So I'm sick to death of the basketball universe right now.

I don't even need to go into the Ben Gordon saga. It's dead in the water and feels like it has been for the past several weeks. Hell, even the Blogabull message boards have dried up in terms of wacky trade ideas. You can practically hear the tumbleweeds passing by.

The men's Olympic team also isn't getting me going too much. Part of the reason is because I'm living in Hanoi, Vietnam and they keep cutting off the broadcasts to report on some dam building project "for make proud glorious nation of Vietnam" or whatever. And this team looked like crap against China: I'm sorry, if you can't defend the three or make an open J, Spain or Russia will cut the U.S. apart.

But watching the international competition and seeing some of the U.S. born players scraping by with international teams got me thinking about some of our own, beloved but not forgotten scrubs. Particularly, Rusty LaRue.

Remember him? He got the most face time during the lockout-shortened season but was on the roster during our last championship year. I guess I remember him fondly cause he only got tick when the Bulls were blowing someone out (and thus, a nice Pavlovian reaction when I hear the name "Rusty LaRue").

Well I put his name into Google and he seems to be doing well for himself. He's running a basketball academy in his home state of North Carolina and he's the AD and basketball coach at a private school.

Scanning his bio, I realized that Rusty is quite a baller. Check out this line from his QB days at Wake Forest:

While at Wake he won an Independence Bowl in football, 2 ACC championships in basketball, as well as many individual honors. In his senior year of football, Rusty broke 8 NCAA records for passing. Some of his records are: Most completions in a game(55), most attempts in a game(72), and most yardage in a three game span(1524). He also has two of the top eight passing yardage games in ACC history. In basketball his teams went to the NCAA all four years, reaching the "Elite 8" his senior season. Rusty finished his career at Wake Forest as the all-time 3-point percentage leader and 2nd overall in 3-point goals(151) in school history.

72 attempts! Friggin ridiculous.

He played all around the world and received a couple 10-day contracts here and there in the L. Only playing two full seasons, once each for the Bulls and Jazz.

But Rusty's career got me thinking about something: Sure, when we chuck it up at the YMCA or on some playground court, we all like put ourselves in the Kobe/LeBron scenarios. But the life of an NBA scrub could be pretty good as well.

I mean, this guy graduates Wake Forest with a 3.5 GPA (so no dumb cookie), travels the globe playing ball, gets to play in the top league among some superstars (MJ, Pippen, James "Buddha" Edwards), retires with his knees and back intact, has enough money to ensure financial security and the skills to continue to earn a living while immersed in the game(s) he loves.

Really, thinking about it, being a "C" or "D" level player in the NBA isn't that bad a deal. I like the idea of being able to travel independently with my family during the off-season and once my career is over. Maybe do a few local commercial spots ("I bought my car from Bob Roooorhman!") and have some dude buy you a drink every now and then.

So, here's my question: if you could be a scrub player (we're talking appears in 20 games over the course of a season, let's say two years max with the team), factoring in weather, city, chance to win a championship, who you get to hang out with on the team, chance to make coaching connections, etc - what team you want to play with?

My answer: the Los Angeles Clippers. Nice climate, not a passionate fan base (so no booing when you don't make the playoffs this year), Baron Davis seems like a nice guy, L.A. is a weird town, but close to hiking opportunities and other amenities and there's a distant, distant chance that the Beard invites you to a party where Jessica Alba will be in attendance.

Thoughts?