Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 51
April 13th, 2010
– Wesley Person Person’s last NBA gig came with the Nuggets in 2005. He later became an assistant women’s coach at Enterprise-Ozark Community College, before being moved to the role of men’s head coach back in July. – Marijonas Petravicius Lithuanian big man Marijonas Petravicius left his homeland this summer after winning the EuroCup last year with Lietuvos Rytas. He moved to Italy to play for A.J. Milano, and is averaging 11.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.2 fouls in 19 minutes per game in Serie A play, alongside 9.1 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.8 fouls in 18 minutes per game in Milano’s short EuroLeague campaign. Elbows and post play forever. – Brent Petway D-League veteran Brent Petway went to Greece this year, and hated it. In six games with Ilysiakos, he averaged 29 mpg, 10.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 2.2 bpg, 1.7 bpg and about half a pay check per month, and left the team in December after getting injured. He reappeared in late February when he signed in France with Vichy (or, to give them their full name, JA Vichy Val d’Allier Auvergne Basket), whereupon he has averaged 24 mpg, 9.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg and 1.7 bpg in 6 French league games. The blocks per game would be tied for third in the league had he played enough games to qualify. – Eric Piatkowski Pike spent his last two years playing for the Suns on a minimum salary contract, but that ran out in summer 2008, and another one was not forthcoming. He is now retired and a stay-at-home dad. Pike was recently interviewed during the second quarter of a dull Knicks vs Clippers game, as he was in town taking his children to Disneyland and decided to watch the Clippers lose for old time’s sake. (They […]
Basketball in South Korea has some interesting rules
August 12th, 2009
The South Korean basketball league [KBL] has some quirky rules. It’s a relatively new league, only ten years in existence, that unashamedly focuses on Korean national players. Part of that means heavily restricting the amount of Big Foreign Americans™ that so heavily permeate all the other leagues around the world. A few years ago, the KBL had a rule that barred any players standing 6’8 and above. What the intended purpose of that was, I don’t know, but presumably they quickly figured out how damaging that rule was to their basketball product, because they have now done away with it. Now, tall foreign dudes are allowed. And they’re prevalent. Every summer, the KBL holds a draft of foreign players who want to play in their league that year. The players that are drafted are mostly tall guys, as apparently Korea doesn’t produce much talented size of their own. (Ha Seung-Jin excepted, of course.) The criteria for entry in the draft, though, is pretty weird. The following is looted without permission from the Korean Basketball League website: [The] Korean Basketball League (KBL) Pre-Draft Tryout Camp for Foreign Players will be held from July 22nd (Wed) to 24th (Fri), 2009 at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A. The players who are interested in playing in Korea for the 2009~2010 season, which will start from the middle of October 2009 to the end of April 2010, and meet the qualifications below are asked to fill out the application form and send via a fax or by e-mail the required documents to KBL office by May 22nd, 2009. A: Qualifications: 1. Must have at least a high school diploma 2. Must be at least 18 years of age 3. Have not had a contract with teams in Europe Division I (Spain, […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 40
February 28th, 2009
– Let’s start this off with a bang; I have absolutely nothing to report on Wesley Person. Nothing whatsoever. – Continuing that sizzling opener, Brent Petway is in the D-League, averaging 10.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots a game for the Idaho Stampede. Those numbers were somehow enough to make him a D-League All Star, and you can see the box score for the D-League All Star game here. (That minutes distribution is first class. I’d love to know what Richard Hendrix did to merit those extra 5 seconds.) Petway also lost his D-League Slam Dunk Champion title to James White, so it’s not been entirely a good fortnight for him. – The last I heard about Eric Piatkowski came in the summertime, when an article talked about he was staying in shape and waiting for the phone to ring. I’m guessing it hasn’t rung. – Tim Pickett has had a busy year, starting in the Italian Serie A with Rieti, but leaving before the season began. He then moved to Bulgaria with Lukoil Akademik, and averaged 17.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in EuroCup play for them. Unfortunately, he was a victim of their sweeping cull of international players midway through the season, one which also brought about the demise of Kehnide Adeleke and Kevin Kruger. Pickett has since signed in China with Shanxi Zhongyu, as the replacement for Bonzi Wells. By now, you should know what it means when somebody signs in China, and by God you won’t be disappointed here either – Pickett currently averages 39.9 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 3.2 assists per game. OK, so the assists numbers are a tad low, but he’s averaging 40 ppg for Shade Sheist’s sake. Who the hell should he be passing to? […]
