beware_tony_parker
Banned
https://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=friend/080725
Forget Kevin Garnett to Boston. The trade of the year was Harold Williams to Harlem.
Michael Edwards
Harold Williams rose from the Washington Generals to new heights as a Harlem Globetrotter.
It's not every day you pick up 15,000 games in the standings. But last fall a man hardly anyone's heard of went from the losingest team of all time to the winningest team of all time, in a deal straight out of Ripley's Believe It Or Not.
It's a minor miracle somebody wanted him. His former team hasn't won a game since 1971, travels with only eight players, and doesn't sign autographs. Its most famous alum is 5-foot-7 and shrinking (he's 87 years old). And after timeouts the team never huddles up to say "1-2-3 win!" But somehow the kid got out. Somehow he got himself swapped to a team that's won 15,396 of its past 15,397 regular-season games. A team so elegant, its games are dubbed shows. A team so perfect, Las Vegas has taken it permanently off the board. A team so historic, it gave Wilt Chamberlain his start and Darryl Dawkins his finish. A team that has played in the rain forest and in Iraq. A team that has played on the bottom of swimming pools and on top of wooden desks. A team that must take credit for Hakeem Olajuwon, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Pau Gasol and every other foreigner who's entered the NBA. A team more world famous than the Lakers and Celtics times three.
That's right -- a nobody named Harold Williams got himself traded last season from the Washington Generals to the Harlem Globetrotters, by using the oldest trick in the book.
He begged.
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Actually, begging makes the (basketball) world go 'round. After every NBA draft, hundreds of neglected players are out on the street, looking for work. Some end up in Europe, some in the Developmental League. And some, if they're like Harold Williams, end up sitting on their front stoops.
Harold had once been a prodigious prep player in Jersey City, N.J., amassing 1,000 points and 985 rebounds for St. Aloysius High. On the local totem pole, circa 1999-2000, he was just a rung below top prospects Dajuan Wagner, Jason Williams (of Duke fame) and Samuel Dalembert. But his SAT scores were just a tad subpar, so he matriculated to Division III Montclair State.
Forget Kevin Garnett to Boston. The trade of the year was Harold Williams to Harlem.
Michael Edwards
Harold Williams rose from the Washington Generals to new heights as a Harlem Globetrotter.
It's not every day you pick up 15,000 games in the standings. But last fall a man hardly anyone's heard of went from the losingest team of all time to the winningest team of all time, in a deal straight out of Ripley's Believe It Or Not.
It's a minor miracle somebody wanted him. His former team hasn't won a game since 1971, travels with only eight players, and doesn't sign autographs. Its most famous alum is 5-foot-7 and shrinking (he's 87 years old). And after timeouts the team never huddles up to say "1-2-3 win!" But somehow the kid got out. Somehow he got himself swapped to a team that's won 15,396 of its past 15,397 regular-season games. A team so elegant, its games are dubbed shows. A team so perfect, Las Vegas has taken it permanently off the board. A team so historic, it gave Wilt Chamberlain his start and Darryl Dawkins his finish. A team that has played in the rain forest and in Iraq. A team that has played on the bottom of swimming pools and on top of wooden desks. A team that must take credit for Hakeem Olajuwon, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Pau Gasol and every other foreigner who's entered the NBA. A team more world famous than the Lakers and Celtics times three.
That's right -- a nobody named Harold Williams got himself traded last season from the Washington Generals to the Harlem Globetrotters, by using the oldest trick in the book.
He begged.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Actually, begging makes the (basketball) world go 'round. After every NBA draft, hundreds of neglected players are out on the street, looking for work. Some end up in Europe, some in the Developmental League. And some, if they're like Harold Williams, end up sitting on their front stoops.
Harold had once been a prodigious prep player in Jersey City, N.J., amassing 1,000 points and 985 rebounds for St. Aloysius High. On the local totem pole, circa 1999-2000, he was just a rung below top prospects Dajuan Wagner, Jason Williams (of Duke fame) and Samuel Dalembert. But his SAT scores were just a tad subpar, so he matriculated to Division III Montclair State.
