Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 13
January 18th, 2010
– Lionel Chalmers Chalmers is signed in the Russian Superleague, or what’s left of it. Russian basketball, like all Eastern European teams, has had a bit of a financial crisis this year, and the Superleague has only 9 teams left in it. Nevertheless, they’re nine pretty good teams, so it’s not a bad gig. Playing for Enisey Krasnoyarsk, Chalmers is averaging 17.0 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.8 steals in 33 minutes per game. The scoring is sixth in the league, the assists eighth and the steals seventh, but Chalmers’ numbers are also down across the board; last year, he led the Superleague in scoring with a 21.0 ppg average, and ranked second in assists with 5.6 apg. That scoring title was a particularly impressive feat considering that he did it while shooting 57% from the free throw line as a 6’0 point guard. – Brian Chase Chase was Jannero Pargo’s replacement at Dynamo Moscow for the end of last season, after Pargo moved to Olympiacos. He averaged 18 ppg in the EuroCup and 11 ppg in the Russian league, but Dynamo got rid of all their imports this year to save money. [See Sergei Bykov’s entry, part 11.] Chase is instead spending this season in Spain, where he’s signed with Valladolid of the ACB. He is averaging 13.0 points and 1.7 assists, shooting 39% from both the field and the three-point line. Despite being a 5’8 score-first backup point guard who averaged only 7 ppg in his final college season, Brian Chase has played in the NBA. Andre Young, pay attention. – Calbert Cheaney Cheaney was covered recently in the 1993 NBA Draft Round-up Thingy. Nothing has changed since then. – Eric Chenowith I wasn’t into college basketball at the time, so I don’t know […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 10
January 13th, 2009
– Maurice Carter’s last sighting was back in 2005, when he averaged 14.5 points and 5.5 rebounds for the Indiana Pacers’ summer league team. He was only 28 at that time, having played in the NBA only the season before, and yet it seems he hasn’t played anywhere since. I don’t know why this is. If you do, let me know. Carter also apparently owns a piece of the Mississippi Hardhats WBA franchise, a team whose website sorely needs updating, and who might not even exist any more. But, if they do, VIP tickets to a Mississippi Hardhats game are only ten dollars! Nice! Buy early to avoid disappointment. – Russell Carter is playing for Gravelines in France, a team whose name loses its magic when pronounced in a French accent. Playing alongside former seminal NBA starlet Dan McClintock, Carter has appeared in all of two games for Gravelines, totalling 17 minutes, 0 points and 5 rebounds, which isn’t much in a month. – Steve Castleberry is in the mighty Czech Republic league, where he averages 11.1 points and 6.3 rebounds for the even mightier Karma Basket Podebrady. Steve Castleberry has only played in weak leagues such as the USBL and the Dominican Republic since turning pro, and hasn’t exactly shined in any of them. Why, therefore, does he garner all this attention on this website, one that is designed with a specific focus for current and fringe NBA players? Well, it’s because the Philadelphia 76ers signed him for training camp in 2005. And because of that, I’m now obligated (and highly willing) to follow the life and times of Officer Steve Castleberry. – Kelvin Cato is still unsigned, and probably always will be. If any team out there is rueing not signing Dikembe Mutombo, and thinks […]
Dreaming about Mark Madsen
March 16th, 2008
Do you ever stop and think about that time that Mark Madsen shot seven three-pointers in an overtime game, when Minnesota and Memphis had the most blatant tank-off that history has ever seen? No, nor did I. That is, not until this morning, when I woke up thinking about it. It’s not an entirely normal thing to wake up thinking about, even for the most hardcore Madsen fans amongst us. (For we are all Mark Madsen fans, obviously.) But some part of this must have ruffled my feathers, stoned my crows and enraged my loins, because this was all that i could think about for about three minutes after waking up. It is now a permanent blot on the NBA landscape. The situation Minnesota found themselves in – not good enough to make the playoffs, not bad enough to bottom out without trying to – left them deliberately trying to lose games. It needn’t have done, but General Manager Kevin McHale had already trded away Minnesota’s first rounder that season, as it was owed to the L.A. Clippers along with Sam Cassell in exchange for Lionel Chalmers and Marko Jaric. The pick, however, had top ten protection, and so in order to be able to keep it, Minnesota had to lose with a bit more regularity and finesse than they were doing up until that point. They did this with aplomb, telling Kevin Garnett to stop playing (or so we thought), playing their better players for merely token minutes, and letting their lesser players do whatever the hell they wanted, in what then-head coach Dwane Casey called “letting them have some fun” (to be read as “playing really badly so that we lose”.) The fact that they met an equally-tanking Memphis team, who were tanking for a different reason, was an […]
