If the bizarre is looking for a landing spot in the NBA, it is hard to miss Andrew Bynum, all 7ft and 125 kilos of him.
Bynum is the young (25), gifted, big man the Philadelphia 76ers gambled on over the summer, acquiring him from the Lakers in the four-team trade last June that landed Dwight Howard in Los Angeles.
The gamble was not on his undisputed talent; in the 2011/12 season he averaged 18.7 points and 11.8 rebounds per game. It was on his penchant for trouble. Of all sorts.
He returned to his hometown with baggage. He has a history of bad knees, and perhaps not rehabilitating them in the best manner. One season when he was out with an injured knee, which is most seasons, a photo of him was taken while he had a woman model perched on his shoulders.
There were also speeding tickets in one of his 13 cars, twice getting caught parking in a spot reserved for the handicapped, a vicious elbow to the ribs of the diminutive guard JJ Barea in the 2011 play-offs that earned him a flagrant foul. Ejected, he ripped off his jersey and stormed from the court.
Trouble seems to find its way.
Bynum has yet to play a game this season for the 76ers because this time his "good" knee has flared up.
Then, when it was healing, he aggravated it while … bowling. Really. Now the Sixers say he is out indefinitely.
He is young, immature, a tad goofy, injury-prone and the focal point of what is beginning to look like a really bad 76ers trade.
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