Back in the 19th century, Queen Victoria established firm guidelines and standards for periods of mourning. Two to three years for a husband. Three months for a wife (this was the 1860s, after all). One year for a parent or child, six months for a sibling and grandparent. Three months for aunts and uncles, two for nephews and nieces, six weeks for great uncles and aunts, and if a first cousin kicked it, that was worth four to six weeks of Johnny Cash, man in black fashion statements and social exile.
There's nothing in there about losing Von Wafer.
No he's not dead. But he has been sent to Fort Worth- which depending on your view of Texas might actually be worse- to join the NBDL's Fort Worth Flyers. Wafer's new teammates are guys like former Kansas stars Aaron Miles and Keith Langford, Georgia Tech's shaggy haired Aussie '04 NCAA wonderkind Luke Schenscher, and Ndudi Ebi, who holds the distinction of being the high school player who made the worst decision to enter the draft early not named Leon Smith. All that, plus Ime Udoka, who I'm sure most of you remember from his magical four game stint with the Lakers back in '03-'04. I'm not exactly sure which one of those dudes leads the Flyers in shots, but I know one thing for sure. Whoever it is, by this time next week Von will likely have lapped him.
My head knows it's good news for Von. He needs to play. But my selfish heart wishes he could stay. There was no such thing as garbage time as long as Von was on the court. He was instant excitement, straight out of the old west (shoot first, ask questions later). That's why there's a good chance I'll be wearing black around Staples for a little while. A quick review of some of Von's greatest hits:
-a clutch 3 at the end of regulation to ice a 111-92 win over Milwaukee on December 6.
-his soaring dunk off a Laron Profit missed free throw the next night in Toronto. Oh Canada, indeed!
-his expletive and foul laced rejection attempt on Indiana's Eddie Gill, capped by a feverish dash down the court for a desperation three which would have cut the Laker deficit to a much more manageable 23 points as time expired (Von was always ready in case they played a fifth quarter...)