This isn't the dream!
Every basketball player in America dreams of knocking down a game-winning shot in a Game 7 of the NBA Finals then screaming or pumping your fist at the crowd before walking off the court to celebrate with your teammates in the locker room. In Game 7 of the Venezuelan basketball league Gran finals, former Maryland player Terrell Stoglin ended his game by taking the ball from a ref, punting the ball and flipping the bird at the crowd after being ejected and having to take an early trip to the locker room, where he and his teammates would not be celebrating a championship.
His Trotamundos BBC team ended up losing 97-86 to Guaros de Lara. After the game, they issued an apology for their American import, who has played for a total of 11 teams since going undrafted in the 2012 NBA Draft.
Why did the former ACC leading scorer go undrafted?
Details were never released but he and teammate Mychal Parker were both suspended for one season for violating Maryland's student-athlete code of conduct. During a pre-draft interview with the Baltimore Sun, Stoglin still felt like he was going to end up on a NBA roster.
"I'm getting great feedback right now and I have all the confidence in the world that I'm going to be drafted," Stoglin said after one of his 8 workouts with a NBA team. "If I'm not drafted, I have time. I'm very young right now. I'll go overseas and make good money and come back and I'll make a team [in the NBA] next season. That's the worst-case scenario."
It's been six years since those comments so it's safe to say the 6'1" guard who had a reputation for being a selfish player in college probably isn't going to be able to say Pro Team #12 is a NBA one. BUT, he is a walking bucket and once scored 74 points in a game...74 points? And it wasn't in a Big Baller Brand league?
Back in 2012, Stoglin knocked down 21-of-38 shots, including 14-of-24 threes on his way to scoring 74 points (his previous career-high was 58) in a double-overtime loss -- thanks to Nikoloz Tskitishvili's 52 points and 22 boards and the refs. If he was playing in America, he probably would have had 76 points in a win because this is what happened in the finals seconds of the game.
Can the man have a happy ending?
Anyways, here's the full highlights of his 74-point game followed by him and a teammate getting "ambushed" in a 2015 brawl in Lebanon.
2015: 74 POINTS
2015: BRAWL
2012: NBA DRAFT
If Stoglin would have been drafted, it probably would have been in the second round, which is known as one of the best second rounds in NBA Draft history: Jae Crowder (34), Draymond Green (35), Quincy Acy (37), Quincy Miller (38), Khris Middleton (39), Will Barton (40), Kyle O'Quinn (49) and ROBERT SACRE (60).
I was more surprised Scott Machado and Aaron Gordon's big brother, Drew, weren't drafted.
