The Ones Left Standing - ATL vs CHI, 4th Q Recap

[Null17]

good stuff as usual.

and whose pictures are those?

[J@3]

Umm I believe Dean Ollie's is Torin Francis and Ridley Tyrell's is Rashad McCants.

[SkipToMy_Lou]

Great work again Jae, these player profiles are great

[Jing]

yeah man, same. great job.

[kevC]

Is the Korean guy going to be a starter?

[J@3]

He starts the first game of the season, but ends up a bit of a benchie after that.

[Donatello]

woot for a Jae dynasty!

[Seraph]

:applaud:

woot for a Jae dynasty!

Yup I agree

[J@3]

Name: Nicholas Onyango
Age: 22
Height: 7'1"
Weight: 215lbs
College: Fresno State
Position: Small Forward

With tensions between the USA and Cuba at an all time high during the invasion of Grenada in 1983, the only real option Maria Onyango had to provide the best life for her family was to flee. She had seen plenty of footage about American living on the news and saw this as an ideal place to raise her sons Ricardo and Nicholas. After gaining entry to the USA, they set up their homebase in the town of Fresno, California. The youngest son, Nicholas, was surprisingly quick at getting adapted to the American way of life. Early on he had noticed that something alot of his friends at school enjoyed was basketball. He'd never really considered it before, but being 9 years old and standing at 5'11 made teachers and students alike take the initiative to involve him in the sport as much as possible. After finally being persuaded to give basketball a go, Nicholas became obsessed with the game and practised with his older brother every day on a semi-used run down hoop across the road from his house. His skills were never erally developed properly, as all he needed to do to score was grab the ball over his opponents head and put it in the hoop. By the time he was 16, Nicholas Onyango stood at an impressive 6'10" and was seen by many as a future star in the NBA. Mixing his height, leaping ability and discipline, Nicholas went on to become the star of his high school team and attract scouts from all over the state. The only downside to his play was his size. He was always very thin, and never really that athletic but most schools were willing to take a risk and try to bulk up this young Center in an attempt to make him the focal part of their unit. He was a project, that was certain, but the amount of potential people saw in Nicholas Onyango and his attitude made him much sought after.

Signing with Fresno State was an easy decision to make. Nicholas wanted to stay close to his family due to the fact that no matter what had happened in the past, they were always the ones there for him. Between his final year in high school and his first year in college Nicholas had grown to 7'1", which made him even more attractive to the coaching staff at Fresno State when he showed up for pre-season training looking even more imposing and long than he once was. Unfortunately for Nicholas this came with consequences. He was still thin and finding it quite hard to put on any weight. No matter what mix of dieting and high carb foods he ate there was no way to get around his own stubborn metabolism. Coaches tried their best to find the right weight program for him, but as the season grew closer it became blindingly obvious that Nicholas Onyango wasn't going to be much of a contributer in his first season. Being a project player this wasn't a problem. He was informed that his role in his first year would be miniscule, and advised to try and get whatever experience from it he could. This went down quite well, as Nicholas's first interest was his schooling. Basketball had always come second, his mother was very strict in promoting education over any sporting achievements and Nicholas never disappointed, always making good grades and studying hard. As his first season came and went, the three minutes per game given to him showed everyone exactly what they feared. His slender frame meant he was bumped around quite a lot by bigger players, and as a result he found it hard to hold onto the ball. Regardless, his positive attitude towards training meant the staff was happy to persist with him and gave him more and more minutes in his next season. Once again though, the results were disappointing.

With two seasons left at Fresno State, Nicholas Onyango turnt basically all of his attention to his education. Basketball had completely taken a back step, and despite another rise in minutes played, Onyango apparentely just lacked the ability to gain weight. One thing that did stand out in this season was his ability to alter shots. He rarely blocked them, but constantly put shots off course if a player decided to drive down the lane in an attempt to dunk on him, which is something that had become a bit of a ritual in the Western Atlantic Conference. Onyango was starting to show glimpses of potential until news came through that his older brother Ricardo had been shot in a drug store hold up. The news devastated Onyango, his brother and mother were the only family he had and now one of them was gone. Never the academic type, Ricardo had taken his first ever job at the drug store just three months earlier much to the delight of his mother. Nicholas was quietly proud of his brother, but this had shocked him to the core. His basketball career was all but destroyed as he constantly missed training sessions and team meetings. The coaching staff was sympathetic to his position, but was shocked when at the end of the season Nicholas Onyango walked out of Fresno State never to return. He had lost his motivation for study since the death of his brother and had decided the best thing for him to do would be to get a normal blue collar position anywhere he could to make ends meet. This plan was shot down when he was informed by a former high school coach of his that the Atlanta Hawks were having open tryouts for players for the next NBA season. The coach had infinite faith in Onyango's ability, and was the one who spent most of his time promoting him in high school. As a debt of gratitude, Nicholas attended the tryouts and half-heartedly got dominated playing as a Center. It wasn't looking promising until one play changed his whole career. Getting caught out on a switch, Onyango was found guarding a much smaller, quicker small forward. The player attempted to drive past Onyango but was shut down by his impressive, if not previously un-noticed foot-speed on defense. Onyango stuck to his man like glue to the point where out of desperation the player threw up a fadeaway three pointer, which was subsequently swatted back over his head. Nicholas Onyango had found his true calling as a defensive small forward. He wouldn't be pushed around anymore by stronger players, and his defensive prowess meant that no one relied on his suspect offensive play. As one scout described him, Andrei Kirilenko is gold tinted plastic wrap, Nicholas Onyango is a brown paper bag.

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                   MIN   FG%   3P%   FT%  RPG  APG  TPG  BPG  SPG   PPG
02-03 Fresno St.   3.5  43.0   0.0  64.6  1.1  0.4  0.8  0.1  0.0   1.6
03-04 Fresno St.  14.1  40.7  14.1  63.0  2.9  1.4  1.3  0.8  0.4   4.4
04-05 Fresno St.  17.9  42.1  11.3  61.8  2.3  1.2  1.5  0.5  0.1   4.1
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TOTALS            11.8  41.9   8.4  63.1  2.1  1.0  1.9  0.4  0.1   3.0

[Ataraxia]

Onyango....isnt their a Kenyan Cricketer named Onyango??.....I think its an african name not a caucasian one

but still nice profiling

[J@3]

I don't know, it says he was born in Havana, Cuba and he's pretty white.

[Jing]

damn, this is gonna be crazy when it actually starts/

[J@3]

Yeah sorry this is taking so long, I never really planned it to be a constantly updated kind of thing although I would like things to progress a bit quicker. Once I get to game recaps and whatever things will be alot easier.

[SkipToMy_Lou]

Great profile again Jae, I really enjoy reading these.

[pHLo]

Great profile again Jae, I really enjoy reading these.

u're not the only one who does

[J@3]

Name: Cuba Sanders
Age: 20
Height: 7'0"
Weight: 265lbs
College: Temple
Position: Center

When a player moves from his home country to another purely to chase a sporting dream, the odds of it falling flat on it's face increase dramatically. Cuba Sanders left his home town in Canada to pursue his dream of playing high school and then college basketball in the USA. His upbringing was nothing out of the unusual, he was raised in a single parent family by his mother who struggled working three jobs at a time just to feed her children. His four brothers weren't particularly sporting types, and although times were tough in the Sanders household they were never the types to step out of line or make too many mistakes in life. Despite his below average test results, Cuba decided at the age of seventeen that it was the right time for him to move abroad. With the full support of his mother, Cuba Sanders used the money he'd been saving for the last three years working as a shop assistant to rent himself a small apartment in Allegany, New York. It was a quiet, but determined dream of his to play for the Knicks one day and although his basketball skills weren't really anything more than just being tall, that didn't prevent him from joining the varsity team of his high school. Standing at 7'0", Cuba stood out from everyone else in his conference. His lack of confidence and shaky offensive skills didn't stop him blocking an eye popping fourteen blocks per game, mainly due to the fact that his coach had given him the green light to swat anything that goes near the hoop. His hopes of progressing into the college ranks were somewhat dashed, when after a game a student he had seen around the place approached him. He said his name was Manny, and he'd been watching Cuba play for some time. Being new at the school and not really knowing any better, Cuba started hanging out with Manny... to him it seemed like he'd just made a new friend, however, things never really turn out that way.

In the space of four weeks, Manny had changed Cuba Sanders. Gone was the polite young giant who everyone around his old town knew as "C", what remained was now a shadow of his former self. At one stage, Cuba managed to show up late for class... or not at all, on eight consecutive occasions. Word was spreading that Cuba had been drug running for Manny, the sight of a seven foot tall teenager trying to look inconspicuous was bound to start some sort of rumours. Scouts got a sniff of this information and went off him faster than Shawn Kemp at a salad buffet. Sanders didn't really care, he was making alot of money and his basketball kept him popular at school... Manny was paying him well for what he was doing, although what happened next doesn't really have a price tag big enough for it. One night after a long smoking session, a disgruntled neighbour called the police to complain about the noise coming from the modest apartment Cuba was living in. Getting a tip off that the people inside might be gang bangers, the police showed up in force with their sirens blaring which sent Manny into panic mode. He handed Cuba a brown paper bag and told him to keep it with him, and give it back when he see's him next. Manny took off out the back way to a fire escape and ran off into the night, leaving Cuba Sanders on his own to deal with the police. As soon as the door was open, Cuba was on the floor and handcuffed faster than Shawn Ke... wait, I already used that joke. Nevermind. The police took him into custody and the very first thing they found was the brown bag Manny had given him. To no one's surprised, they produced a handgun from the bag and Cuba was in alot more trouble than he first expected. After trying to explain his position, Sanders was charged with posessing an illegal firearm. Eventually though, the charges were dropped after Sanders named Manny as the guy who gave him the gun. Still to this day, he expects some sort of violent pay-back.

Once high school was finished, it was obvious Cuba wasn't going to be an academic genius. Instead, on the advice of his mother, he enrolled in the local community college. Trying to get his life, and career, back on track Cuba joined the basketball team and was surprised at how poor the quality of opposition was. It was like a man playing against elementary school children. He was swatting shots whenever he wanted, and even his offensive production was high. Once again Cuba Sanders was "the man" on the court. He was doing his best to avoid any sort of trouble in the form of another Manny type character, and as a result both his on court and off court performance improved dramatically. So much so, that college scouts were actually showing up to games to check Sanders out in action now that he was on the straight and narrow, and that he was dominating on the court. Temple offered him the chance to further his educational and basketball progress, and without even having to think about it Cuba accepted their offer and would join the team half way through the season. It was all a bit overwhelming for Cuba, his dreams were starting to be realized and after such a bad high school life it was what he needed. That was until a visit from someone from his past changed all of that. Manny had tracked him down and knew all about Cuba turning him in. Manny gave him a choice, he could either do one more job for him to pay off his "debt" or he could take what was coming to him. Cuba made the "smart" decision, and was relieved to find out all Manny wanted him to do was deliver a package to a friend of his living 20 miles East of where he was staying. In typical Cuba Sanders fashion, he trusted Manny and set off to make the delivery... not realizing Manny had tipped off the police about what was going down, and once again Cuba was left to take the fall. He served 4 months in jail, before police tracked down Manny finally and Cuba was released. Having no school, no home and no prospects at all Cuba's last chance was an article he saw in a newspaper advertising the Atlanta Hawks having open trials for players in the new season. Knowing his chances were slim, Cuba showed up to the workouts and straight up told the officials what he'd been through. Not wanting to turn him away just because of his police record, they gave Cuba a chance and he impressed them enough to put him on the "First Reserve" list. Cuba was disappointed, but quietly hopeful his good work would pay off... and it did, after a couple of weeks Cuba received the call that would finally change his life for good. Playing in the NBA wasn't part of his original dream, but after what had gone on in the last few years it was a whole lot better than the alternatives.

Code: Select all

                       MIN   FG%   3P%   FT%   RPG  APG  TPG  BPG  SPG   PPG
03-04 Allegany (JuCo) 24.7  63.7  10.5  64.3  15.3  3.7  3.1  7.3  0.7  11.4
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TOTALS                24.7  63.7  10.5  64.3  15.3  3.7  3.1  7.3  0.7  11.4

Code: Select all

                MIN   FG%   3P%   FT%  RPG  APG  TPG  BPG  SPG   PPG
04-05 Temple    8.5  51.4   0.0  56.1  3.1  0.4  1.3  0.5  0.1   2.7
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TOTALS          8.5  51.4   0.0  56.1  3.1  0.4  1.3  0.5  0.1   2.7

I know this one isn't very good, but it's early in the morning and the sooner I get the player profiles outta the way the sooner I can start the game recaps and whatever .

[Goldberg]

WOW, 65 replies and 888 views, yet not a single game posted. It has to be a new record! What a way to get people hooked! Great job!

Go Cuba Sanders! Better not bench him too much or I'll write you hate mails... or hate post! Hahaha

[J@3]

lol ... actually those guys I've done profiles for are just the regular starting 5... I've experimented with lineups but thats what I've settled on. I'll definitely finish off the profiles over the weekend, then we're onto the games

[cocobee]

Season hasn't even started and I feel like I know these players!

[Ataraxia]

so whose your franchise player?

[J@3]

Rafer Dalton runs the team but I'd say Dean Ollie is the franchise player.

[Ataraxia]

Rafer Dalton runs the team but I'd say Dean Ollie is the franchise player.

Dean Ollie sounds like a total ....he sounds like a very very poor man's Tim Duncan(at least his personality makes him like that)

[J@3]

I'm pretty far into the season, I'm not gonna give anything away but it's possible Tim Duncan might be a poor man's Dean Ollie...

[Ataraxia]

:lol: I'm pretty far into the season, I'm not gonna give anything away but it's possible Tim Duncan might be a poor man's Dean Ollie...

......no ones better than Duncan

[J@3]

You're right, I was bluffing Ollie's a bit of a disappointment but I don't have the heart to drop him because I came up with this big player profile for him.