2013-2014 NBA Thread - IND @ WAS and OKC @ LAC on ESPN

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beh235 said:
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Milk Carton Ballers: What Happened To Khalid El Amin and Ed O'Bannon

Monday, March 26, 2012 at 12:01AM Joe Simmons




It’s hard to believe two weeks has passed since our last Milk Carton Ballers segment but as promised we will help you find the guys who electrified us in college and went off the grid. Today we locate Khalid El Amin and Ed O’Bannon.

There hasn’t been a guy like Khalid El Amin in the history of college basketball. The man was every overweight kids dream player as he was short, stocky, and had game for days. Following a successful college career that included a Big East Freshman of the Year award, a Big East All-First Team selection and winning a National Championship, Khalid El-Amin’s basketball career has taken him all across the world.

Bypassing his senior season, El-Amin was hoping to sneak into the first round of the 2000 NBA Draft, but unfortunately that never panned out. As the last of 3 powerhouse 2nd round selections (the other two - AJ Guyton, Jake Voskuhl), the Chicago Bulls drafted El-Amin 34th overall (by the way, Michael Redd was still on the draft board).

El-Amin played just one season with the Bulls, before signing on with the Dallas Mavericks in 2001. His stay in Dallas didn’t last long, as he never even made it through the pre-season. El-Amin ended up playing the 2001 season in the CBA for the Dakota Wizards and Gary Steelheads.

Realizing that his most realistic chance to make a quality living on the basketball court was overseas, El-Amin packed up his things and headed to Europe. Despite another very brief stop in the NBA with the Miami Heat, El-Amin has been playing internationally ever since.

He is currently playing in the Ukraine Superleague for Azovmash Mariupol. His team won the 2006 Ukranian Championship while earning MVP honors. He also won the MVP of the league during that season. He’s currently averaging 13.3 points and 5.6 assists this season.



Not that I ever thought Khalid El-Amin would turn into a legitimate pro player, but it’s quite interesting to see where the former UConn product landed. His husky frame, limited defensive skills and sub par jump shot were too much to overcome.



The other player that I am trying to locate is former UCLA standout Ed O’Bannon. Finding Ed O’Bannon was pretty hard initially as his basketball career was short and simple. Usually when we do these segments we find ballers having a long history over seas. Not the case for Ed.

When you pack in your NBA career after just two seasons and 634 points, and head off to play in Europe at the age of 26, you are pretty much conceding your legacy will never grow beyond what it already is -- which, for O'Bannon, meant being known forever as the guy who scored 30 points with 17 rebounds in the 1995 NCAA championship game, and who won the Final Four most outstanding player award and the Wooden Award as the country's best college player.

By 1998, having been traded twice in a little over a year, O'Bannon was sick of the NBA, sick of getting just 16 minutes of playing time per game, sick of the bump-and-grind Eastern Conference style, sick of coaches trying to make him into a shooting guard when all he had ever played was power forward.

In a way, by quitting the NBA he was merely fulfilling the destiny that, in hindsight, appeared unavoidable to him from the very day he was drafted. That spring day in Toronto in 1995, with his girlfriend (now his wife) sitting beside him, this L.A.-born, L.A.-raised and L.A.-forever kid watched the cameras swoop in on each prospect just before NBA Commissioner David Stern announced their names, and, as the Nets' turn approached with the ninth pick, prayed they didn't descend upon him.

Bad knees and trying to be something that he wasn’t took it’s toll on Ed O’Bannon. Now he works at a car dealership. O'Bannon is suing over royalties used in college basketball video games -- which, ironically, EA Sports recently stopped making, probably because that game was always terrible -- but the suit is far more important than that. At stake is the NCAA's model, which grants the business rights to a player's likeness in perpetuity, which can in turn be used for revenue-generating things like State Farm ads, CBS tournament spots, magazine spreads and, yes, video games. It's not a minor suit over a few dollars O'Bannon would like to recoup. It's an organized, class-action effort, and it's about the $4 billion the NCAA makes off its athletes, and those athletes wanting a piece of the pie.

Who would have thought that a man with the gift of basketball and a smile like Ed O’Bannon’s would never really taste success in a sport that he loved so much.
 
jason gardner, miles simon, khalid reeves, salim, mike dickerson

zona was my team growing up. always thought those guys should have a long career. i know dickerson had injuries, but still...
 
DMan14 said:
jason gardner, miles simon, khalid reeves, salim, mike dickerson

zona was my team growing up. always thought those guys should have a long career. i know dickerson had injuries, but still...
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Word. All them guards out of AU man....
 
gardner was the pac 12 version of jayson williams imo

Salim is easily my favorite college player of all time...I wanted him to succeed on the next level badly..I used to  build franchises around him on 2k even when his rating was 55
 
What about Hasaan Adams dude was always on those clippers documentaries as a high schooler chillin with q rich and darius signed to zona and i never heard of him again
 
keeL252 said:
Bro don't you dare disrespect jay like that again. Gardner was nowhere close to the player JWill was.
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  hence I put pac 12 jay will..I didn't say he was better than him..everyone knows jay will was the best college ball player during his time
 
Indy slander is general is endless, and Gerald Green praise is so 2015 right now. Sportscenter is doing a great job. If SC was here I'd rep them on GP
 
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