Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 2
December 29th, 2009
– Akin Akingbala Akingbala came out of nowhere to be a decent rebounder and defender for Clemson in his senior season, and was a training camp invite of the Celtics in 2006 as a result. After that he went to the D-League for a bit, and has spent the last three years touring Europe. He is currently with Nancy in France (pronounced Noncy, which is even funnier), averaging 11.1 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game in the French league. Akingbala exclusively does “big man things”, as evidenced by his 47% FT shooting and 2 assists all year. But as athletic interior players go, you could do worse. The King Baller also put up a 9 points, 7 rebounds, 8 blocks stat line earlier this month, which is not bad going. – Cenk Akyol After at least seven years there, Akyol finally left Efes Pilsen in his native Turkey this summer, and moved to Italy to join Air Avellino. He missed six weeks due to injury, and has appeared in only six of 11 Serie A games for the team, but he’s averaging 7.0 points and 2.2 steals in 21 minutes per game. The 17% three-point shooting is not a great start, and nor is the five total assists, but Akyol is still young. He’s only 22. Feels like he shouldn’t be by now. – Chris Alexander D-League veteran and occasional NBA flirt Alexander has ditched both of those on-off girlfriends in favour of going to South Korea. Playing for the LG Sakers, Alexander averages 14.4 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 28 minutes per game, shooting 65% from the field and 61% from the foul line. The South Korean league plays a huge, NBA-like amount of games; opening night was on October 17th, and LG […]
Basketball in South Korea has some interesting rules
August 12th, 2009
The South Korean basketball league [KBL] has some quirky rules. It’s a relatively new league, only ten years in existence, that unashamedly focuses on Korean national players. Part of that means heavily restricting the amount of Big Foreign Americans™ that so heavily permeate all the other leagues around the world. A few years ago, the KBL had a rule that barred any players standing 6’8 and above. What the intended purpose of that was, I don’t know, but presumably they quickly figured out how damaging that rule was to their basketball product, because they have now done away with it. Now, tall foreign dudes are allowed. And they’re prevalent. Every summer, the KBL holds a draft of foreign players who want to play in their league that year. The players that are drafted are mostly tall guys, as apparently Korea doesn’t produce much talented size of their own. (Ha Seung-Jin excepted, of course.) The criteria for entry in the draft, though, is pretty weird. The following is looted without permission from the Korean Basketball League website: [The] Korean Basketball League (KBL) Pre-Draft Tryout Camp for Foreign Players will be held from July 22nd (Wed) to 24th (Fri), 2009 at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A. The players who are interested in playing in Korea for the 2009~2010 season, which will start from the middle of October 2009 to the end of April 2010, and meet the qualifications below are asked to fill out the application form and send via a fax or by e-mail the required documents to KBL office by May 22nd, 2009. A: Qualifications: 1. Must have at least a high school diploma 2. Must be at least 18 years of age 3. Have not had a contract with teams in Europe Division I (Spain, […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 2
December 31st, 2008
– Chris Alexander re-emerged as an interesting prospect last season, despite being 28 years old, after a campaign that saw him average 11.6 points, 11.2 rebounds and 2.0 blocks a game in the D-League for the Sioux Falls Skyforce. He turned that into first a contract in the Philippines, and then a training camp contract with Oklahoma City. As Alexander is a centre, he must have fancied his chances on the length-crazy Thunder, but he didn’t make the cut. After the Philippines thing ended (where he won the title of “Best Import” in the championship series), Alexander went back to the Skyforce this season, and averaged 6.9 points and 8.5 rebounds before leaving the team on Christmas Eve, for reasons which either weren’t announced or which I can’t find. More importantly, here’s an update on the length of his neck. – Shagari Alleyne is now a member of the Harlem Globetrotters. He goes by the name “Skyscraper”. I think this means his NBA dream is over. – Lance Allred was waived by the Cavaliers, and has gone back to the D-League with the Idaho Stampede. He averages 14.7 points and 9.2 rebounds, and would be the most NBA-desired big man on his team were it not for the presence of Jermareo Davidson, who averages slightly better (17/11) and who is nearly four years younger. Tough break for Lance. – Hawks draftee David Andersen has left Russia and forgotten how to rebound. For Barcelona, Andersen is averaging 10.5 points and 3.7 rebounds in nearly 22 minutes a game. The second-tallest guy on the team (behind Daniel Santiago, who plays less than him), Andersen is a mere third in rebounds, comfortably behind Ersan Ilyasova (7.9 rebounds a game) and Fran Vazquez (6.5). That’s not the best effort, really, and yes I know […]
