Ex-Wolves guard Ridnour traded for fourth time in less than a week
The joke among those who live a vagabond lifestyle, whereby they might need to leave town at a moment’s notice, is that they shouldn’t buy any green bananas.
Forget that. Luke Ridnour shouldn’t buy any bananas. He shouldn’t buy anything at all. He should live in an airport. Green bananas? His offseason is bananas.
On Tuesday, Ridnour was traded from Oklahoma City to Toronto. This in and of itself wouldn’t be so bad … but it marked the FOURTH TIME IN LESS THAN WEEK that Ridnour was traded.
The first three trades involved last Thursday’s draft night, when he first went from Orlando to Memphis … then Memphis to Charlotte … then Charlotte to Oklahoma City.
The worst part is that Ridnour has a non-guaranteed contract, which means he is very likely to get released or … wait for it … traded again.
You’ll recall that Ridnour spent three full, luxurious seasons with the Wolves between 2010 and 2013, playing a full 82 games as a combo guard in his final season here before being moved in the three-team trade that netted the Wolves Kevin Martin.
He’s been a part of eight trades in his career, a stunning number of which involved players who spent time with the Wolves (even in trades that didn’t have anything to do with Minnesota). Here is a list of players affiliated with the Wolves who have been parts of Luke Ridnour trades:
Ray Allen (orignally drafted by Wolves, traded for Stephon Marbury), Kevin Ollie (played for Wolves in 2008-09 season), Joe Smith (obviously), Mo Williams (a Wolf as recently as last season), Kevin Martin (current Wolf), Gary Neal (played here last year), Jeff Adrien (same) and Ramon Sessions (all 82 games for Wolves in 2009-10).
And below you will find a travel log I made of the distance Ridnour would have covered if, just for fun, he had actually gone to the home cities of all the teams involved in his trades over the past week.
Starting point: Orlando.
First flight: Orlando to Memphis. Distance: 700 miles
Second flight: Memphis to Charlotte. Distance: 520 miles
Third flight: Charlotte to Oklahoma City. Distance: 940 miles
Fourth flight: Oklahoma City to Toronto. Distance: 1,110 miles