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 […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 1
January 29th, 2008
It’s nearly the new year, so that makes it time to do something that’s nearly interesting. The “Where Are They Now?” series of posts – which last year landed me at least two job offers – are hereby making a spectacular return right here, in exactly the place that I said they wouldn’t be. Good times. As ever, these posts will feature players on this website’s horizon, but not in the NBA. Bring the noise. – In an anti-climactic opening entry, former Mavericks et cetera swingman Tariq Abdul-Wahad is doing exactly the same thing that he was last time we checked in on him – nothing that can be traced. Wikipedia suggests that he isn’t dead, though, so that’s got to be a positive. No news is good news, after all. – Shareef Abdur-Rahim is now a Sacramento Kings assistant coach. His wife has also done something about the flu, while simultaneously rocking the greatest name this side of Cornelius McFadgon. – San Diego State legend Mohammed Abukar’s career has taken a turn for the better, as he was unsigned until about 24 hours ago, when he was picked up by the Austin Toros of the D-League. Quietly, the San Antonio Spurs have managed to stash basically every one of their training camp signings on their D-League affiliate (which they own), as well as their former draft pick Marcus E. Williams. Owning your own affiliate seems to have some merit when the allocation players are handed out. – Kenny Adeleke was playing with Bulgarian powerhouse Lukoil Akademik up until last week, when Lukoil decided to release he, Nenad Canak and Kevin Kruger, their three best players. This is because they got knocked out of the EuroCup (which is what the ULEB Cup is called now; it’s […]