Monday, June 30, 2008

Hair comes Summer League

The official roster for the Trail Blazers Las Vegas Summer League team has yet to be announced, but there are a few players who you can expect to see. Petteri Koponen and Joel Freeland are almost guaranteed to play. Nicholas Batum's involvement is still up in the air, but I think there's a fairly good chance that he'll be on the squad. Same goes for any other player who might be a Blazers rookie (aside from those playing in international competition or rehabbing from knee surgery) in '08-'09. The rest of the Summer League roster is filled out with undrafted rookies and veteran free agents.

According to the Springfield News-Leader, (that's the Missouri version of Springfield, by the way) one of those undrafted rookies who will be suiting up for the Blazers in Las Vegas is Steven Hill, a 7-0 center out of Arkansas.
Former Branson High School and University of Arkansas center Steven Hill has signed to play for the Portland Trail Blazers in the upcoming NBA summer league, his father Troy Hill said Saturday.

Despite going undrafted, the 7-foot Hill will have a chance to make the team if he can impress during Portland’s run in the summer league, which begins July 11-20 at the Thomas and Mack Center and the Cox Pavilion, both on the campus of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
Hill averaged a pedestrian 4.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in his senior season, though he did make the SEC All-Defensive Team in his final year. And he was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year in his junior season, so there's some talent there.

And as you can see from the picture, he's got one of the meanest heads of hair you're going to find in professional sports.

UPDATE: According to executive producer Scott Zachary, Hill was sans flowing mane during his pre-draft workout in Portland. Bummer.
at

8 comments:

  1. j. eizo morrisJune 30, 2008 at 11:58 AM

    Thanks for keeping the filler brewing...if there is one thing this team is lacking it is a full head of hair. McBob had some going into last year but next to that all we have is Oden's faux-hawk. I for one hope we sign this Hill character.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Allen35June 30, 2008 at 12:30 PM

    when is the bayless press conference??????????

    ReplyDelete
  3. GregJune 30, 2008 at 12:42 PM

    What's the word on Sergio? I heard that he will not be playing in summer league, but not because of international play or injury. Did he refuse to play or was he not invited? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. SabonisFan3386June 30, 2008 at 1:36 PM

    Someone should take a Razor to the Back of his head.

    Thank you, thank you very much.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Casey HoldahlJune 30, 2008 at 1:57 PM

    eizo: Agreed. Here's hoping Steve Blake comes into camp with dreadlocks.

    sabonisfan: That's pure comedy gold.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Casey HoldahlJune 30, 2008 at 2:04 PM

    allen35: This Bayless person that you speak of sounds intriguing, but as far as I know, he's not a Trail Blazer.

    On a completely unrelated topic, I'd expect some kind of press conference on the 9th of July.

    greg: I don't know that Sergio's not playing in Summer League this year is set in stone. I know they want to give the majority of point guard minutes to Koponen for purposes of seeing what he can, so maybe that is factoring into whether or not Rodriguez is on the SL roster.

    ReplyDelete
  7. LaPrincipessaJune 30, 2008 at 3:00 PM

    Casey! Hey man long time no post! Anywho.. that hair.. OMG soo b.e.autiful. I swear im soo jealous. That's probably the only reason he's play, for the hair.

    Thanks for the updates.

    ReplyDelete
  8. UnknownJune 30, 2008 at 9:41 PM

    I wouldn't want some big, scruffy, long-haired, fuzzy-bearded, redheaded hippie playing center for my team! Unprofessional! Get a haircut, you ... oh, wait ... um ...

    http://pictopia.com/perl/get_image?provider_id=532&size=550x550_mb&ptp_photo_id=2932079

    http://bill.goldschein.name/images/Bill%20Walton.jpg

    ReplyDelete