Jamal Sampson

Jamal Sampson - 2 games, 20.0 mpg, 3.5 ppg, 9/5 rpg, 0.5 apg, 0.0 spg, 1.0 bpg, 1.0 TOpg, 40% FG, 0% 3PT, 50% FT

More than anyone above, Shanxi have struggled to find import consistency. Last year, they famously had Stephon Marbury playing for them, yet they released him a couple of weeks before this season began. [More on him later.] In his place, Shanxi began the season with Sampson and Rodgers, both CBA veterans. Sampson played in the first two games only before leaving the team over a contract dispute; it was initially announced that his replacement would be ex-NBA forward Donnell Harvey, but the reason for said announcement was not clear. Harvey was playing for Igokea in Bosnia at the time, and still is.

- Jamal Sampson - Sampson is 27, has five years of NBA experience, and yet hasn't played in the NBA for the last three years. He was an early starter, athletic and an incredibly good rebounder, with many questions about his offensive game. Those questions still remain. But so does the very good rebounding.

[...] 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.

- Jamal Sampson

Sampson played in China last year, and was said to join up with the stacked L.A. Lightning IBL team last summer, but never played a game for the team. This season, he joined up with Philippines team Smart Gilas to act as C.J. Giles's replacement (and not his predecessor as I mistakenly wrote earlier). Statistics are unavailable, but it's not gone well.

Also, in a summer league round-up for the Golden State Warriors back in July, I called him "a pretty terrible offensive player," citing it as a reason for his offensive struggles in China. Sampson wants it known that the reason he averaged only 10.7 points per game in China was because he was playing injured all year. Correction noted.