Lamond Murray

[...] Despite retiring from regular playing in 2007, Vinson still dusts off the cobwebs every summer to play in the IBL. The IBL is a very minor league with no coverage here, other than the exploits of one team; the Los Angeles Lightning. Last summer [the IBL plays in the summer], the Lightning churned out a veritably stacked roster of people you've heard of; Lamond Murray Jamal Sampson, Bryon Russell, Toby Bailey, Juaquin Hawkins, Adam Parada, California State senator Tony Strickland, and Darrick Martin. Some of those, such as Vinson, were retired players (or politicians) just looking to scratch their playing itch; some (Parada, Sampson, Murray) were still playing professional careers and just wanted a little summer gig. Either way, the team was stacked, and the Lightning breezed to the IBL title.

- Lamond Murray

You may have thought that Lamond Murray had retired. But you'd be wrong. He's old, but he's still going.

Murray's career began to fade in the 2002-03 season, when he missed the entire thing due to a torn foot ligament. I remember this vividly, because I dropped Gilbert Arenas from my fantasy team to pick up Murray just before the season started, only for Murray to miss the whole thing and for Gilbert to break out. Murray returned to play with the Raptors, but was never the same again, going from a career high 16.6 points per game in the season before the injury to only 6.0 points in 33 games in the season after it, on 35% shooting. After one more year in Toronto, again averaging 6.0ppg, Murray signed a one year minimum salary contract with the Nets for the 2005-06 season. He averaged 3.4 points, scoring 196 on 181 shots, and never played in the NBA again.

After that season ended, Murray returned to his first team, the L.A. Clippers, for training camp. He failed to make the team and sat out most of the rest of the 2006-07 season, but joined up with an IBL team, the Los Angeles Lightning, in the summer of 2007. The IBL is an American minor league that takes place in the summer, and Lamond has played in it for the last three years. He has spent his regular seasons in China (2007 and 2008), the ABA (2007) and Bahrain (this year), and then goes back to Cali for the IBL in the summer.

Last year's Los Angeles Lightning roster was truly stacked. Supposedly, Lamond has already committed to joining this year's. Let's see who else joins him.