The 2014-15 Los Angeles Lakers are facing a tough season ahead. Boasting talent like Carlos Boozer and Wayne Ellington, the roster is filled with no-names and has-beens. Kobe Bryant, depending on who you believe, is no longer considered an elite player in the NBA, and Byron Scott is the coach.
Certainly, with 16 championships to their franchise's name, Los Angeles Lakers fans are not accustomed to this sort of disappointment or concern. However, just because things look dim in Tinsel Town right now, doesn't mean they haven't been this bad before. In fact, it was just 10 years ago that the Lakers, when they were readying themselves for the upcoming season, were loaded with a roster that was arguably worse than cast of characters Los Angeles is currently employing.
Fresh off a losing appearance in the 2004 NBA Finals, the Lakers were in shambles. Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe, and Phil Jackson had reached a trifecta of disagreement, culminating in a trade that sent Shaq to the Miami Heat. Jackson decided he was finished and resigned from the team (and eventually released his scathing anti-Kobe memoir, The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul).
As a result of all this turmoil, Kobe became stuck with a batch of new-look Lakers who didn't look like anything Los Angeles had seen before. Coached by the aging Rudy Tomjanovich, the 2004-05 Lakers started out the NBA season with a strange mix of uncertainty, an uncommon feeling for the Staples Center faithful.
Many didn't know what to expect. They knew Kobe was going to be able to be "the man" for the team, but with a new coach and a unrecognizable roster, the Lakers were picked to either miss the playoffs or occupy the bottom rung of the Western Conference postseason bracket. No one could've foreseen just how poorly the season would end up going. Tomjanovich ended up resigning due to physical and mental exhaustion, the team tanked, and Los Angeles posted their first losing record in 11 seasons. Meanwhile, the Miami Heat were dominating thanks to Shaq's inside presence.
Now, a decade later, with two more championships to his name, Kobe readies himself to face the next cycle of talent shuffling through the purple and gold. But, while he is still around, we have to wonder: What exactly happened to all those other guys he took the court with back in 2004? When was the last time we heard from Vlade Divac or Chucky Atkins or Chris Mihm? As we discovered, it's been awhile. So, for the sake of giving basketball fans some perspective on the Kobe's current situation, we found out where all of his 2004-05 Lakers teammates have been hiding since that fruitless 34-48 season.
Chucky Atkins
Season stats: 13.6 PPG, 4.4 APG, 2.4 RPG
No. of seasons in Los Angeles: 1
Most recent professional team: Detroit Pistons
By trading away veterans Gary Payton and Rick Fox, the Los Angeles Lakers netted Chucky Atkins from the Boston Celtics, along with center Chris Mihm and swingman Jumaine Jones. Atkins had experienced some tough luck prior to joining the Lakers. After playing four seasons with the Detroit Pistons, he was traded to the Boston Celtics midway through the 2003-04 season in exchange for Mike James, narrowly missing out on Detroit's championship campaign that same year.
Then, just months later, in August, Atkins found himself on the Lakers, who at that point were stripped-down from the dimensions that had made them championship contenders in the NBA Finals of the same year. Suddenly, Atkins was a starting point guard for Los Angeles, an undeniable downgrade for a team which had been previously led by Gary Payton and Derek Fisher.
To be fair, Atkins made the most his opportunity, posting career highs in rebounds per game and points per game in a full season at the helm. However, the Lakers weren't terribly appreciative of his efforts. Over the 2005 offseason, Atkins was once again traded, this time to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Kwame Brown and Laron Profit. Yikes.
Nowadays, Atkins resides in the South Florida area, where he grew up. Recently, he was seen coaching his old high school Maynard Evans in Orlando. However, tweets from what appears to be his personal Twitter account signal that Atkins has made a move to his alma mater, South Florida.
Again, we can't completely confirm that @Cdiem007 is Atkins' official Twitter account, but if it is, then he's subscribing to some, uh, pretty interesting clientele. Clearly, he's a man of very specific interests.
Tony Bobbitt
Tierre Brown
Season stats: 4.4 PPG, 1.2 RPG, 2.0 APG, 14.0 MPG
No. of seasons in Los Angeles: 1
Most recent professional team: BC Tsmoki-Minsk (Belarus Premier League)
Tierre Brown played for the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New Orleans Hornets before finally making his way to Hollywood in 2004, but the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles would have no particularly memorable effects on his career, as the guard was quickly swept out of the league following the 2004-05 season.
From there Brown took his career international, playing in locales such as Belarus, Venezuela, Italy, and Qatar, as well as earning minor stints in the D-League. In 2013, Brown played his last notable position for BC Tsmoki-Minsk of the Belarus Premier League. Since then, little has been heard from the McNeese State University product. However, you can find him active today both on Instagram and Twitter. Brown appears to be staying in shape for his next opportunity.
Caron Butler
Brian Cook
Vlade Divac
Devean George
Brian Grant
Season stats: 3.8 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 16.5 MPG
No. of seasons in Los Angeles: 1
Most recent professional team: Phoenix Suns
Collected as a part of the trade that sent Shaquille O'Neal to the Miami Heat, Brian Grant was nearing the end of his career when he joined the Lakers for his 11th season in the NBA. Playing in 69 games, but starting just eight of them, Grant was a largely incidental piece of the Los Angeles roster for the 2004-05 season, serving as yet another reminder of just how little the Lakers managed to receive in exchange for their coveted big man.
In the following offseason, Grant was cut by the Lakers and then signed with the Phoenix Suns, where he appeared in only 21 games during the 2005-06 season. However, for what it's worth, Grant's new team was able to take down the Lakers in five games during the 2006 postseason. Later in the year, after Grant had been traded away to Boston Celtics as a part of a deal for Rajon Rondo's draft rights, he retired, citing injuries and diminishing play as his reasons for hanging it up after 12 seasons.
Tragically, Grant learned that he was suffering from early-onset Parkinson's disease in 2008, two years after his career had ended. Now, Grant works as an outspoken activist for Parkinson's disease charities across the country, including his own, the Brian Grant Foundation. In May of 2013, Grant climbed Mt. St. Helens in an effort to raise money and awareness for the disease, chronicling his climb in a video called, "Power Forward."
Jumaine Jones
Stanislav Medvedenko
Season stats: 3.8 PPG, 1.8 RPG, 9.8 MPG
No. of seasons in Los Angeles: 6
Most recent professional team: Atlanta Hawks
Slava Medvedenko (or, as Stephen A. Smith calls him, Sla-va Med-ve-den-ko) was, amazingly, on the Los Angeles Lakers roster for six entire seasons, playing sparingly while Shaquille O'Neal and other, more legitimate talents filled up the stat sheet for L.A.
Even when Shaq took off, Medvedenko was still held from the starting lineup, starting just four games in the two seasons he played for Los Angeles following the 2003-04 season (though, to be fair, a herniated disc kept him out of nearly the entire 2006 NBA season). Regardless, there was nothing particularly inspiring or memorable about Medvedenko's game. He shot too much, he couldn't play defense, and his speed was often a liability. If anything, Medvedenko was just an icon for how poorly constructed Kobe's team was in the post-Shaq era.
Today, little is known about Medvedenko's whereabouts. In 2011, ESPN reported that Medvedenko was assisting former NBA head coach Mike Fratello in the Ukrainian basketball leagues. An obscure blog called Searching For Slava reported the same details back in May.
Regardless of what he's doing now, though, we'll always have those memories of Slava's proudest moments as a Los Angeles Laker.
Chris Mihm
Season stats: 9.8 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 1.4 BPG, 24.9 MPG
No. of seasons in Los Angeles: 5
Most recent professional team: Los Angeles Lakers
Chris Mihm was the type of player who made you believe that any old 7-footer could make it into the NBA, simply based on his height. Okay, maybe that's not completely fair, given that Mihm was once a first-team All-American at the University of Texas. However, in the context of great Lakers centers, Mihm was no Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or George Mikan. He wasn't even a Vlade Divac.
Acquired by the Lakers in the same trade that gave them Chucky Atkins and Jumaine Jones, Mihm played for Los Angeles up until the 2009 season, when he was traded away to the Memphis Grizzlies. However, nagging ankle injuries (which had sidelined Mihm for the entire 2006-07 season) forced an early end to his career, as he retired at the age of 29.
In December of 2012, Mihm finished his degree at the University of Texas, majoring in Psychology and Communications. According to Mihm, he was helping out with the men's basketball program during this time as well.
Lamar Odom
Kareem Rush
Season stats: 6.4 PPG, 1.3 RPG, 17.3 MPG
No. of seasons in Los Angeles: 2
Most recent professional team: Los Angeles D-Fenders (NBDL)
Kareem Rush wasn't known for much during his Los Angeles Lakers tenure aside from the miraculous game he had against the Minnesota Timberwolves during Game 6 of the 2004 Western Conference Finals, during which he hit six consecutive three-pointers.
However, Rush's happy days in Los Angeles were short-lived as he was traded away to the Charlotte Bobcats midway through the 2004-05 season, taking his talents from one cellar-dweller to the next. After hanging around professional basketball with teams like the Pacers, 76ers, and the Los Angeles D-Fenders, Rush finally stepped away from the game in January, four years removed from his last stint in the NBA.
Not much has been heard of Rush since, aside from a tweet he sent out in March, in which he shared a picture of himself guarding who else but Kobe Bryant.
Guarding @kobebryant #tbt #nba #defense pic.twitter.com/2nyqGpJTWV
— Kareem Rush (@KareemRush) March 27, 2014Sasha Vujacic
Luke Walton
