Cleveland v. Tel-Aviv.....

[Duck Rodgers]

I would normally save the thread space in General NBA for better topics like Kobe Bryant 2015 NBA MVP, but just found out today that Sofoklis "Baby Shaq" Schortsanitis himself plays for Tel Aviv :

So now I'm excited. + that whole Lebron/Kevin Love/New look Cavs thing. 4:00 pm. NBAtv. History in the making. Be there.

 

[ema]

I would normally save the thread space in General NBA for better topics like Kobe Bryant 2015 NBA MVP, but just found out today that Sofoklis "Baby Shaq" Schortsanitis himself plays for Tel Aviv :

So now I'm excited. + that whole Lebron/Kevin Love/New look Cavs thing. 4:00 pm. NBAtv. History in the making. Be there.

Hmm, it could be interesting. Though, Maccabi has already declined after they lost their biggest weapon, David Blatt. They were dominated by the Brazilian team Flamengo in the second game for the Intercontinental cup. But of course the Cavs are the ones that could be interesting to watch in this game. I really wonder their new scheme and how Blatt will conduct his players from the bench side.

 

[Duck Rodgers]

What happened to Baby Shaq? I've been duped(by myself)! He's not even on their bench. I can't find anything except for this:

https://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite5_1_13/07/2014_541352

New Greece coach Fotis Katsikaris announced on Sunday his provisional squad for the World Cup to take place in Spain from August 30, leaving out some of the most experienced hoopsters such as Vassilis Spanoulis, Antonis Fotsis, Loukas Mavrokefalidis and Sofoklis Schortsanitis.

Spanoulis will need to nurse a knee injury this summer, Schortsanitis told the coach he does not feel ready to assist the national team at this stage, Fotsis has been left out as Katsikaris said he has other options for his position, and Mavrokefalidis will undergo surgery. Katsikaris has also chosen to omit Stratos Perperoglou for personal reasons of the player.

He must be like 500 lbs right now or something and stuck in his bed back in Greece. #FreeSofo

 

[ema]

What happened to Baby Shaq? I've been duped(by myself)! He's not even on their bench. I can't find anything except for this:

https://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite5_1_13/07/2014_541352





He must be like 500 lbs right now or something and stuck in his bed back in Greece. #FreeSofo

Hmm, apparently he is overweight about 50 pounds so he is not with the team because of that. They say there are even rumors that he had a weight clause on his contract.

https://tlv1.fm/sports/louis-live-sports/2014/09/11/can-sofo-shed-the-pounds-for-maccabi-tel-aviv/

There were also rumors that he was going to come to Turkey but it didn't happen. I wish he came, because he is hell of a fun player to watch.

 

[Duck Rodgers]

There's also this that says he has Glaucoma.....which is strange that they don't mention in your link:

https://web.worldbasket.com/news/it/44992/maccabi--diagnosticato-glaucoma-a-sofoklis-schortsanitis

https://www.sportando.com/en/cups/e...sed-with-glaucoma-to-undergo-eye-surgery.html

So apparently the whole picture is that he failed his physical on the weight front and eyes. He then had to get his blood pressure under control before he could have eye surgery. And now he's in the process of losing weight and recovering from eye surgery, which could be a fun combo depending on what type of surgery he got done. And he's out until November. Surprisingly hard to find info on the guy.

But yeah, he is fun to watch. I haven't seen him play since those International tournaments where he treated Dwight Howard like he was a fly on his shoulder so I was excited to see him play again even though I've heard he's more of a lug these days than he used to be. I guess Youtube highlights of his past few years will have to suffice.

 

[ema]

^^ Wish the best for Baby Shaq. I hope he recovers fast and then maybe comes to Turkey to play because I also read that he is not that happy in Israel because of the Palestine conflicts and all the war zone around the country. Apparently he also had an incident this year where he dived into the seats to chase a fan who provoked him during the game. Plus, he is still surprisingly young(29) considering it feels that he is around like forever, so he would be very useful in any team if he can solve his current problems.

By the way, after I watched a few mins of the game, I totally forgot about it. It says the Cavs won it easily 107-80 but obviously I can't say much about the game.

 

[Duck Rodgers]

By the way, after I watched a few mins of the game, I totally forgot about it. It says the Cavs won it easily 107-80 but obviously I can't say much about the game.

I bailed at half. I was willing to take a chance that a preseason game not involving the Jazz could actually be interesting given the reasons in my first post.....but it's just never the case. LeBron just hung out on the 3 point line most of the time. Every other starter looked like they didn't want to be there. Preseason only works if you're a fan that's familiar enough with everybody to be able to tell if there are certain parts of their games that are better or if you want to get a look at the deep bench guys.