Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 50
April 13th, 2010
– Cherokee Parks It was six years and five months ago that Cherokee Parks was last on the roster of a professional basketball team. The Warriors waived him in December 2003, and yet Parks, aged only 31, never played again. He now owns a music club in his hometown of Huntingdon Beach called “The Brigg.” Unbelievably, the NBA’s Cherokee Parks is not the only man in the world with that name. – Marlon Parmer Since 2005, Marlon Parmer has played in the NBA, the CBA, Saudi Arabia, Poland, the ABA, Qatar, Venezuela, Estonia, Qatar again, the D-League, and Saudi Arabia again. It’s been a well travelled few years, and were it not for the American and European stints in there, we’d have to change the name of the Dan Langhi tour. This year he has been in Lebanon, playing for Sagesse, but unfortunately no statistics are available. Parmer quit New Mexico in January 2002 after an argument with then-head coach, Fran Frascilla. He then transferred to Division II Kentucky Wesleyan for his senior season, and averaged 20/6/8, but it wasn’t enough to get drafted. Parmer was a training camp signing of the Timberwolves in 2005 after averaging 22/9 in China the previous season, showing once again that China can do wonders for a guy’s NBA prospects. – Drago Pasalic Two-time Bulls summer leaguer and Croatian national team member Drago Pasalic is in Spain playing for Obradoiro, an ACB team looking pretty doomed. He is averaging only 14.8 minutes, 5.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.8 fouls per game. The jump shot is still there; the rest of the game is not. Obradoiro are second-last in the ACB with an 8-21 record, and lost by a hefty 26 points to fellow relegation strugglers Meridiano only today. Ex-NBA forward Paul Davis, […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 39
February 26th, 2009
– Smush Parker started the season in the D-League, averaging 17.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 7.5 assists and an almighty 5.1 turnovers per game for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. He then went off to China, where he may have become literally the only American import whose numbers went down in the CBA. Parker averages 13.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.2 steals for Guangdong, numbers that are pretty unimpressive in relative terms. Luckily for Smush, I don’t know his Chinese turnover numbers. – I don’t know what Cherokee Parks does now, but his sister Corey is no longer the bass player for seminal hard rock band Nashville Pussy, and hasn’t been for about eight years. Another really useful update for you here. Be grateful. – Marlon Parmer spent some time earlier this season playing backup point guard for the Colorado 14ers, averaging 8.0 points and 3.6 assists, but was waived in January and has not signed elsewhere since. – Ruben Patterson hasn’t had a great couple of years. After a career year with the Bucks in the final year of his big contract, all Ruben could manage for the 2007/08 season was an unguaranteed minimum salary contract with the Clippers. He was then waived before the contract guarantee date, and didn’t catch on with a playoff team. Patterson then joined the Nuggets for preseason this year, but never really had a legitimate shot at making the team, as the cost-cutting Nuggets didn’t really want any of their five signings (despite having two open roster spots) because it would mean spending money to keep them. Patterson was subsequently waived, and hasn’t signed elsewhere since, after a rumoured move to Spain didn’t come off. Will he catch on with a playoff team for this deadline? Who knows. The […]
30 teams in 56 or so days: Miami Heat
October 27th, 2007
Players acquired via free agency or trade: Mark Blount (acquired from Minnesota) Ricky Davis (acquired from Minnesota) Smush Parker (signed, two years, $4,680,000) Joel Anthony, Brian Chase, Devin Green, Penny Hardaway, Alexander Johnson, Jeremy Richardson and Marcus Slaughter (all signed to the minimum salary with assorted levels of partial guarantees. If you include holdovers Earl Barron and Chris Quinn, you have eight players on the bubble, four of whom are going to have to be cut.) Players acquired via draft: First round: Daequan Cook (21st overall, acquired in draft night deal) Second round: None Players retained: Earl Barron (re-signed, unguaranteed qualifying offer) Players departed: Michael Doleac (traded to Minnesota) Wayne Simien (traded to Minnesota) Antoine Walker (traded to Minnesota) Eddie Jones (signed with Miami) Jason Kapono (signed with Toronto) Gary Payton (put to sleep) James Posey (signed with Boston) Bobbins: It seems fitting to “do” Miami next, given that they are a team recently in the news. If you are like me, and you’re the kind of person that tends to get so excited when a transaction is made that a little bit of wee seeps out, then you probably secreted when you learnt of the recent Miami/Minnesota trade. That move saw Miami trades Antoine Walker, Wayne Simien, Michael Doleac, a first-round pick and cash to Minnesota for Ricky Davis and Mark Blount, which potentially salvaged the offseason for Miami. Despite previous protestations about how the team would never be a taxpayer, last year’s capitulation at the hands of the incomparably superior Chicago Bulls awakened Riley, Pfund and the like to the fact that their team just isn’t that good any more. The Heat had committed themselves financially to a core that had a championship window of exactly one year. They capitalised on that, winning the […]
