Ben Gordon finally commits to Great Britain national basketball team
May 8th, 2010
Excellent news. The only way you would not know that I am British is if you: a) have never been to this website before today, b) have been here before but understandably don’t read any of the words I write, or c) know so little about vexillology that you didn’t even realise that the site’s logo had a flag in it. Because of my nationality – English rather than British, but we’ll worry about that later – it is inevitable and sensible that the state of British basketball will get some coverage here. And with the news of Ben Gordon’s commitment to the national team still moist astride our lips, today is no different. There follows a lengthy breakdown. Basketball in Britain is still so fledgling that even the term ‘fledgling’ sells it short. The standard of the British Basketball League is so far below its European peers that almost any Division I NCAA starter could get a starting spot there. Worse still, the league damn nearly went bankrupt at the turn of the century, which isn’t something top tier leagues should be doing (although it has happened elsewhere on the lower rungs). Beyond the professional game, basketball itself is not fairing much better. While the sport is played in many schools these days, it’s not played in all of them; we didn’t play it in mine, for example, and as a result I’ve never played a game of basketball. To say that basketball trails behind many other sports in this country is an understatement on a par with calling the Vietnam conflict ‘feisty;’ it just doesn’t do it justice. (The local council did eventually install a hoop in my childhood village after much petitioning, but when I say they “installed a hoop,” I actually mean that they put a […]
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 3
January 4th, 2009
– Rafael Araujo is sadly out of basketball right now. He’s unsigned. He’s unwanted. He’s unloved. Commitment-free. Homeless. A nomadic vagabond living off the land, maybe. But this is just one tale to tell. There are thousands of children like this all over BYU. Please. End poverty now. Give generously. – Robert Archibald is currently playing for Unicaja Malaga in Spain, after turning down a contract from the Hornets this summer. (I went on holiday to Malaga only recently, and didn’t see Robert Archibald there. Shame. I looked hard and everything.) Archibald averages 7.1 points and 4.0 rebounds on a pretty stacked Malaga team. By the way, while looking this up, I found out about Neil Fingleton, a former UNC and Holy Cross player and one-time McDonald’s All-American. After a brief playing career career in Europe, the ABA and the D-League, Fingleton has since given up playing basketball due to injuries, and is now an aspiring actor. He was also recently awarded the seminal title of UK’s Tallest Man, which is good news I suppose. But it begs the question; the previous holder of that record – a man named Christopher Greener – had been dining out on that fame for 40 years. What the hell is he going to do now? Who the hell remembers who comes second? Where’s the TV work going to come from? He’ll be jobless, he’ll be penniless, he’ll be a waste of height. He’ll be unsigned. He’ll be unwanted. He’ll be unloved. Commitment-free. Homeless. A nomadic vagabond living off the land, et cetera. – Koko Archibong is not a nomadic vagabond living off the land, as he has procured a plum position with the pre-eminent Polish powerhouse, Prokom. Archibong averages 6.6 points per game, good enough (if that’s the right phrasing) for […]
