What did we Expect Might Ever Happen with Gorgui Dieng?
And what the hell was all of this, anyway?
Do you remember where you were when you learned that the San Antonio Spurs waived Marquese Chriss to make room for Gorgui Dieng, who himself had just cleared waivers after being released by Memphis?
Did you even remember that the Spurs, for some reason I can’t remember and will not look up, had Marquese Chriss?1
The Dieng signing was lauded by pretty much everyone who always writes the same thing about the Spurs as “being very Spursy” and “smart” and “not sexy but he will fit in with San Antonio,” you know, things of that nature. He even has a fun backstory about meeting R.C. Buford as a young boy in Senegal before he could even speak English.
Sorry I gotta digress here for a minute, but did y’all know that Gorgui means “the old one” in Dieng’s native language? I haven’t heard a more perfect name for someone in my entire life. Dieng looks like he’s been 50 since he was 13. Okay sorry moving on, moving right along…
It was meant to be, this Dieng to San Antonio deal. There was not much pomp, nor was there much circumstance. I mean, clearing waivers basically means 29 teams could have taken you if they wanted but for whatever reason decided, “nah.”
Still, like Cinderella and her glass slipper,2 Gorgui Dieng slipped into a San Antonio jersey on March 31, 2021 and played his first game as a Spur. He played all of 5 minutes, split a pair of free throws, then sprained his shoulder and had to leave the game.
All in all, he appeared in 16 games as a Spur, and the team won just four of those games (including the one where he got injured after five minutes).
This seems like as good a time as any to remind you that going into March 31, 2021 the Spurs were 23-21 and still in position to outright make the playoffs, not just the play-in.
People were tweeting stuff like this:
Not to pick on Thomas… Look man I thought it was a nice signing too. LaMarcus Aldridge was gone and the only other 6’10 backup on the team was Luka Šamanić but “great piece” and “push towards the playoffs” has aged like a warm glass of milk. Yeah yeah yeah I know it’s easy to say that in August, because things were different in March, but maybe we were all just lying to ourselves, who knows?
So, look, all I’m really getting at here is what the hell was the point of any of this? The season ended and Dieng signed a one year, $4 million deal with the Atlanta Hawks. San Antonio signed Zach Collins to a three year, $22 million deal.
Did San Antonio see something in 16 games that made them think Dieng wasn’t worth $4 million? Not to split hairs or anything but Collins only played 11 games last year and then died (and that was after missing 63 games the season before).
I’m not trying to say Collins isn’t interesting. I’m not trying to say Dieng was the answer to, well, anything, really. I just wanna know what the hell was the point of any of this?
Did he even get a number? All I remember is a Dejounte Murray hype comment on Instagram and a bunch of you on Twitter acting like it was going to be a game changer next season lol c’mon man
I don’t remember how this part happened in Cinderella very well, did I totally mess it up?