Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 3
December 30th, 2009
– Kenny Anderson Anderson has not played since the 2005-06 season. His NBA career ended the year before, when he split the 2004/05 season between the Hawks and the Clippers, and after being waived by L.A. in March 2005, a ten-month wait ensued. Anderson then joined legendary Lithuanian team Zalgiris Kaunas for the rest of the season, the first and only non-NBA gig of his professional career. Chibbs averaged 2.4 points and 1.6 assists in the EuroLeague alongside 5.9 points and 2.8 assists in the Lithuanian league, and then that was the end of his playing career. In between those last two playing gigs, he was declared bankrupt. The last time we checked in on Anderson, he had been named the head coach of the CBA’s Atlanta Krunk. It was all supposed to be brilliant; for the 2007-08 season, the team hired Anderson as head coach, hired Kenny Smith’s brother Vincent as the general manager, signed Grayson Boucher (And-1’s “The Professor”) and minor league superhero Zach Marbury (Stephon’s brother) as a backcourt, announced Freedom Williams of C&C Music Factory fame as the majority owner, brought on Stephon’s clothing company to be the team’s uniform designers, and started shooting a reality TV show about the team. It was all supposed to be awesome. And then it wasn’t. In their only CBA season, the Krunk went 9-41, a loss total which included nine forfeits. Players were not being paid – at one point, the team was down to as few as five players as everyone kept bailing on them due to the lack of salaries. Their home arena was deemed unsuitable, so they had to play all their games down the stretch of the season on the road, and they also had no uniforms. To say it went a bit tits up […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 2
December 31st, 2008
– Chris Alexander re-emerged as an interesting prospect last season, despite being 28 years old, after a campaign that saw him average 11.6 points, 11.2 rebounds and 2.0 blocks a game in the D-League for the Sioux Falls Skyforce. He turned that into first a contract in the Philippines, and then a training camp contract with Oklahoma City. As Alexander is a centre, he must have fancied his chances on the length-crazy Thunder, but he didn’t make the cut. After the Philippines thing ended (where he won the title of “Best Import” in the championship series), Alexander went back to the Skyforce this season, and averaged 6.9 points and 8.5 rebounds before leaving the team on Christmas Eve, for reasons which either weren’t announced or which I can’t find. More importantly, here’s an update on the length of his neck. – Shagari Alleyne is now a member of the Harlem Globetrotters. He goes by the name “Skyscraper”. I think this means his NBA dream is over. – Lance Allred was waived by the Cavaliers, and has gone back to the D-League with the Idaho Stampede. He averages 14.7 points and 9.2 rebounds, and would be the most NBA-desired big man on his team were it not for the presence of Jermareo Davidson, who averages slightly better (17/11) and who is nearly four years younger. Tough break for Lance. – Hawks draftee David Andersen has left Russia and forgotten how to rebound. For Barcelona, Andersen is averaging 10.5 points and 3.7 rebounds in nearly 22 minutes a game. The second-tallest guy on the team (behind Daniel Santiago, who plays less than him), Andersen is a mere third in rebounds, comfortably behind Ersan Ilyasova (7.9 rebounds a game) and Fran Vazquez (6.5). That’s not the best effort, really, and yes I know […]
30 teams in 36 or so days: Chicago Bulls
September 23rd, 2007
Chicago Bulls Players acquired via free agency or trade: Joe Smith (two years, $10 million) Players acquired via draft: First round: Joakim Noah (9th overall) Second round: Aaron Gray (49th overall), JamesOn Curry (51st overall) Players retained: Andres Nocioni (re-signed, six years, $45 million) Players departed: Malik Allen (signed with New Jersey), Michael Sweetney (left unrestricted, unsigned), P.J. Brown (unsigned), Andre Barrett (made restricted, unsigned, may yet return), Martynas Andriuskevicius (left unrestricted, signed in Spain) Some words: (The following entry may well be written with a small hint of bias. Or, alternately, it may be written with huge seething dollops of it. I’m a Bulls fan, just so’s you know.) Has anybody ever told you that you need a dominant post scorer to win a title? If not, then you’re not a Bulls fan. Since the dawn of time (or since the Eddy Curry trade, whichever), this edict has been hurled at Bulls fans and management alike by people of all backgrounds and IQ levels, and never more so than in the immediate aftermath of the Pau Gasol trade-that-never-was at the last trade deadline. Forget the fact that Detroit managed this supposedly impossible feat just three years ago: these people remain steadfast in their opinion. And why shouldn’t they? People say it on the TV, after all, so it must be true. After General Manager John Paxson did not pull the trigger on a deal for Gasol due to the excessive demands of Grizzlies GM Jerry West and the continued breakout of Luol Deng, talk of the Bulls’ need for a ‘dominant’ post scorer continued. “Experts” then shifted their attention to Kevin Garnett, ignoring for a moment the fact that such a move was never realistically possible due to the Bulls salary cap position. After […]
