Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf: I know coach (David) Benoit. I didn’t even know he was coaching in Japan. He knew I was interested in playing. So coach knowing me and me knowing him, it was just a perfect match. He was interested in bringing me in, I was interested in playing… And he made the deal happen.
How big is basketball there?
MAR: They are definitely trying to build something good here as far as basketball. The fans really seem to be excited about it. At the same time, they are not as emotional as in college or some European teams. They leave you more room. They seem to understand the fluctuations of the game, that there’s going to be some high and lows in it. That’s a beautiful thing. (Basketball) seems to be growing. They seem to be putting a lot of energy and focus in building something over the next few years. They are always doing something as far as promotion. I think, in time, this is going to be something big. Right now, we get nice crowds. Nice response.
You’re 40 already. Do you have any plans to stop in the near future?
MAR: As long as God gives me the ability to play and I have the desire to play – whichever goes first – I’m going to play.
You still have the passion.
MAR: I still have it. I still love to compete. And I know when to say, “Enough.” I still have the ability to play on the top level. So I’m going to enjoy it as long as I can. And then, after that, go into some type of coaching.
Do you know of any other athlete having a successful career in sports while dealing with Tourette syndrome like you have?
MAR: He’s not playing anymore, but I think there was a guy in baseball called Eisenreich. I think there’s a soccer player overseas that has Tourette syndrome also.
What are the best memories of your time in the NBA?
MAR: When I was getting minutes (laughs). When I was playing. We have a great run in Denver. In Denver, I spent six years and I had great teammates, man. LaPhonso Ellis, Dikembe Mutombo, Dale Ellis, BryantStith… A lot of guys came through and we had three years straight when we were able to go to the playoffs and beat the No. 1 seed Seattle SuperSonics in the first round, or take the Utah Jazz to Game 5 in Utah. Those were the highlights for me.
What do you think is the perception NBA fans have of you after all the controversy about the anthem?
MAR: You’re gonna have people that focus on the basketball aspect and appreciate my abilities and you’re going to have some that focus on what they perceive is the negative – the national anthem, the interviews and anything I did that didn’t coincide with their views. For me, really, I don’t care about that. As long as I can I can say I went out and did the best I could and stayed true to my heart and my conscience, that’s something I can deal with.
But I will tell you this… When I’m on the streets, it’s a difference from what the media says as far as me being a troublemaker because of the anthem. When I’m walking on the streets, the response I get is different. When it’s all said and done, people on the street know or got a sense about how certain people are. And I get a lot of people that come to me and say, “Man, you had a lot of game” or “You could play” or “Man, they gave you a raw deal” or “Thank you for doing what you did and standing up!” I get that a lot more than the negative. At the end of the day, people are going to have their opinions. You know what they say about opinions? (laughs) It’s like a-holes, everybody’s got one.
What happened in the offseason of 1998-99? Did you receive offers to keep on playing in the NBA?
MAR: Oooh, man, that’s a long, long time. I will tell you this… After the national anthem fiasco, nobody really wanted to touch me. Then there was the HBO interview with Bryant Gumbel. After that, it was like it killed everything. Because that was after September 11. I could not even get an invitation to go try out with a team. I just laid low, stayed at home, spent more time with my family, trying to do things in the community and see if eventually I could get back into it. At the end, I said… Man, I still have a love for this thing and there’s got to be somebody out there that wants to give me a chance to play. And that’s why I have been overseas and have been ever since.
Would you do anything differently if you could go back in time?
MAR: To me, it is what it is. And as long as whatever I’m going through, if it can make me a better person, I wouldn’t change it. Because I went through if for a reason – to get where I’m at now. I wouldn’t change anything. I think I’ve become a better person because of it.
How did you make your mind one day that you were not going to stand during the national anthem?
MAR: That was gradual process. It came through my reading. I began to read more, I began to think about issues more. And the more I read and the more I thought, I said… What am I doing this? I don’t want to be like some type of robot, just doing things because other people are doing it. I began to question, why am I doing what I do? Do I believe that this is the right thing to do? So I came to this decision. I said, “No.” There were a lot of things that I disagree with and if I’m going to be true to myself, I have to begin to act like it and not just talk about it. That’s what brought me to that point of not standing.
It was something that was gradual and it was never meant to bring attention to myself. I did it for like three or four months before anobody even knew I was doing it. If I wanted to bring attention to myself, I wouldn’t have come out or I would have put myself in the middle of the floor. But I never did that because it was something that I was dealing with internally.
Were your teammates supportive?
MAR: My teammates were very supportive. Actually, the night that they suspended me, Dale Ellis did exactly what I did in protest. Silent protest. Even Dikembe was like, “He’s been doing this for months and he hasn’t been bothering anybody! Why do you make a big deal out of it?” They respected my decision because they knew me as a person. I’m not trying to cause problems. But hey, I’m going to follow my heart and my conscience. I’m like, if it’s wrong and that’s the way I see it… I can’t sleep! Because it’s on my conscience so much and I need to get this thing off my chest. You want to think that people are able to take some constructive criticism. But if they can’t take it, and it hurts me in the long run in terms of not being able to get a job, I still say, “OK.” It is what it is.
What is home to you now? Where are you going when the season finishes in Japan?
MAR: I go to Atlanta, Georgia now.
I read you were living in Mississippi, but you left because it got to the point that it wasn’t safe. Is that right?
MAR: I spent maybe five years or so in Mississippi trying to do things. Mississippi is a different monster. From minimum wage, education, health care… It’s always like on the bottom of the list in America. It’s real backwards. And I got children to think of. I’ve been there for five years. I was like, I can’t keep spending all of my money hoping people are going to change. I gotta go some place I think it’s better for my family. That’s one of the reasons I left. Also, my house was burned to the ground when I was there. Some suspect it was the Ku Klux Klan maybe because there was some Ku Klux Klan insignia that was left there when the house burned down. So when those things began to happen, I said… It didn’t work for my family here. Let me get on that hill. Y’all can have Mississippi (laughs). I’ma go somewhere else.
After a long summer of negotiations and deliberations, teen phenom Ricky Rubio, a lottery pick by the Minnesota Timberwolves, took one page out of Fran Vazquez’s book and decided to pass on the NBA to sign another contract in Spain. Rubio moved from the team in which he grew up, Joventut Badalona, renowned for developing young talents (like Blazers guard Rudy Fernandez, for example) and joined FC Barcelona, consistently one of the top squads in Europe for the last 25 years.
His choice was widely discussed in basketball circles. Many were critical. Rubio, unlike Vazquez, made the call to enter the draft early only to leave the Wolves empty-handed by the end of the summer. Others, looking at the example of European players that went to the NBA too young and got stuck on the bench, have praised the move. It should be noted, though, that Wolves GM David Kahn went on the record saying Rubio would start from Day 1 in Minnesota.
As far as team success, the decision to sign with Barça appears to be the right one. The Catalan club has been trouncing competition both in the Spanish League and the Euroleague, with just two losses in 33 games and wins by an average margin of 20.2 points per game. The last one came Sunday – 105-55 against Gran Canaria, a middle-of-the-pack team that features former NBA players like James Augustine and Melvin Sanders.
When it comes to his individual performance, though, the reviews have been mixed. While Rubio ranks among the leaders in assists and steals in both the domestic and European competition, he’s averaging a rather pedestrian 6.4 ppg in the Euroleague, which ties him with journeyman Daniel Santiago. He has not been shooting very well – 39.0 percent from the field – and has not been shooting much either – just 3.7 attempts per game.
Nikola Loncar, an NBA analyst for Spanish TV, went as far as to question whether Rubio would have been worthy of a first-round pick in 2010 given his play early in the season. That said, even Loncar, who won gold medals with Yugoslavia in the European and World Championsip playing with the likes of Zeljko Rebraca and Dejan Bodiroga, recognizes Rubio has been making some strides lately.
“I didn’t like his conservative approach,” Loncar said. “We got used to seeing Ricky score 15-18 points very often. That’s the Ricky I like the most and it wasn’t happening anymore. Then there was a turning point for his season with the game against Real Madrid (in late December). Even his shooting form has changed. He’s not shooting like he used to.”
Still, Loncar believes Rubio has to be much more aggressive on the offensive end.
“It’s OK that he’s unselfish, but there’s going to come a time when he has to make more decisions offensively. It’s not just that he has to score. If he really wants to be one of the greats, he has to score the key baskets! It’s great that he’s dishing 8 assists, but if you are just going to score 4 points… Come on.”
Meanwhile, Timberwolves scout Pete Philo, who was in the war room when Minnesota drafted the Spanish guard, thinks it makes sense for him to defer to the veterans in his first few months playing with Barça.
“Ricky is a very smart and clever player, so he’s not going to come into a new team early in the season and try to do too many things,” Philo said. “I think he’s such a great teammate and great team player that it was brilliant actually the way he came into that team.
“There aren’t that many point guards that have his makeup. To me, it’s pretty refreshing to see his unselfishness.”
Rubio’s low-key attitude is still striking considering he’s probably the most high-profile player on the FC Barcelona roster. At 19, the 6-foot-4 guard has achieved a popularity than few non-NBA players enjoy in Europe. He’s the pitchman for McDonald’s in Spain and one the most popular athletes in the country – especially among teenagers. Pete Mickeal, one of his American teammates, blogged a few weeks ago on HoopsHype that being around Rubio was like traveling with a rock star.
“I played with Latrell Sprewell and I thought that was something,” Mickeal said. “Everybody wanted a piece of Spree, everybody wanted an autograph, but there’s no comparison on the attention Ricky commands. It doesn’t matter where we’re at. Anywhere in Spain, in Europe… We can be in Turkey, everywhere. That’s why I call him the Rock Star, because I actually see people crying over him. I’ve never seen it! Girls crying! People want pictures, they come to the hotel to find him… It’s unbelievable.”
PUTTING IN THE WORK
Rubio is right now the seventh leading scorer on a club that is filled with NBA talent and heavily favored to win its second Euroleague crown. The six men ahead of him – Mickeal, Vazquez, Juan Carlos Navarro, Terence Morris, Erazem Lorbek and Boniface N’Dong – have either played in the NBA or been drafted by one of its teams. Rubio should soon move up in the pecking order, especially if he continues to improve his jump shot, long considered the most flawed area of his very flashy game.
His former teammate Rudy Fernandez was considered a slasher early in his pro career, but ended up developing a deadly three-point shot with the extra time spent in Spain before heading to the U.S. Rubio is credited for a strong work ethic, so it’s not crazy to believe he could become a decent shooter down the road.
“I spent time this summer with (Rubio) during the Spanish National Team training camp down in Cadiz and I watched him really getting in a lot of work both before and after practice,” Philo said. “He’s dedicated and he knows where he needs to work as far as shooting. It’s getting better.”
Mickeal agrees: “He puts the work in every day. Anybody who’s willing to put the work in can be anything they wanna be. It doesn’t matter what anybody says, what the media says. I watch him every day. He’s gotten so much better because he’s been putting the work in before practice. That’s the bottom line.”
Rubio should have plenty of time to work on his jumper before leaving for the NBA, as the opt-out clause on his contract with Barça doesn’t kick in until after the 2010-11 season. Only then will we be able to see how Rubio’s game flies in the big leagues.
Raul Barrigon contributed to this story / Picture by Emilio Cobos
Monday’s announcement that former NBA All-Star Stephon Marbury would sign with Shanxi Zhongyu of the Chinese League caught the basketball world a little bit off guard. There had been ramblings about Marbury potentially playing overseas for the last few months, but China was not mentioned as a likely destination for the troubled guard, who had run out of options in the NBA after reportedly rejecting a one-year offer from Boston and subsequently staging a public meltdown with bizarre Internet broadcasts.
The move, though, makes some sense for Marbury. On the business side, playing in China can help him market the Starbury brand, which had been one of his focuses as of late. Besides, salaries are getting better and better in the Chinese Basketball Association – to the point that Chinese clubs are competing with Euroleague squads for American talent.
“The money comes from affluent business people who are trying to improve their social status through these teams, similar to Europe,” Jonathan Givony, president of the famed draft website DraftExpress.com. “There is a lot of money flowing in China right now.”
Still, Marbury would be taking a massive paycut. The former Knick guard made close to $21 million in his last NBA season. With Shanxi Zhongyu, he would be cashing in $100,000 per month, according to Jonathan Abrams of the New York Times. And that’s in case he’s fully paid. HoopsHype.com blogger Gabe Muoneke claims the Yunnan Honghe Running Bulls owe him $100,000 from his time in China one year ago.
Jason Rabedeaux, the American head coach of the Jiangsu Nanjing Dragons since 2008, considers this an isolated incident, though.
“The Chinese basketball market is very stable and the clubs pay their employees on time,” Rabedeaux said.
In case Marbury cares about such things as minutes and numbers, there’s not much reason for concern there. Although the level of play has greatly improved, the league is still fertile ground for the oversized American athletes. This is a competition where NBA journeymen like Andre Emmett, Rodney White or Andre Brown are averaging more than 26 points per contest. DeAngelo Collins, once a marginal NBA prospect, leads the league in rebounds – at a 15.2 per game clip.
“(The Chinese League) is still very much the Americans doing whatever they please on the court,” Givony said. “Going out and creating their own shot on every other possession, with pretty much zero defense being played, and the fundamental skills of the locals leaving a lot to be desired. The coaches and local players don’t know how to assert themselves on the kind of imports they bring in in order to play ‘normal’ basketball, and that hurts the product big time.”
Also hurting the quality of play of the domestic athletes is the lack of contact with basketball outside of China, especially from the United States, according to Rabedeaux.
“Until the young Chinese basketball player is allowed to go to the United States on a regular basis and have the opportunity to obtain college scholarships, practice with Americans, be coached by Americans and become educated for 4-5 years in the American college/university system, China’s basketball growth will continue to be stunted.”
ADJUSTMENTS
Basketball itself may be the easiest part for Marbury, but he will find some other things hard to deal with. And it’s not just the language barrier.
“Believe it or not, one of the most difficult challenges for Americans is personal space,” Rabedeaux said. “Unless you have traveled throughout China, you cannot imagine what 1.3 billion people looks like – from traffic, to restaurants, shopping… In China, you can’t drive out to the suburbs and get away from it all. People are on top of you from the minute you walk out the door of your hotel.”
Also, the amenities in the Chinese Basketball Association are more D-League than NBA. You will not find Conseco Fieldhouses or Staples Centers there.
“The (worst) thing was playing almost every game in a freezing gym,” Muoneke said. “Freezing! Not cold… Freezing!”
While the opportunity to play in China has some upside for Marbury, it will obviously be no cakewalk for him. And looking at his track record, there’s no telling how much he will be able to put up with.
Like Rabedeaux said, “If you are looking to be pampered, spoiled or subject to superstar treatment, you might want to miss that connection to Shanghai.”
Former NBA players try to extend their careers overseas all the time. It’s almost a non-story at this point. What you don’t see so often is a guy that’s pretty much been off the radar for six years resurface in a small town club across the pond. That’s exactly what Michael Dickerson, of Rockets and Grizzlies fame, is doing.
The former Arizona Wildcat signed with Palencia Basket of Spain last month and has been playing his first official games since February 2003 there. The team, now in the Spanish second division, had a 5-11 record upon his arrival and is relying on Dickerson’s star power to avoid relegation to the third division – although with not much success so far.
Rumors about a potential comeback in Spain first appeared last fall, when Dickerson was visiting his cousin Josh Fisher and started practicing with Gran Canaria, the club where Fisher plays in the Spanish ACB, usually considered the best league in Europe.
Now the comeback is complete. Dickerson, prematurely forced to retire at 28 due to hamstring and groin injuries, is back and happy to be playing – even if on a small stage, away from the bright lights of the NBA.
“It’s a great opportunity, ” the 6-foot-5 swingman said. “I always wanted to play here. It’s a challenge. I wanted to have fun playing basketball again. After retiring, those were difficult times for me personally, but I’m enjoying the chance to play professionally again.”
Unlike others, Dickerson, who averaged 15.4 ppg in five NBA seasons, at least had the chance to sign a big contract before the injuries caught him. In one of his last big moves in Memphis, GM Billy Knight gave him a six-year, $43 million contract extension before the start of the 2001-02 season. The money, though, didn’t make retirement any sweeter.
“It didn’t make it easier at all at the time,” Dickerson said. “It doesn’t really mean anything to me.”
Dickerson, a man of deep spirituality (especially for NBA standards), has used part of that money to travel around the world. He’s been all around Europe and has also spent time in India and Tibet. Still, the player who was supposed to be Pau Gasol’s perimeter sidekick in the first years of the Grizzlies franchise in Memphis, always found the time to exercise and stay in shape in case the opportunity to return to the basketball courts came up.
Gasol and Dickerson ended up playing together in just 10 games, but that was enough for Dickerson to notice the big man from Spain was something special.
“He was talented,” Dickerson said. “A big man that can shoot and pass the ball… There are not many players like that in the NBA. And he was doing that already at a young age. I knew if he kept getting better and better, he’d become an All-Star.”
According to Dickerson, who’s still in touch with fellow Wildcat NBAers Mike Bibby and Jason Terry, his time in Europe may not be over when his playing days come to an end.
“I’d like to stay here in Spain or some other place in Europe and create an individual training facility or a tranining camp where I can coach kids and help the kids develop their basketball game.”
Contrary to reports in the Chinese media, former Mavericks swingman Jerry Stackhouse is not headed to the Far East. So says his agent, Jeff Schwartz.
“The rumor that Jerry Stackhouse is going to play in China is completely false,” Schwartz told HoopsHype.com. “He is still looking forward to joining and contributing to an NBA team this season.”
Chinese agency Xinhua had reported earlier in the day that Stackhouse would try out for Shanxi Zhongyu, a team that features former NBA players Maurice Taylor and Donta Smith.
The Trail Blazers, who were awarded yesterday the option to sign a 16th player to their roster, will give a contract today to Anthony Tolliver, sources told HoopsHype.com. Tolliver, a 6-foot-9 forward with good shooting skills, played with the San Antonio Spurs for two months last season and also had a 10-day stint with the New Orleans Hornets. He was currently playing in the NBDL with the Idaho Stampede, where he was averaging 20.7 ppg and 9.9 rebounds and shooting 43 percent from three-point land.
Tolliver is expected to be in uniform Thursday night against Phoenix.
Former Rockets guard Von Wafer is close to leaving Olympiakos and returning to the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies, one source told HoopsHype.com. Wafer’s European agents are working today to rescind his contract with the Greek powerhouse. The 6-foot-5 guard could soon afterwards join the Grizzlies for the rest of the season, the source said.
Wafer’s departure is apparently of mutual agreement. Wafer was due to make $2 million with Olympiakos this year but the team’s coach, Greek legend Panagiotis Giannakis, wasn’t playing him for the last few games. Management didn’t want to have that type of investment sitting on the bench, according to the source, so both sides decided to come to a quick resolution.
Wafer had his best season in the NBA last year with averages of 9.7 ppg and 1.8 rpg.
The NBA Twittersphere can often be a world of questionable orthography and irrelevant tweets talking about finished workouts and soon-to-come meals. But there are some guys out there that provide real insight into the life of NBA players or, at the very least, funny interaction with fans. We rank the best of them.
Like in basketball, Shaq’s best days on Twitter are behind him. That said, he’s the one who helped popularize the website among NBA players and to this day remains the most followed of them all by far. While not that active anymore, to his credit he’s had more tweets than games played this season. No more digs at players or coaches recently, though.
Gay’s fun-loving personality is at display on his Twitter account. You will not find many deep reflections there, but he’s good for a laugh. Example: “Mbenga might be a champion but he’s still ugly.”
One of the NBA pioneers in seeing the Web’s potential when it comes to connecting directly with fans without the media filter. His tweeting falls more on the promotional side, but it’s still interesting because he does have a lot going on outside of basketball.
The Suns All-Star guard uses the website to promote his foundation, media appearances and hilarious videos. Doesn’t let his wit show as much as you’d like, though. With his dry humor, he could have been the Twitter heir to Thunder forward Nick Collison, who has (sadly) been very inactive in the site ever since the regular season began.
Just like with everything else, Ron Artest is a strange bird on Twitter. For some reason, the Lakers forward has three different accounts, in which he displays the typical Artest persona – outrageous, funny, contradictory, self-promotional… Worth the read.
The prototypical player who’s bigger on Twitter than in basketball. Became a Twitter sensation during his senior year at Washington thanks to a prank on a Cougar fan and it only got bigger once in the NBA. Even though he’s hardly a household name at this point, he ranks among the most followed players in the league.
Often uses Twitter to vent about haters or, more recently, about the Nets’ record losing streak. Brash talk is common with the 6-foot-7 swingman, who is not scared to voice strong opinions and gives us a peek of his personality probably moreso than any other player on Twitter.
If Shaquille O’Neal is the one who started to make Twitter popular, Charlie Villanueva is probably the responsible for the mid-2009 boom in the NBA. Dozens of players signed up right after he got called out by Scott Skiles for tweeting during halftime of a game. The episode with Skiles, who unsurprisingly doesn’t have an account (very typical: Alvin Gentry is the only head coach with one and hasn’t tweeted since July) did nothing but increase Villanueva’s profile. The bilingual Dominican forward combines witty comments with updates on personal and team developments. He raced Chris Bosh to 50,000 followers and lost. The Raptors forward may win in number, but Villanueva gets the nod in quality.
Who said Shaq didn’t have a positive impact in Phoenix? At least, he got Jared Dudley into tweeting. Now, the former Bobcat is the clear Twitter MVP. His trade to a relevant team like Phoenix and his impressive activity with the social media website have made him a recognizable face for NBA fans – which wasn’t the case one year ago while still in Charlotte. Dudley reports news (calls himself JMZ), gives away tickets and interacts with fans, journalists, owners and fellow NBA players.
Easy to see how his Twitter success could translate into a media career down the road. For now, he’s trying to come up with new ideas to tweet about.
“I got something called Twit my Ride, like a spin off of Pimp My Ride,” Dudley says. “We’re going to do Robin Lopez. He drives a 1985 Toyota (laughs). And when I’m in OKC, I’m going to do something with Kevin Durant. A spin off of MTV The Life.”
November 3, 2009 @ 6:45 am by Jorge Sierra · Filed under Draft, Joe Alexander
The old saying in the NBA goes, “After three years, you are who you are.” Some teams, though, don’t have the patience to wait that much time to get returns on their draft investments. Joe Alexander of the Milwaukee Bucks and JR Giddens of the Boston Celtics were some of the victims this week.
It’s probably devastating news for a young player… and with a reason. At least, based on history.
Research shows that first-round picks that didn’t get options of their first NBA contract picked up usually don’t last long in the league after that first deal expires. Probably not a big surprise, but these are the numbers…
Of all the NBA players drafted in the first round between 2003 and 2007, 24 became free agents sooner than expected after having contract options declined. Among that group, only eight remain in the league today. Those would be Marcus Banks, Antoine Wright, Shelden Williams, Patrick O’Bryant, Shannon Brown, Quincy Douby, Rodney Carney and Marcus Williams. Only Brown and Banks, who has barely ever played the past two years, have a contract in place for next season.
2004 Draft
Rafael Araujo (Paulistano, Brazil)
Luke Jackson (Ferrara, Italy)
Pavel Podkolzin (Lokomotiv Novosybirsk, Russia)
Sergey Monya (Dynamo Moscow, Russia)
2005 Draft
Yaroslav Korolev (free agent)
- Antoine Wright (Toronto)
Gerald Green (free agent)
Julius Hodge (free agent)
Wayne Simien (retired)
2006 Draft
- Shelden Williams (Boston)
- Patrick O’Bryant (Toronto)
Saer Sene (Hyeres-Toulon, France)
Cedric Simmons (Peristeri, Greece)
- Quincy Douby (Toronto)
- Rodney Carney (Philadelphia)
- Marcus Williams (Memphis)
- Shannon Brown (LA Lakers)
Maurice Ager (Cajasol Sevilla, Spain)
2007 Draft
Morris Almond (free agent)
* Ian Mahinmi, Oleksiy Pecherov, Acie Law, Sean Williams, Javaris Crittenton, Alando Tucker, Joe Alexander and JR Giddens had contract options declined too, but they are playing out their current deals.
The Celtics and Rajon Rondo’s agent Bill Duffy are scheduled to meet Tuesday in Cleveland, HoopsHype.com writer Peter May has learned. The two sides are not close on a contract extension right now. Unsurprisingly, the main issue is money and not the length of the contract.
How did you end up playing in Japan?
How did you make your mind one day that you were not going to stand during the national anthem?
