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 […]
2010 NBA Free Agency Movement, Part 1
July 2nd, 2010
It’s the first day of the 2010 free agent negotiation period, and already players are being overpaid. There follows news and opinions of all the signings so far. – The first signing of the season didn’t involve a free agent, but a draft pick. Minnesota signed their 2008 second-round draft pick Nikola Pekovic to a deal worth three years and $13 million, according to Chad Ford. This is a decent price for Pekovic, who may well start straight away if and when Al Jefferson is traded. Pekovic is one hell of a paint scorer, able to get position on anyone and with terrific touch around the basket. Per 36 minutes in the EuroLeague, Pekovic averaged 24 points; per 36 in the Greek league, that went up to 28.3. Pekovic shot a ridiculous 73% from the field in the A1 league, alongside 75% from the line, and while those numbers dip to 59% and 71% in the higher standard EuroLeague, they were still pretty beastly. Pekovic’s rebounding is a valid concern (grabbing a defensive rebound once every 11 minutes in EuroLeague play isn’t nearly good enough); to be sure, he’s a sub-par and disinterested defensive rebounder who does not cover ground well. Equally valid concerns are his average size and below-average speed for the centre spot at the NBA level – he won’t have the huge size advantages he often enjoyed against minnow opposition in Europe, and he’s a bit grounded regardless. But the offence, and that efficiency, is genuinely impressive. And that’s an interesting quality to have in any centre. If it sounds like I just described Eddy Curry, be comforted that the two aren’t comparable beyond that. Pekovic isn’t nearly the athlete Eddy is (was), but nor is he as bad of a defender. Or passer. Or economist. […]
Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 50
April 13th, 2010
– Cherokee Parks It was six years and five months ago that Cherokee Parks was last on the roster of a professional basketball team. The Warriors waived him in December 2003, and yet Parks, aged only 31, never played again. He now owns a music club in his hometown of Huntingdon Beach called “The Brigg.” Unbelievably, the NBA’s Cherokee Parks is not the only man in the world with that name. – Marlon Parmer Since 2005, Marlon Parmer has played in the NBA, the CBA, Saudi Arabia, Poland, the ABA, Qatar, Venezuela, Estonia, Qatar again, the D-League, and Saudi Arabia again. It’s been a well travelled few years, and were it not for the American and European stints in there, we’d have to change the name of the Dan Langhi tour. This year he has been in Lebanon, playing for Sagesse, but unfortunately no statistics are available. Parmer quit New Mexico in January 2002 after an argument with then-head coach, Fran Frascilla. He then transferred to Division II Kentucky Wesleyan for his senior season, and averaged 20/6/8, but it wasn’t enough to get drafted. Parmer was a training camp signing of the Timberwolves in 2005 after averaging 22/9 in China the previous season, showing once again that China can do wonders for a guy’s NBA prospects. – Drago Pasalic Two-time Bulls summer leaguer and Croatian national team member Drago Pasalic is in Spain playing for Obradoiro, an ACB team looking pretty doomed. He is averaging only 14.8 minutes, 5.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.8 fouls per game. The jump shot is still there; the rest of the game is not. Obradoiro are second-last in the ACB with an 8-21 record, and lost by a hefty 26 points to fellow relegation strugglers Meridiano only today. Ex-NBA forward Paul Davis, […]
Where Are They Now, 2009; Part 39
February 26th, 2009
– Smush Parker started the season in the D-League, averaging 17.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 7.5 assists and an almighty 5.1 turnovers per game for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. He then went off to China, where he may have become literally the only American import whose numbers went down in the CBA. Parker averages 13.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.2 steals for Guangdong, numbers that are pretty unimpressive in relative terms. Luckily for Smush, I don’t know his Chinese turnover numbers. – I don’t know what Cherokee Parks does now, but his sister Corey is no longer the bass player for seminal hard rock band Nashville Pussy, and hasn’t been for about eight years. Another really useful update for you here. Be grateful. – Marlon Parmer spent some time earlier this season playing backup point guard for the Colorado 14ers, averaging 8.0 points and 3.6 assists, but was waived in January and has not signed elsewhere since. – Ruben Patterson hasn’t had a great couple of years. After a career year with the Bucks in the final year of his big contract, all Ruben could manage for the 2007/08 season was an unguaranteed minimum salary contract with the Clippers. He was then waived before the contract guarantee date, and didn’t catch on with a playoff team. Patterson then joined the Nuggets for preseason this year, but never really had a legitimate shot at making the team, as the cost-cutting Nuggets didn’t really want any of their five signings (despite having two open roster spots) because it would mean spending money to keep them. Patterson was subsequently waived, and hasn’t signed elsewhere since, after a rumoured move to Spain didn’t come off. Will he catch on with a playoff team for this deadline? Who knows. The […]
