2010 Summer League Rosters: Toronto Raptors
July 11th, 2010
Solomon Alabi If you read my draft recap, you’ll know how I feel about the Alabi pick. I’m pretty much all for it, and believe he has a chance to be a good contributor in the NBA. At #50, I think he was a steal. Even with hepatitis. If you haven’t read my draft recap, go do so. But you might want to book a day off work in advance. It’s a bit long. Bobby Brown Brown just completed a two year guaranteed minimum salary contract, initially given to him by the Sacramento Kings. He won that contract because of his play in summer league 2008, where he scored a lot of points in a variety of different ways. The Kings didn’t play Brown much in any regular season games, and later included him in the trade that brought over Shelden Williams from Minnesota, as was their perogative. Minnesota forwarded him on last summer to New Orleans as a throw-in to the Darius Songaila trade, as was their perogative. Once in New Orleans, Bobby started to get regular minutes. Byron Scott played him as the primary backup guard, often ahead of Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton, but it really did not go well. Brown shot the ball every time he touched it, taking 152 field goals in only 328 minutes, and attempting only 8 foul shots. To put it bluntly, he chucked. (Byron Scott was later fired, Collison and Thornton started to play more, and the Hornets’ season was salvaged. These things are alll related.) Brown was traded to the Clippers in a salary dump later in the season, where he did more of the same; 191 minutes, 85 field goals, 7 foul shots. Brown took a three pointer every 5 minutes last year, and didn’t seem to mind that […]
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 […]
