Mike Hall Wants You To Know That Things Are Different In Europe
February 3rd, 2011
Do a Google image search for “mike hall.” The third and fourteenth results are hilarious. Former George Washington forward Mike Hall has played the majority of his professional career in Italy. After going undrafted in 2006, Hall caught on with the Washington Wizards for training camp, and joined the D-League upon being released, angling for a midseason call-up. The strategy worked; the Wizards called up Hall to a ten day contract in late February 2007, retained him for a second one, and then signed him for the remainder of the season. This eventually became an 8 month stay; the team extended Hall a qualifying offer the following summer, which he accepted, and was eventually the team’s last cut in 2007 preseason. Hall played only 2 games and 13 minutes with the Wizards, and has not returned to the NBA since that time, yet his lengthy try-out showed him one side of the coin. In the four years hence, Hall has been witnessing the other. After spending the whole 2007-08 season in the D-League, angling for another call-up that never came, Hall left for Italy in the summer of 2008, and spent two full seasons with perennial Serie A contender and EuroLeague team AJ Milano. Hall left Milano this summer, but stayed in Italy and moved a few hundred miles south to Teramo, where he joined a rebuilding Banca Tercas team. He was released in December, however, and returned to American shores to play for the D-League’s Dakota Wizards. This week, Hall left the D-League to return to Europe, joining struggling Turkish team Erdemir as a replacement for former UNLV forward Dalron Johnson, who moved to Israeli side Maccabi Ashdod. His brief American recrudescence gave way to the need and/or desire for better paid work; the relative comforts and security of […]
Cartier Martin is the happiest man in the world
December 2nd, 2009
Last year, former Kansas State forward Cartier Martin started out in the D-League before earning an early call-up to the Charlotte Bobcats. He didn’t play a whole lot, and when he did it’s mainly because Larry Brown was using him as a defensive specialist (including occasionally guarding the point guard before Dontell Jefferson arrived), yet he spent the entire season with the team anyway. This summer, he signed with Benetton Treviso in Italy, a team that started the year in the EuroLeague. His teammates there include sure-fire lottery pick Donatas Motiejunas, as well as Gary Neal, Judson Wallace, Sandro Nicevic and Daniel Hackett. It was a decent team. However, from day one, Cartier Martin seemed unhappy. And he chose to document that unhappiness on Twitter. Despite his account having the tag line of “I’m out here grindin and workin hard,” Cartier never settled in Italy, and seemed to hate the place. He documented that hate with tweets such as: “Not as good as I thought.” “Chilliin in this terrible hotel somewhere in Italy! How are we one of the top teams in Italy and we stay in hotels like this…TERRIBLE!” “Man it’s time to just say f*** it and shoot that bitch every time I touch it.” “it look like it’s trashy out here” “Man some things just aren’t for certain ppl. That’s how I’m feelin right now!” “Man I can’t even tell you how I really feel bout it on here. I need to be there tho.” “I’m not passing it all when I touch it…I’m putting it up everytime.” “I ain’t doin nothing out here tho…I barely even play sometimes. Its cool tho..long as I get that bread.” “In weak ass Naples, Italy! I’m so ready to…..” …….as well as other, slightly more woe-is-me ones that seem to […]
