Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 63
April 29th, 2010
– Latrell Sprewell We’ll start by confirming the obvious; Sprewell has not played since his Timberwolves days. If he had done, that would be one of the transactions you’d have heard about without needing my input. Since that time, Sprewell has made the news for four reasons; a foreclosure on his yacht, a foreclosure on his home, an alleged assault on his girlfriend, and a foreclosure on his other home. The yacht’s gone, Spree paid the debt on the first home, and the assault charge was dropped 14 months later. But as for the second home foreclosure, on a $2.3 million home in the wonderfully named town of Purchase, Sprewell lost that in November. This was also the last time he made the news. It’s quite the depressing story of yet another athlete who burned it all away. Then again, as I sit here on my bed at 8.32am staring down the barrel of a long morning of essay writing, I find it slightly unfounded for me to be criticising a man for spending millions of dollars on twenty years of (presumably) wall-to-wall high living that I can only dream of. He may have lost all his money, but he probably had a load of fun doing it, so that’s something. – Ondrej Starosta Czech Republic big man Ondrej Starosta crept onto the NBA scene in 2004-05, when he averaged as-near-as-was a double-double for Chalons-en-Champagne in the French league. He was 26 years old at the time and had been a member of Real Madrid before that, so he wasn’t unheard of, but he also hadn’t done high-level stuff in his career before then except be 7’1 tall. After that season, Starosta went to summer league with the San Antonio Spurs, averaging 5.5 rebounds per game. The Spurs didn’t […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 49
March 6th, 2009
– 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. – Latrell Sprewell was in court yesterday. not on it. – 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 […]
30 teams in 36 or so days: Milwaukee Bucks
September 15th, 2007
Players acquired via free agency or trade: Desmond Mason (two years, $10.4 million) Jake Voskuhl (one year, $3 million) Awvee Storey (one year minimum) Players acquired via draft: First round: Yi Jianlian (6th overall) Second round: Ramon Sessions (56th overall) Players retained: Maurice Williams (re-signed, six years, $51.263 million) Players departed: Ersan Ilyasova (signed in Spain, rights retained), Charlie Bell (unsigned, rights retained for now), Damir Markota (waived on general principle, see blog entry), Earl Boykins (opted out, unsigned), Jared Reiner (signed in Spain), Ruben Patterson (signed with Clippers), Brian Skinner (team option declined, unsigned) Bobbins: It’s difficult to convey how I feel about the Bucks offseason and recent past without stealing too much directly from my own recent blog entry. So that’s exactly what I’ll do. After a poor 2004-05 season in which they finished with a disappointing 30-52 record, the Bucks beat long odds to win the lottery, and also had maximum cap room available to them. This offseason, they once again had potentially maximum cap room, and a high pick (#6) in a supposedly powerhouse draft. And once again, they have not taken advantage. 2005’s offseason yielded Andrew Bogut with the first overall pick, one of the better players of a weak draft but far from the best. The cap space was spent on re-signing Michael Redd to a maximum contract (decide amongst yourselves whether it was worth it), signing the Most Improved Player of the previous season (Bobby Simmons) to a $46.4 million contract only to then see him miss one season and disappoint in the next, and re-signing Dan Gadzuric to a considerably overpriced deal, all while letting the younger, cheaper and better Zaza Pachulia sign with Atlanta, unchallenged. This offseason brought much of the same. They signed another starting small […]
