My bracket: My NCAA tournament bracket had more than a dollop of fail about it, so hopefully this one will be better that. I have incredibly few upsets scheduled, as you can see. And sorry to Portland fans for being the only sweep victims pencilled in; it’s purely because of the Brandon Roy thing. With him, you might even take them. But without him, it’s problems. – Richard Roby Colorado graduate Roby has spent the first two years of his career in Israel. He spent his first year with Bnei Hasharon, averaging 9.8 points and 2.6 rebounds per game, and this year he moved to Maccabi Haifa. Roby is averaging a similar 8.7 points and 2.5 rebounds in 17.4 minutes per game there, but is shooting only 27% from three-point range and is turning it over 1.7 times per game (compared to only 1.3 assists). Here’s a little video about Richard Roby made by Bnei Hasharon, notable for its brief Cookie Belcher cameo. (He’s the other American in the clip.) Belcher is now into his fifth season with the team, and is averaging 12.1 points and 3.0 assists. – Leon Rodgers Rodgers has toured the world in recent years, scoring big wherever he’s gone. He averaged 21.3 ppg in his final college season for Northern Illinois in 2002. He averaged 19.4 ppg for Brandt Hagen in Germany in 2003. He averaged 20.8 ppg for Orleans in France in 2004. He averaged 19.9 ppg for Eiffel Towers Nijmegen in Holland in 2005, and 21.8 ppg for Eiffel Towers Den Bosch in 2006. (Not the same team. It’s a long story.) He averaged 22.6 ppg in 2007, again with Den Bosch. He averaged 13.1 ppg for Quakenbrueck in Germany in 2008, and then 2009 was his crowning glory, averaging 35.0 […]
The look back at the compelling protagonists of the 1996 NBA Draft will be coming up soon, as soon as I can find 13 available hours in which to write it. Until them, I bring you a quasi-update from the 1994 edition. In that post, I wrote this paragraph: Last month, [Lamond] Murray signed back in the IBL for the third time, signing with the seminal Los Angeles Lightning, where he is currently averaging 25/6. You weren’t expecting that, I’m guessing. But here’s the best part – the Lightning’s line-up is freaking stacked. In an otherwise poor league, the Lightning have managed to boast a line-up full of ex-NBA players, featuring Murray, current Clippers assistant and minor league veteran Fred Vinson, journeyman big man Jamal Sampson, the artist formerly known as Bryon Russell, ex-Suns guard Toby Bailey and former Rockets guard Juaquin Hawkins, who is with his first team since suffering a stroke last year. Did you see all that coming? No, me neither. In fact, apart from Murray, I didn’t know about all those players being there when I started writing this. Good times, maybe. Well, I have an update on that. Sampson left the team after only four games, but the team replaced him pretty quickly, signing ex-Kings training campee (a new word), Adam Parada. Bailey has also now turned up, as he was still playing in the German playoffs at the time of the last update. (He’s currently averaging a triple-double through his first two games, too.) The team also boasts California State senator Tony Strickland on the team, who hadn’t played competitive basketball since averaging a double-double at Whittler College in NCAA’s Division III almost two decades ago. That’s a PR move and a half, that. But the big news is that the Lightning have since added […]
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, […]
