Where Are They Now, 2010; Part 52
April 13th, 2010

– Pavel Podkolzin After his NBA career set new records in failure, Podkolzin returned to his native Russia to play for Lokomotiv Novosybirsk, the team he began his career with. Podkolzin is into his fourth season with the team, and has stuck with them even after they were relegated out of the Russian Superleague down to the second division. Statistics are hard to come across, because they’re all in Russian, and Russians use the wrong alphabet. However, as far as I can tell, Pavel averages 12.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.9 fouls per game. On the Novosybirsk website, three players are listed as playing the position of “центровой.” Pavel is one of them, and a quick internet search reveals the obvious; that word translates as “center”. But curiously, if you run that word through Google Translate, it comes out with the result “Washington Bullets.” I’m not making that up, either.   – Scot Pollard Pollard last played in the NBA with the championship-winning 2007-08 Celtics. He didn’t play in the postseason and barely played during the regular season, but he got a ring and a million for sitting around and putting up with a year of ankle pain, so it’s not all bad. He now works for NBA TV, where he’s already created one of the more awkward moments in television history.   – Olden Polynice Polynice was last in the NBA in February 2004, when the Clippers waived the then-39-year-old before the playoff deadline so that he could catch on with another NBA team. He didn’t. But Polynice did squeeze out bit parts of two more years in the world of professional basketball, playing 18 games in 2004/05 with the Michigan Mayhem of the CBA, and briefly being the player/coach for the Los Angeles Aftershock of the ABA in […]

Posted by at 8:46 AM

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?   […]

Posted by at 10:34 PM

30 teams in 36 or so days: Cleveland Cavaliers
September 25th, 2007

Players acquired via free agency or trade: No one   Players acquired via draft: No one   Players retained: Ira Newble (opted in)   Players departed: Dwayne Jones (left unrestricted, unsigned), Scot Pollard (signed with Boston)   Recap: They didn’t do anything.   Next season: So they’re still not good enough.

Posted by at 11:54 PM