Ramon Van de Hare

Remon Van de Hare - 52nd pick, 2003
Long since retired.

Ramon Van de Hare - Retired in 2010. His last stop was for a Spanish semi-professional team who continue to commit one of the most egregious acts of logo theft in intellectual property history. (Scroll down.)

Ramon van der Hare (52nd pick, 2003)

- A post from last year went in Van Der Hare's story way more than you will ever need:

2003 Raptors draft pick Van De Hare played with the mighty Barcelona until 2005. (Note: the word "played" is generous there.) Upon leaving, he joined Slovenian giant Olimpija Ljubljana for a year, and even appeared in 7 Euroleague games with them. But since 2006, RVDH has no longer been able to land sweet gigs based on his supposed potential. He spent the 2006-07 season in Cyprus with AEL Limassol, which is quite the downgrade, and returned to Cyprus for the 2008-09 season after an unsuccessful trip to Ukraine with Azovmash in 2007-08 (who seem to still owe him some money, over a year later).

For this season, Van De Hare returned to Spain. But no longer is he on the deep benches of ACB teams. Far from it. Instead, Van De Hare plays for a team called Platges de Mataro. And not only have Mataro completely jacked the L.A. Lakers' logo for themselves; they also play so far down the Spanish basketball system that I had to Google it. For ages.

The pinnacle of Spanish basketball is the ACB, a top 5 league worldwide featuring all the good teams you've heard of such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Caja Laboral, etc. There are 18 ACB teams. Then comes the LEB, which is split into two divisions; the LEB Oro (Gold) and the LEB Plata (Silver). There are 18 LEB Gold teams, and 21 Plata teams split into two divisions. After that comes the Liga Espanola de Baloncesto Amateur (EBA), which is divided into five groups; Group A, Group A-B, Group B, Group C and Group D.

Mataro play in Group C of the EBA.

Stats are unavailable for hopefully obvious reasons, other than to tell you that Van De Hare totalled 15 points and 13 rebounds in their last game. Nice numbers, I suppose. But this misses the point. This is a former NBA draft pick, Euroleague and ACB champion we're talking about here. Ramon almost never played for Barcelona, but they invested a heck of a lot of time and money in him over the years, trying to make something of him. He even got drafted in the NBA by a team that had never seen him (allegedly), based on the reputation of this potential. And yet this is where we are now. The word "Amateur" in the EBA's name is a clue as to how far backwards down the Spanish basketball ladder we've gone here. That's how far you have to go to find former NBA draft pick, Ramon Van De Hare.

Orlando still owns his rights, after having traded for them in 2005. But, truth be told, they might not ever sign him to an NBA contract.

It is hard to say whether van der Hare still plays for Mataro, an amateur team. It's impossible to garner such information from a team website that doesn't list its roster, statistics, or scores outside of one arbitrary weekend in September. I'm not sure it matters whether he does or not.

What is clear is that Van Der Hare, now a father, has quit professional basketball.

Chances of making the NBA: Slightly less than yours.

- Ramon Van De Hare

2003 Raptors draft pick Van De Hare played with the mighty Barcelona until 2005. (Note: the word "played" is generous there.) Upon leaving, he joined Slovenian giant Olimpija Ljubljana for a year, and even appeared in 7 Euroleague games with them. But since 2006, RVDH has no longer been able to land sweet gigs based on his supposed potential. He spent the 2006-07 season in Cyprus with AEL Limassol, which is quite the downgrade, and returned to Cyprus for the 2008-09 season after an unsuccessful trip to Ukraine with Azovmash in 2007-08 (who seem to still owe him some money, over a year later).

For this season, Van De Hare returned to Spain. But no longer is he on the deep benches of ACB teams. Far from it. Instead, Van De Hare plays for a team called Platges de Mataro. And not only have Mataro completely jacked the L.A. Lakers' logo for themselves; they also play so far down the Spanish basketball system that I had to Google it. For ages.

The pinnacle of Spanish basketball is the ACB, a top 5 league worldwide featuring all the good teams you've heard of such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Caja Laboral, etc. There are 18 ACB teams. Then comes the LEB, which is split into two divisions; the LEB Oro (Gold) and the LEB Plata (Silver). There are 18 LEB Gold teams, and 21 Plata teams split into two divisions. After that comes the Liga Española de Baloncesto Amateur (EBA), which is divided into five groups; Group A, Group A-B, Group B, Group C and Group D.

Mataro play in Group C of the EBA.

Stats are unavailable for hopefully obvious reasons, other than to tell you that Van De Hare totalled 15 points and 13 rebounds in their last game. Nice numbers, I suppose. But this misses the point. This is a former NBA draft pick, Euroleague and ACB champion we're talking about here. Ramon almost never played for Barcelona, but they invested a heck of a lot of time and money in him over the years, trying to make something of him. He even got drafted in the NBA by a team that had never seen him (allegedly), based on the reputation of this potential. And yet this is where we are now. The word "Amateur" in the EBA's name is a clue as to how far backwards down the Spanish basketball ladder we've gone here. That's how far you have to go to find former NBA draft pick, Ramon Van De Hare.

Orlando still owns his rights, after having traded for them in 2005. But, truth be told, they might not ever sign him to an NBA contract.

Azovmash are also in trouble regarding a contract dispute over ex-Raptors draft pick, Remon Van de Hare. VDH signed with the team last summer to a three year contract, but the team released him only partway through last season. He sued to get the money for the full three years of the contract, and FIBA have ruled that Azovmash have until the 21st of this month to pay it. If they don't, they might be kicked out of the Eurocup.