy Troutman play for them, so there’ some quality for you.) Reynolds averages 10.4 points and 4.3 assists in 22 mpg, numbers which I’m guessing mean that he’s playing more point guard than ever before. But this is just a guess. (If he is, and if he’s doing it well, then his future prospects are looking brighter.)
– My boy Charles Rhodes is letting me down. I watched him for the Mavericks in this year’s Vegas Summer League, was duly impressed (as are Dallas, who bring him back for training camp) and spend my time singing his praises, and then he goes and does little with it. Playing in Latvia for Barons/LMT Riga, Rhodes averaged only 9.5 points and 6.2 rebounds in the Baltic league, alongside 12.7 points and 3.2 rebounds in the EuroCup, before leaving the team in January. He is currently unsigned, and I currently feel like a bit of a numpty.
– Darius Rice is either with the Uruguayan team Atletico Atenas, or the awesomely-named Filipino team Talk ’N Text Tropang Texters. Reports vary on that, although the Uruguayan team seems more credible. Other awesomely named Filipino teams include Darius’s former team, the Purefood Tender Juicy Hotdogs, and the implausible Rain Or Shine.
– Maureece Rice’s first professional season is going rather well. After a poor final season in college, where he scored 9.2 points per game on 34% shooting, Rice went undrafted, but got a training camp spot with the Sixers anyway. (So did two other people in this post; Reed and Reiner.) He didn’t make it, obviously, but he then went to the D-League and joined the expansion Erie BayHawks, where he’s gone on to do rather well. Rice averages 15.8 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists for an above .500 Erie team who, frankly, could be doing a lot worse than that. Particularly since they start a swingman at centre.
– Finally, former Timberwolves big man Chris Richard – ignominiously waived for the holy trinity of Calvin Booth, Mark Madsen and Jason Collins this past October – was the first pick in this year’s D-League draft by the Tulsa 66ers. Richard then averaged a slightly underwhelming yet All-Star-worthy 12.0 points and 8.3 rebounds in 20 games for the team, before being waived last week due to injury.
(Sprunggelenksverletzung means “ankle injury”, by the way.)
– Olden Polynice has retired, which is perhaps unsurprising given that he’s nearly 45 years old, but it took him longer to do than you might think. After retiring, Polynice became a coach for an ABA team, but the job security of a position like that is about six weeks maximum. He has not, as far as I am aware, joined the police force.
– Mark Pope has also retired, and as promised has enrolled in medical school.
– Vitaly Potapenko has also also retired. After falling out of the NBA in 2007 (and looking quite bad during his last year), Vitaly sat around on the side-lines for a while before signing with Estudiantes in Spain in December 2007. He played six games, looked off the pace, was quickly waived, and retired after that. End of an era.
– Roger Powell hasn’t retired, so that means I’m going to have to actually put some effort into this entry. Powell didn’t make the Bulls roster out of preseason, despite a pretty decent showing, and signed in Israel with Hapoel Jerusalem. In five EuroChallenge games, Powell averaged 8.6 points and 4.6 rebounds, improving slightly to 9.8 points and 4.5 rebounds in the Israeli league. Powell is a combined 10-39 from three-point range in the two competitions, including one 4-4 outing, so his weakness is still his weakness.
– Kasib Powell started the year in China, where he averaged 25.8 points, 9.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists on 59% shooting. He left the team at the beginning of the year and is now back in his natural territory – the D-League. For the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Powell is averaging 15.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists.
– Carlos Powell is playing for the pricelessly-named Inchon ET Land Black Slamer in South Korea. He averages 25.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.9 assists, numbers not too dissimilar from what he averaged in the D-League last year (22.5 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 4.8 apg). Powell was arrested back in May on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm, but I can’t find what ultimately became of this. If you know, please let me know.
– Pablo Prigioni is with Tau Vitoria, averaging 6.0 points and 4.4 assists in EuroLeague play, alongside 8.4 points and 4.8 assists in Spanish league play. Those numbers are good, even if they might not look it.
– Gorgeous Georgios Printezis is with Olympiacos, averaging 9.7 points and 2.9 rebounds in 18 minutes per game in the Greek league, alongside 8.8 points and 3.1 rebounds in 17 mpg in the EuroLeague. Gotta rebound better than that, George, regardless of how brilliant your hairline is. That only gets you so far.
– Laron Profit has spent the last year and a half maintaining an on-and-off relationship with an Argentinian team called Libertad Sunchales. It’s currently off.
– Ivan Radenovic is playing for Panellinios in Greece, where I watched him this very week. The European game suits Radenovic rather well; he’s tall, and a skilled finisher inside, but he’s also slower than Rain Man and can only jump over a matchbox if you crushed it flat first and then pumped him full of helium. Nevertheless, Radenovic is averaging 11.7 points and 4.1 rebounds in the Greek league, alongside 14.4 points and 4.7 rebounds in the EuroCup. Those 14.4 points per game form a total of 201 points on only 111 shots, for a scintillating 1.81 points per shot average. If points per shot is a metric that gets you going, like it does to me, then you may want to take a moment to consider those numbers.
– Finally, Igor Rakocevic is not currently in the NBA, but that may well change, as it’s been reported that he has a standing offer from an NBA team, speculatively credited to being Houston. Rakocevic’s previous NBA stint with the Minnesota Timberwolves didn’t go particularly well, as his undersized stature saw him miscast as a point guard, but in the last few years in Europe as a two-guard, Rakocevic has emerged as one of the best players in the continent. Starting alongside Prigioni in the Tau backcourt, Rakocevic averages 19.7 points per game in the EuroLeague, and 20.6 points per game in the Spanish league, numbers that rank first in both the second- and third-highest standards of basketball competition in the world. Can’t argue with that.
– Let’s start this off with a bang; I have absolutely nothing to report on Wesley Person. Nothing whatsoever.
– Continuing that sizzling opener, Brent Petway is in the D-League, averaging 10.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots a game for the Idaho Stampede. Those numbers were somehow enough to make him a D-League All Star, and you can see the box score for the D-League All Star game here. (That minutes distribution is first class. I’d love to know what Richard Hendrix did to merit those extra 5 seconds.) Petway also lost his D-League Slam Dunk Champion title to James White, so it’s not been entirely a good fortnight for him.
– The last I heard about Eric Piatkowski came in the summertime, when an article talked about he was staying in shape and waiting for the phone to ring. I’m guessing it hasn’t rung.
– Tim Pickett has had a busy year, starting in the Italian Serie A with Rieti, but leaving before the season began. He then moved to Bulgaria with Lukoil Akademik, and averaged 17.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in EuroCup play for them. Unfortunately, he was a victim of their sweeping cull of international players midway through the season, one which also brought about the demise of Kehnide Adeleke and Kevin Kruger. Pickett has since signed in China with Shanxi Zhongyu, as the replacement for Bonzi Wells. By now, you should know what it means when somebody signs in China, and by God you won’t be disappointed here either – Pickett currently averages 39.9 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 3.2 assists per game. OK, so the assists numbers are a tad low, but he’s averaging 40 ppg for Shade Sheist’s sake. Who the hell should he be passing to?
– Kevinn Pinkney is with NGC Cantu in Serie A, averaging 14.4 points and 6.8 rebounds a game. Foolishly, though, he continues to insist upon his own three-point shot, and is shooting only 29.8% on the year from three-point range, while shooting 47 threes to 125 twos. This is a trend with Pinkney, who as far as I can tell has only shot above 30% from three-point range once in his entire basketball career, that being last year when he shot 33% for Angellico Biella. (That 50% success in his NBA stint doesn’t count. Two shots doth not a sample sizeth make.) Either shoot better or shoot less.
– Danilo “J.R.” Pinnock is playing for a team in the Italian second division, whose name as far as I can tell is “Pallacanestro Seven 2007 Roseto 1946”. Catchy. Here’s Google Translate with the rest of the J.R. Pinnock news:
Last external quintet is the American Danilo Pinnock Jr. Player of talent and high technology, is not exactly a guarantee in terms of choices and application. His performance was influenced heavily discontinuous season biancoazzurri. 16.7 points and 4.5 rebounds for the media to him.
– Trent Plaisted, second-round draft pick whose rights are owned by the Pistons, is signed with Angellico Biella in Italy. He has not played since October, though, due to back troubles. Plaisted totalled 10 points, 4 rebounds and 8 fouls in the two games that he managed to play in.
– Zoran Planinic never fitted in the NBA, but is now a fine back-up point guard for CSKA Moscow, averaging 8.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists in Russian league play, alongside 8.2 points, 1.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists in the EuroLeague.
– Question: is Pavel Podkolzin good yet? Answer: nope. Pavel is playing for Sibirtelekom-Lokomotiv Novosybirsk, a team in the Russian second division, and if you can make sense of this then you can see what he averages. He’s number 23, and as far as I can tell, he averages 7.2 points and 4 rebounds. In the Russian second division. Hmmm. Lots of people do that, and none of them get drafted in the first round of the NBA draft. That turn-of-the-century European influx got a bit overzealous, didn’t it?
– Finally, Scot Pollard is sitting around looking at the phone with Eric Piatkowski.
Also, if you missed it, these last ten days or so were a minefield for arrests of past and present NBA players. Firstly, Nets big man Sean Williams was arrested for trespassing, after violating a restraining order and returning to the Boston College campus, the school that he was previously kicked out of. Suns guard Jason Richardson was then arrested for doing 90mph in a 35mph zone, while also having his three-year-old son in the back of the car not in a proper child safety seat, a fairly terrible thing the media is not making enough of. Then Celtics guard Gabe Pruitt was arrested for DUI after driving around Hollywood at 3am after a loss to the Clippers. Former Bulls and Bucks forward Tommy Smith was then arrested for reportedly kidnapping and assault after punching his girlfriend and breaking her nose after leaving a party. (Not sure where the kidnapping came into it.) And then most impressively of all, NBA journeyman Damone Brown was arrested on Thursday as a part of an FBI operation to bring down an entire drug trafficking ring. Brown was charged with money laundering, after supposedly leasing out the safety deposit box that a local drug kingpin was using to stash his proceeds in. Unsurprisingly, Brown was then kicked off of his D-League team, the Reno Bighorns.
– Smush Parker started the season in the D-League, averaging 17.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 7.5 assists and an almighty 5.1 turnovers per game for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. He then went off to China, where he may have become literally the only American import whose numbers went down in the CBA. Parker averages 13.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.2 steals for Guangdong, numbers that are pretty unimpressive in relative terms. Luckily for Smush, I don’t know his Chinese turnover numbers.
– I don’t know what Cherokee Parks does now, but his sister Corey is no longer the bass player for seminal hard rock band Nashville Pussy, and hasn’t been for about eight years. Another really useful update for you here. Be grateful.
– Marlon Parmer spent some time earlier this season playing backup point guard for the Colorado 14ers, averaging 8.0 points and 3.6 assists, but was waived in January and has not signed elsewhere since.
– Ruben Patterson hasn’t had a great couple of years. After a career year with the Bucks in the final year of his big contract, all Ruben could manage for the 2007/08 season was an unguaranteed minimum salary contract with the Clippers. He was then waived before the contract guarantee date, and didn’t catch on with a playoff team. Patterson then joined the Nuggets for preseason this year, but never really had a legitimate shot at making the team, as the cost-cutting Nuggets didn’t really want any of their five signings (despite having two open roster spots) because it would mean spending money to keep them. Patterson was subsequently waived, and hasn’t signed elsewhere since, after a rumoured move to Spain didn’t come off. Will he catch on with a playoff team for this deadline? Who knows. The Celtics, amongst others, could use him. But they won’t have roster space once the deal for Stephon Marbury goes down, and for all of Marbury’s faults, he’s not the registered sex offender that Patterson is. You can’t fault a team if they find that to be a severe detriment to signing him. So I’d guess that Ruben goes unsigned, again, and forever.
– Andre Patterson averaged 4.2 points and 2.7 rebounds in ten games for the Reno Bighorns, got waived, then joined up with the Anaheim Arsenal, where he currently averages 2.1 points and 2.8 rebounds in 11 games. In those combined 21 games, he has 74 points, 58 rebounds and 47 fouls.
– Rickey Paulding is with EWE Baskets Oldenburg, a German basketball team that also fosters elderly sheep. Paulding averages 14.1 points and 5.0 rebounds in the EuroChallenge for Oldenburg, who are still going strong in the competition, as well as 15.2 points and 4.5 rebounds in German league play. He leads the team in scoring in both competitions. I lied about the sheep.
– Gary Payton is now appearing on NBA TV, where I am informed that he is cringeworthy. However, I’ve never seen him, and thus should not pass judgement. Not that this usually stops me.
– Anthony Peeler last played in December 2005 for Akasvayu Girona in Spain. He is now an assistant coach for Virginia Union University. Did you know that Anthony Peeler collects hats? Me neither, until just now. This is the kind of vital information that I’m committed to bringing you.
– Nikola Pekovic, Timberwolves draft pick this past summer, is with Panathinaikos in Greece. Pecker is averaging 12.1 points and 3.7 rebounds in 17.5 minutes a game in the EuroLeague, alongside 11.5 points and 3.3 rebounds in 15.4 minutes per game in the Greek league. Great scoring rate, particularly for a 6’11 player, but work a bit harder on the boards, sir. I read somewhere sometime that the Timberwolves plan on bringing in Pekovic in the summer of 2010, which in theory gives them a nice young big rotation of Pekovic, Al Jefferson and Kevin Love. But God knows how that’s going to work out on defence.
– Ben Pepper – who never left Oceania, apart from a very brief stint in the ABA at the turn of the century – is currently unsigned, and was for the whole of the past NBL (Australian league) season. I’m assuming he’s retired, but can’t find any proof of this.
– Finally, Kosta Perovic is averaging 11.2 points and 5.0 rebounds in 19.5 minutes per game for Valeniva in the EuroCup. That’s quite good, and a hell of a lot more than Perovic showed with the Warriors last year.
