On this website is a list of player nationalities. It’s a pretty useful tool, partly for reason of trivia, but also because it lists some of the more bizarre citizenships that high-level basketball players have accrued in recent years. Two new additions can now be made to that list. Former Florida guard Taurean Green and former Fresno State forward Quinton Hosley, according to Greek website gazzetta.gr, now have Georgian passports. Inevitable crude translation follows: The American guard the Union acquired a passport from Georgia, so most will be able to negotiate better terms in the next transcription. The third best scorer in the Greek league with 15.2 points average points will no longer be deemed as a Community and the only relationship that will from now on with IMG, is the pursuit of money due. Along with Greene became the Georgian citizenship and Quintas Choslei former player including Real Madrid. The decision on who gets the nomination the only natouralize entitled each country uses will be made this summer. The American who struggled so far in the national agriculture is Samont Williams Malaga. The news comes from a Greek website because Green has been playing there. This season, for AEK Athens, he has averaged 15.1 points and 3.6 assists per game, particularly impressive totals when you consider that he was essentially doing this for free (AEK, like so many Greek teams, have fallen way behind on his payments.) Hosley, meanwhile, has been in Turkey, averaging 18.1 points, 8.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.6 steals per game. Both are beginning what should be good and lengthy careers in European basketball; therefore, the addition of these passports, which will allow them to bypass certain laws on non-EU import quotas that most leagues have, will help no end. Other famous nationalised Georgian basketball […]
In the previous post I talked about Hawks draft pick Sergiy Gladyr, but did so while omitting a potentially interesting/amusing piece of information. Gladyr has not played since Valentine’s Day, when he left a game against Meridiano after only nine minutes with an injury and never returned. The injury is a broken hand, one which Gladyr suffered by punching an advertising hoarding. Maybe he was feeling a little unloved that day. I feel your pain, brother. Additionally, the recent surge of Chinese Basketball Association-related material has brought a variety of feedback, much of it useful, some of it banal, some of it sweet and sincere, some of it rude. With that feedback in mind, here are some points for clarity; 1) Tim Pickett has returned for Shaanxi, and played the last three games. In those three games he has posted 50 points and 8 rebounds, 30 points and 8 rebounds, and 39 points and 8 rebounds. He has continued to shoot really really really ridiculously well from the three-point line, going 14-20 over that three game span. But Shaanxi have lost all three games anyway. 2) A number of people pointed out that Bayi are the team affiliated with the Chinese army, which is why they have no import players. I didn’t mention this because I thought it was no longer the case. I knew it used to be, hence all that furore with Wang Zhizhi a few years ago, but I thought they’d moved on from that. At the very least, they had changed the name. But I guess not. 3) No, I didn’t actually think Ding Jinhui the snooker player and Ding Jinhui the Zhejiang Cyclones big man were the same person. And no, I didn’t actually think Li Xiaoxu the Liaoning centre and Ling Xiaoyu the fictional […]
– James Augustine: Something weird happened to James Augustine last year, something which took me a while to figure out. He was drafted by the Magic in the 2006 Draft, and signed a two-year rookie minimum contract with the team. He stayed with the team for the whole two years, barely playing, and was then tendered a qualifying offer when the two years was up. The second year of his first contract was only 25% guaranteed until July 30th, and the rule with qualifying offers is that they have to be at least the same amount of guaranteed money, with the same guarantee dates, as the final season of the previous contract. So when Orlando tendered him a qualifying offer, Augustine accepted it immediately, and was thus under contract for the 2008/09 season for $972,581 (the amount of the QO = minimum salary + $175,000), of which $243,145 (25%) was guaranteed, with a guarantee date of July 30th 2008. Orlando waived him before that date, meaning that they essentially paid Augustine a quarter of a million dollars to have him under contract for two weeks in mid-July. Way to do that “creative financing” thing that you do. Augustine then went to Spain, where he averaged 7.7 points and 6.1 rebounds in the Spanish league for Gran Canaria. – Tyrell Biggs: I saw a lot of Biggs in Pittsburgh last year, and it’s tough to say what he was good at. He had a decent set shot, but little interior offence, no finesse, and a bad rebounding rate. He was a decent defensive player, fairly aggressive and physical, but he’s also 6’8 and not of NBA size, so his NBA chances don’t much exist beyond this level. However, I wrote all this in a piece last week, and someone responded by […]
– Joao Gomes averages 8.3 points and 4.4 rebounds for Leche Rio Breogan Lugo in the Spanish second division. You’re probably wondering who Joao Gomes is. So am I, honestly. In other, more important Gomes news, the Cincinnati Reds signed Jonny Gomes to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training. Good luck Jonny. Savage everything you see. – Jamon Gordon was suspended by his German team, the Koeln 99ers, for going to America without permission. I think. (A user’s blog comment also said something about Gordon trashing his flat, which seems like a weird thing to be suspended for, so I’ll assume he did this afterwards.) His replacement is a man called Michael Jordan, and no I’m not making that up. Gordon averaged 13.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.7 steals in his nine games with the team. – Jamont Gordon (not to be confused with Jamon Gordon, despite how blatantly easy that is to do) is signed with Fortitudo Bologna, the team also known as Upim Bologna and GMAC Real Estate Bologna, and formerly known as Skipper Bologna and Climamio Bologna, yet NOT to be confused with La Fortezza Bologna, which is another Italian first division team. All European names are stupid, I tell you. Gordon averages 11.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 2.0 assists in EuroCup play, while playing alongside Gregor Fucka, whose name is still fun to type, even if it has been usurped by Lior Lipshits. – Brian Grant (not to be confused with Briant Grant, who is someone that I just made up) retired over two years ago and hasn’t been heard from since. – Devin Green is signed in Ukraine of all places, with Dnipro Dnepropetrovsk. He averages 20.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists, […]
