Saturday, November 3, 2007

Four WAC players make NBA rosters

Four former stars in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) have landed on the rosters of various NBA teams. None look to play that much this season and will probably 'enjoy' some court time in the Developmental League but 15-man NBA rosters allow for this.

Nevada's Nick Fazekas made it with Dallas but could see himself in lights in Tulsa while trying to develop his game and resist rustiness. Making it with such a top team is quite the achievement plus his status also indicates how big a jump it is from Division One college basketball to the NBA. A second-rounder who was the 34th pick in the draft, Fazekas has a two-year contract with the first season guaranteed at the NBA minimum $427,163. Dallas holds the option for the the 2008-09 season, at a salary of $711,517. F azekas played in each of the Mavs' preseason gamesm gaining with one start and averaging 7.3 points and 4.5 rebounds in 17-plus minutes a game.

Point guard Ramon Sessions, a former teammate of Fazekas, is currently on the inactive list with Milwaukee and, irony of ironies, he may also be headed to Tulsa to keep his sharpness. 'Sessions passes to Fazekas' may not just be an old Wolf Pack play-by-play phrase yet.

Dominic McGuire is getting a few minutes a game with Washington. He jumped out of Fresno State after playing one season there and is already being lauded as the best defender on the Wizards bench.

The other WAC player who landed on an NBA roster is Boise State's Coby Karl, who is a Los Angeles Laker. Karl was a walk-on in Boise and a NBA free agent so there is a pattern here. Here's an article on his pro debut. He is also making the NBA minimum of $427,163.

Quinton Hosley didn't make the Big Show and is now playing in Turkey. The 6-6 former Fresno Stater plays for Karsiyaka and recently scored 20 points along with 14 rebounds in leading his team to its fourth win.

This is quite an achievement for the underrated WAC. Let's see how many make the jump after the soon-to-be season.

2 comments:

Jawahi said...

Hey, just a note to say thanks for taking the time to keep this blog going.
I'm down in Las Cruces, Aggie fan for life. It is looking like an interesting year for our basketball team.

Patrick H said...

Yes, thanks for starting this site. If you get rid of the password requirement you'll get a lot more WAC fans posting. I'm going to try to get some WPC fans over here, but I don't know if they'll post comments.

Finally, I recommend the site rpiforecast.com. It's run by a big USU fan named freakboy and it's a great site especially later in the season. If you guys blogroll each other it might help create traffic.

Anyway, just a suggestion.

GO, PACK!