Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 10
January 10th, 2010
– Rick Brunson The last time we checked in on Eric Daniel Brunson, he was the director of men’s basketball operations at the University of Virginia. He’s moved now, however. After Virginia head coach Dave Leitao resigned last April, Brunson took over the head coaching role until his replacement was announced, a role that didn’t involve a huge amount of coaching as their season had already finished. Once the handover was completed, Brunson left the program and became an assistant coach at Hartford, where he remains. – John Bryant Bryant went undrafted out of Santa Clara on the basis that he was too slow for the NBA. He went to the Kings for summer league, but played only eight minutes, even after Spencer Hawes decided not to turn up; Bryant then went to the D-League, where he averages 13.7 points, 10.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game for the Erie BayHawks. The rebounds rank fourth in the league, and two of the three ahead of him are NBA assignees (Joey Dorsey and D.J. White). However, he also averages four fouls in only 34 minutes. – Greg Buckner Buckner was waived by the Mavericks in training camp and has not signed elsewhere since. His unguaranteed salary would have been a pretty awesome trade chip at the deadline, but the Mavericks – already with Erick Dampier’s unguaranteed contract for next year, Josh Howard’s team option, Drew Gooden’s expiring/unguaranteed and Shawne Williams’s expiring – figured they had enough trade chips already. To be honest, I think they should have kept Buckner’s unguaranteed over Williams’s expiring, as the value of that unguaranteed would have been magnified in this economy. But I guess even the Mavericks have a budget limit, which is fair enough. Remember the Love Mayo trade on draft night 2008? […]
Knicks sign Jonathan Bender…..wait, what?
December 14th, 2009
I like to think that I keep my ear pretty close to the ground. If you’re going to know about such perfectly useless things as Kevin Burleson signing in Romania, then you kind of have to. Yet I had absolutely no idea that the Knicks were considering signing Jonathan Bender, nor that they were even able to. Quite literally shocked to see that headline today. Bender retired in February 2006 after being assumed to have been retired for a long while prior. He had begun to break out in the 2001-02 season when he averaged 7.4 points in 78 games for the Pacers, but not only was that the best he’d ever play, it was also the most he’d ever play. Bender’s games played total plummeted from there on out; from 78 in 2001/02, to 46 in 2002/03, to 21 in 2003/04, to 7 in 2004/05, to only 2 in 2005/06. He suffered from a degenerative knee condition that caused chronic pain due to the destruction of the knee’s cartilage, and there was no way back from that, forcing his retirement. There still isn’t, really, which is why I wrote this when we last covered Bender back in January: Jonathan Bender is still retired, and probably always will be. Apparently that was not true, though. Bender is now back, joining up with the general manager that traded for him and gave him the $28 million with which he built his business empire. The league once again has a seven-foot shooting guard, and not the Primoz Brezec type of seven-foot shooting guard. In his time away from the game, Bender has become a successful entrepreneur. He owns a charitable organisation – the Jonathan Bender foundation – as well as Jonathan Bender Enterprises, a real estate development and property management company. Both […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 8
January 8th, 2009
A lot of people are called Brown, I’ve noticed. How fascinating. – Dee Brown started the year with the Wizards, but was then waived when it emerged that he wasn’t the answer to Washington’s pretty severe outside shooting problems. He then went to a Suns mini-camp, where he beat out Eddie Gill, Damon Stoudamire, Darrell Armstrong, Walker Russell and Troy Hudson to win Phoenix’s mandatory 13th roster spot. He’s since been waived again this week, due to the mandatory contract guarantee date of January 10th. The Suns, seemingly, are going to do what they so love doing – keeping the bare minimum of players at all times, going to twelve as and when they can, to avoid paying out as little money as possible. This from the team that traded away Rudy Fernandez and Rajon Rondo just to save money, and who then gave Goran Dragic more than either of them. Even the Jason Richardson trade saved them money, It kind of makes you squirm, doesn’t it? – I’ve been literally inundated with one request for news on Elton Brown. Oddly, that request comes from someone who already knows the answer. But let’s play along anyway. After spending the preseason with the Chicago Bulls, and having trouble getting a shot away without it being blocked by a defender and/or the rim, Elton went to Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Tel-Aviv, hoping to be good again. However, Elton appeared in only one game, scoring two points with two rebounds, before it was announced in late December that Maccabi were releasing him, supposedly because they were disappointed with his conditioning. Whether he has actually left yet, I’m not sure, but he’s not playing with the team, and any remaining chance of some dramatic turnaround with the team is going to be made […]
