SB Nation - Taurean Green

Gators Fans: Guilty By Association

aramnath — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:53:10 -0000

This was taken before Tebow burst into tears and college football fans around the country rejoiced. (AP Photo/John Amis)

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To be honest I haven't met too many Gators fans and the ones I have met seemed nice enough. I know a few people that went down to Orlando for the Capital One Bowl a couple of years ago for the Michigan-Florida match-up and said they had a great time and that for the most part Gators fans treated them well.

The reason most college sports fans hate the Florida Gators has little to do with their fans and more about the combination of their amazing recent success in football and men's basketball and two of the most nauseatingly hyped up college athletes in recent memory; Tim Tebow and Joakim Noah.

I respect that Tebow's a great guy and is one of the great college players of all-time, but I could have done without the close-ups of him during every game followed up by announcers inevitably spending 25 minutes talking about how he's such a winner, how intense he is and how there's never been a leader like him. Then he had that speech after Ole Miss ran the Gators at the Swamp last year and that was probably the most overplayed segment in the history of sports. To sum it up imagine every single reason you hate hearing about Brett Favre (i.e. he's a kid out there, he just loves playing, he's a gunslinger etc.) and now you understand why everybody but Gators fans were ecstatic when Alabama stomped on you in this year's SEC Championship and we got to see Tebow cry.

While I think most of the vitriol towards the Gators related to Tebow stems from the non-stop media coverage of the guy more than anything he ever did, Joakim Noah is a completely different case. Noah's middle-school antics, the fact that we had to hear about his energy and hustle non-stop during two national championship runs when he wasn't even the best player his team was more than I could bare.

This guy was an absolute clown what made it worse was how ESPN and the media ate this shit up. It was as if we were witnessing the de-evolution of mankind in front of our eyes and it was being celebrated and praised as if it was something we should all strive for. It was bad enough that Florida won back-to-back national championships , but couldn't they have had Al Horford or somebody more human and likeable receive the accolades and attention?

There's unbridled joy and raw emotion, like Mark Ingram's Heisman speech and then there's that. The fact that he looks like Sideshow Bob is bad enough, but when you combine it with behavior more often found in our relatives in the ape family it becomes unbearable. I mean when you can't respond normally during interviews it really makes it hard for anybody to be able to relate to you.

Gators fans take heart in the fact that almost every other college wishes they could duplicate the success you've had in the latter part of this decade in capturing a pair of national titles in football and men's basketball. I can tell you that my sporting experience is no match for that, but please don't chalk up the hate for your school to plain, old jealousy. We wish we could win like you guys did, but that's not the main reason we hate you. You have Tebow, Noah and the media that transformed them into cult figures to thank for that.

Poll

Which Gator do you dislike most?

2009 NBA Summer League: OKC Thunder vs Chicago Bulls

Mr Pappagiorgio — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 23:30:09 -0000

2009 Oklahoma City Thunder Summer League Roster
Num	Player	Position	Height	Weight	From
34	Tony Durant	F	6-7	245	Towson University
11	Richard Roby	G	6-6	205	Colorado
15	Marcus Dove	F	6-9	212	Unknown
17	Moses Ehambe	F	6-6	200	Oral Roberts
13	James Harden	G	6-5	220	Arizona State
50	DeVon Hardin	C	6-11	235	California
9	Serge Ibaka	F	6-10	220	Congo (Zaire)
14	Shaun Livingston	G	6-7	185	No College
2	Keith McLeod	G	6-2	190	Bowling Green
23	Byron Mullens	C	7-0	275	Ohio State
45	Doug Thomas	F	6-8	245	Iowa
30	Robert Vaden	G	6-5	205	Alabama-Birmingham
5	Kyle Weaver	G	6-6	201	Washington State
3	D.J. White	F	6-9	251	Indiana

2009 bulls Summer League Roster
Num	Player	Position	Height	Weight	From
35	Tyrell Biggs	F	6-8	235	Pittsburgh
32	Brandon Costner	F	6-9	230	North Carolina State
2	Bryan Mullins	G	6-2	190	Southern Illinois
3	Josh Shipp	G	6-5	215	UCLA
50	Luke Zeller	C	6-11	240	Notre Dame
40	James Augustine	F-C	6-10	240	Illinois
22	Taj Gibson	F	6-9	225	Southern California
11	Taurean Green	G	6-0	185	Florida
54	Linton Johnson	F	6-8	205	Tulane
16	James Johnson	F	6-8	245	Wake Forest
42	Nick Lewis	F-C	6-11	240	San Diego
14	Lorenzo Mata-Real	C-F	6-8	230	UCLA
21	DeMarcus Nelson	G	6-4	200	Duke
5	Anthony Roberson	G	6-2	180	Florida

NBA Summer League Rosters Taking Shape

Scott Schroeder — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:00:21 -0000

UPDATED - check after the jump for everything updated in the past three days.

Alright, we got all of the personal mumbo-jumbo out of the way - let's begin with the Summer League coverage!

The Orlando of the NBA Summer League schedule (July 6-10) is here, the Vegas portion of the NBA Summer League schedule (July 10-19) is here and the NBA Summer League roster of your favorite team (so far) is... After the jump!

I was all drafted out, so sorry for the lack of posting going on this weekend - I sincerely apologize to all thirteen of you that were disappointed. As a show of goodwill, I worked feverishly throughout the weekend to scour my sources, google the news, and do anything and everything I could to start piecing together an accurate view of what your team will look like this Summer.

Granted, it's probably not likely to expect much out of some of these players, but each year there are players that pop up from nowhere in Summer League and impress enough to earn a spot on an NBA roster. The most recent example would be Bobby Brown from last season, though there are plenty more (and we'll look at them throughout the next week heading into the Orlando portion of NBA Summer League's).

After the jump, I've put together a list of which players I've (all but) confirmed. If you're aware of anymore, let me know in the comments! If you're unsure of one of the players, click on the link - it'll either take you to their SBNation page or, if they're a bit more obscure, whichever source linked them to said Summer League team.

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 06/29/09 9:21 AM CDT ] Added Wink Adams to New York

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 06/29/09 11:15 AM CDT ] Added Daniel Artest to Houston

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 06/29/09 9:34 PM CDT ] Added Paul Harris to Minnesota, from Cleveland

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 06/30/09 12:02 AM CDT ] Added Kevin Kruger to Utah

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 06/30/09 12:48 AM CDT ] Added Acie Law to Golden State

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 06/30/09 8:58 AM CDT ] Added Lee Cummard to Phoenix, Luke Nevill to New Orleans

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 06/30/09 10:27 AM CDT ] Added Alex Ruoff to Washington

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 06/30/09 12:59 PM CDT ] Added Trent Plaisted, Deron Washington, Will Bynum, Dwayne Jones, Clay Tucker, Ibrahim Jaaber and Matt Freije to Detroit

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 06/30/09 1:42 PM CDT ] Added Mohamed Tangara to Milwaukee

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 06/30/09 8:50 PM CDT ] Added Rod Benson to Houston, Demetris Nichols to Toronto

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 07/01/09 12:19 AM CDT ] Added Dar Tucker and Kevin Rogers to Dallas; Jaycee Carroll to New Orleans; completed Minnesota, Golden State and Utah

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 07/01/09 11:54 AM CDT ] Completed San Antonio, Orlando and Boston roster

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 07/01/09 2:08 PM CDT ] Added Phoenix roster, Robert Swift to Boston

[Note by Jon Lewallen, 07/01/09 2:50 PM CDT] Added Jim Baron to Washington

[Note by Jon Lewallen, 07/01/09 5:00 PM CDT] Completed Chicago, Sacramento and New Orleans rosters

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 07/01/09 6:40 PM CDT ] Completed Indiana, Milwaukee, New York, Oklahoma City, LA Clippers

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 07/01/09 8:02 PM CDT ] Completed Washington

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 07/02/09 4:05 PM CDT ] Completed Houston

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 07/02/09 5:31 PM CDT ] Completed Portland, Memphis

[Note by Jon Lewallen, 07/02/09 8:10 CDT ] Completed Philadelphia/N.J. roster

[Note by Scott Schroeder, 07/03/09 11:12 AM CDT ] Completed (?) Denver roster

[Note by Jon Lewallen, 07/07/09 7:45 PM CDT ] Completed Dallas, Detroit and D-League Select rosters

2009 ORLANDO SUMMER LEAGUE ROSTERS

Boston Celtics

Bryan Mullins, Lester Hudson, Chris Lofton, Gabe Pruitt, Bill Walker, J.R. Giddens, Michael Sweetney, Coby Karl, Darius Washington, Bryce Taylor, Kevin Rogers, Robert Swift,

Indiana Pacers

Aaron Jackson, Leo Lyons, Tyler Hansbrough, Brandon Rush, Josh McRoberts, A.J. Price, Roy Hibbert, Will Blalock, Trey Johnson, Anthony Smith, Derrick Byars, Courtney Sims, Scott Vander Meer,

Philadelphia 76ers/ New Jersey Nets

Blake Ahearn, Jrue Holiday, Marreese Speights, Dionte Christmas, Chris Johnson, Rob Kurz, Gary Forbes, Marcus Slaughter, Terrence Williams, Chris Douglas-Roberts, AJ Abrams, Jeff Adrien, Jason Ellis,

Oklahoma City Thunder

Serge Ibaka, Shaun Livingston, BJ Mullens, James Harden, Robert Vaden, DeVon Hardin, Russell Westbrook, Kyle Weaver, D.J. White, Marcus Dove, Moses Ehambe, DeAngelo Alexander, Richard Roby, Kyle Hines, Doug Thomas, Keith McLeod,

Orlando Magic

Ryan Anderson, Levance Fields, Richard Hendrix, Russell Robinson, Darian Townes, Maurice Ager, Lance Allred, Brian Chase, Ronald Dupree, Courtney Fells, C.J. Giles, Steven Milosevic, Jeremy Pargo, Milovan Rakovic, Jeremy Richardson

Utah Jazz

Eric Maynor, Gary Wilkinson, Goran Suton, Kosta Koufos, Kyrylo Fesenko, Wesley Matthews, Kevin Kruger, Kevin Lyde, Andre Ingram, James Augustine, Cedric Bozeman, Justin Reed, Josh Duncan, Jim Baron, Reyshawn Terry and Larry Turner

2009 VEGAS SUMMER LEAGUE ROSTERS

Chicago Bulls

Luke Zeller, James Johnson, Taj Gibson, Bryan Mullins, Tyrell Biggs, Mario Austin, AD Vasallo, Anthony Roberson, Linton Johnson, Chris Davis, Taurean Green, Lorenzo Mata-Real, DeMarcus Nelson, Julius Hodge, Brandon Costner, James Augustine, Nick Lewis

Cleveland Cavaliers

Maureece Rice, Christian Eyenga, Danny Green, Jawad Williams, Darnell Jackson, Tarence Kinsey,

Dallas Mavericks

Aaron Miles, Rodrigue Beaubois, Ahmad Nivins, Curtis Jerrells, Dar Tucker, Kevin Rogers, Quinton Hosley, Damjan Rudez, Luke Jackson, Henry Dugat, Nick Calathes, Mickael Gelabale, Herbert Hill, Shan Foster, Trent Strickland, Andre Owens, Alfred Aboya, Moussa Seck, Bryson McKenzie

Detroit Pistons

Austin Daye, DaJuan Summers, Jonas Jerebko, Walter Sharpe, Trent Plaisted, Deron Washington, Will Bynum, Dwayne Jones, Clay Tucker, Ibrahim Jaaber, Michael Bramos, Andre Owens

Denver Nuggets

Richard Hendrix, Ty Lawson, Derrick Byars, Ronald Dupree, CJ Giles, Coby Karl, Kareem Rush, Cedric Simmons, Sonny Weems

Golden State Warriors

Stephen Curry, Anthony Morrow, Anthony Randolph, Jermareo Davidson, Acie Law, Connor Atchley, Lawrence Hill, Joe Ingles, Jared Jordan, Cartier Martin, Quan Prowell, Lawrence Roberts, Jamal Sampson

Houston Rockets

Garrett Temple, Will Conroy, Jermaine Taylor, Chase Budinger, Rod Benson, Hassan Adams, Marcus Cousin, Joey Dorsey, Charles Gaines, Mike Green, Brad Newley, Maarty Leunen, Darryl Watkins, James White

Los Angeles Clippers

Kyle McAlarney, Kevinn Pinkney, Blake Griffin, Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordan, Mike Taylor, Sean Banks, Dionte Christmas, Marcellus Kemp, Nik Caner-Medley,

Los Angeles Lakers

Tony Gaffney, Chinemelu Elonu, Alan Anderson, Aron Bynes, Dominique Coleman, Terrel Harris, Justin Hawkins, Ben McCauley, David Monds, Adam Morrison, Taylor Rochestie, Luke Schenscher, Mustafa Shakur,

Milwaukee Bucks

Brandon Jennings, Salim Stoudamire, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Joe Alexander, Jodie Meeks, Dominic James,Mohamed Tangara, Will McDonald, Juan Palacios, Chris Richard, Szymon Szewczyk, Lorrenzo Wade

Minnesota Timberwolves

Ben Woodside, Corey Brewer, Jonny Flynn, Wayne Ellington, Paul Harris, Oleksiy Pecherov, Bobby Brown, Pat Carroll, Devin Green, Gerald Henderson, Steven Hill, Rob Kurz, Garrett Siler,

Memphis Grizzlies

Jeff Adrien, Hasheem Thabeet, DeMarre Carroll, Sam Young, Darrell Arthur, Hamed Haddadi, Daniel Ewing, Greg Stiemsma, Erik Daniels, Trey Gilder, Longar Longar, Brion Rush, Donta Smith, Marcus Williams

New Orleans Hornets

Marcus Thornton, Terry Martin, Darren Collison, Julian Wright, Luke Nevill, Jaycee Carroll, Earl Barron, Earl Calloway, Bryan Cusworth, Larry Owens, Marc Salyers, Courtney Sims, Anthony Tolliver, Quinton Watkins

New York Knicks

Jordan Hill, Blake Ahearn, Toney Douglas, Alex Acker, Wink Adams, Morris Almond, Warren Carter, Joe Crawford, Patrick Ewing Jr., Ron Howard, Yaroslav Korolev, David Noel, Mouhamed Sene, Rashaad Singleton, Nikoloz Tskitishvili,

Oklahoma City Thunder

Phoenix Suns

Earl Clark, Taylor Griffin, Goran Dragic, Robin Lopez, Lee Cummard, Alando Tucker, Micah Downs, Zabian Dowdell, Josh Carter, Kaspars Berzins, Jiri Hubalek, Geary Claxton, Chris Rodgers, Carlos Powell

Portland Trail Blazers

Jeff Pendergraph, Dante Cunningham, Jerryd Bayless, Patrick Mills, Thomas Gardner, Pooh Jeter, Bobby Jones, David Padgett, Deji Akindele, Matt Freije, Dwayne Mitchell, David Moss

Sacramento Kings

Tyreke Evans, Omri Casspi, Jon Brockman, Donté Greene, Jason Thompson, Wesley Matthews, Jerel McNeal, Spencer Hawes, Robert Battle, John Bryant, Pat Calathes, Marcus Landry, Brian Roberts, Victor Stowes, Ryan Toolson

San Antonio Spurs

James Gist, Jack McClinton, DeJuan Blair, Eric Dawson, Malik Hairston, George Hill, Romel Beck, Nando de Colo, Carldell "Squeaky" Johnson, Antonio Anderson, Marcus Vinicius, Ian Mahinmi, Alonzo Gee,

Toronto Raptors

Brent Petway, DeMar DeRozan, Nathan Jawai, Demetris Nichols, Quincy Douby, Roko Ukic, Patrick O'Bryant, Carl English, Ekene Ibekwe, David Doublas, Paul Davis, Smush Parker

Washington Wizards

Tyrese Rice, Nick Young, Javaris Crittenton, JaVale McGee, Alex Ruoff, Jim(my) Baron, Alade Aminu, Ryan Ayers, Jon Edwards, Josh Heytvelt, James Lang, Dominic McGuire, Tywain McKie, Jason Rich, Diamon Simpson, Kyle Spain, Brandon Wallace

NBA D-League Select

Coleman Collins, Walker Russell, Will Frisby, Gary Forbes, Marcus Hubbard, Othyus Jeffers, Jasper Johnson, Trey Johnson, Kurt Looby, Curtis Stinson

Classic Moments In Championship Mode: 2007 National Championship Game, Ohio State vs. Florida

mlmintampa — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 06:17:44 -0000

Classic Moments In Championship Mode: 2007 Midwest Regional Final; Oregon vs. Florida

mlmintampa — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:04:15 -0000

Lee Humphrey rips nets.

Reaching out to Former Denver Nuggets

Jeremy — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:02:39 -0000

There were several players who were cast aside by the Denver Nuggets this offseason. Some left with great fanfare others departed like a team of Navy Seals scurrying to their zodiac on the beach of a tropical country ruled by a harsh and physically repulsive dictator.

After the first month of the NBA season and as we enter the Christmas season what better time to reach out and check in on our old friends to see how they are doing?

Taurean Green – After being packaged with the next individual on our list to the New York Knicks in exchange for Renaldo Balkman simply because he could be waived with no financial repercussions whatsoever Green landed in Spain in the best league outside the NBA. He is suiting up for CAI Zaragoza. Zaragoza has a 4-6 record, but Green appears to be playing pretty well. He is third on the team in scoring at 11.3 points and 2.7 assists per game. He is shooting 43% from three point land and 52% from inside the arc. It may take one year or three or four, but I think Green will be back in the NBA someday.

Bobby Jones – After enjoying the prestige of being traded to the Knicks with Taurean Green because he also could be waived without causing the Knicks any future financial responsibilities Jones was dumped and claimed by the Miami Heat, one of the teams who he played with during the 2007-08 season. They unceremoniously dumped him and he was claimed by the Sacramento Kings who gave him the same treatment the Knicks and Heat did prior to his arrival in Sacramento. Jones landed in the D-League with the Sioux Falls Skyforce and is enjoying playing for undoubtedly one of the coolest team names in the world. After two regular season games, including a 53 minute, 28 point and 14 rebound performance in his last outing, he is averaging 18.5 points and 13 boards. There are still a handful of teams who have never claimed Jones so look for him to play in an NBA summer league and an NBA training camp or two somewhere near you in 2009.

Yakhouba Diawara – Diawara, who could not shoot his way out of Beverly Hills (you know, as opposed to Compton, which would be difficult to shoot your way out of), has found a home in Miami with the Heat. Kuba has actually started three games and even somehow managed to score double figures in two games this season. He has even managed to make two or more three pointers in four games! He is currently mired in a 2-11 slump though as things seem to be returning to normal.

Eduardo Najera – Many Nugget fans were irate when Denver chose not to bring back Eduardo this summer. A look at his production shows that not retaining Najera was another solid decision by the Nuggets front office this season. Eduardo has only played in seven games. He is averaging only 8.6 minutes a game and is currently struggling with a strained lower back that has cost him the last five games. To make things worse, Eduardo is 0-8 from downtown rendering his offensive game nearly inconsequential at best. In fact, he has only made three shots all season.

Marcus Camby – Finally a former Nugget who is enjoying some success this season, although not in the win column. After missing all of the preseason and the first three games of the season with a heel injury he has played in 13 straight games. His averages are down across the board except for his scoring, which has bumped back up into double figures. Sadly the Clippers have only won three games although they seem to be pretty pleased with what Marcus has given them. Many keen observers expect to see Camby move on to greener pastures later in the season. There is no much reason for a terrible team to hang onto a player who is advanced in years when they can get a younger player with a worse contract, which seems to be Mike Dunleavy’s modus operandi. So look for a Camby for Eddy Curry or Boris Diaw.

Carmelo Anthony Elbow Update

I really have no real news, but the Denver Post reported he has hooked his elbow up to that machine that Darth Vader used to torture Han Solo in Empire Strikes Back. He reported pain in his shooting elbow that causes a loss of strength. Hopefully they did not crank it up to ten like they did with Han. Melo claimed after the game on Sunday that he could not even pick up his son. He is hoping to play tomorrow against the Spurs, but there is a possibility that he will miss the game in one of those fake hold me back kind of situations.

Maybe if we sat them in a coffee shop surrounded by Rachel, Monica and Phoebe they could chit chat

J.R. Smith has matured and apparently extracted himself from an early season shooting slump, but there was a story today in the Rocky Mountain News that could have been printed last year, or the year before that.

Apparently George Karl and J.R. Smith are not talking. I tend to side with Smith on this one. Instead of communicating through the media, where misunderstandings abound, why can’t Karl just call J.R. into his office and express to him why he only played for seven minutes against the Timberwolves. When you expect someone to learn a lesson on their own, sometimes they learn the wrong lesson, like my coach hates me.

Perhaps one of the assistants has delivered the message that Karl wanted J.R. to hear. To a certain extent that is what assistants are for, to interact with the players on a level the head coach does not have the time to. If that did happen, no one other than the coaching staff and Smith appear to know about it.