Alex Acker didn't play much for the Pistons as a rookie, but he seemed to make serious strides playing in Greece last season. For a while, I figured it was a near certainty that he would return to Detroit this coming season, but when his Greek team declined his option the Pistons didn't appear to show any interest. Now, we might now why.
Acker signed with Barcelona a couple of weeks ago, but that contract was voided today. From Euroleague.net:
AXA FC Barcelona announced on Wednesday that it has voided the contract of Alex Acker on medical grounds. In a statement put out by the club, Barca said that the player failed the medical exam which was necessary for the signed contract to go into effect. No further details were given. The former Olympiacos swingman had originally signed with Barcelona two weeks ago.
There's more information in this Hebrew article (the English-speaking world is a bit behind picking up the details, it seems), and thanks to DBB reader Ohad (who alerted me to the news in the first place), we have a translation:
"After losing star guard Juan Carlos Navaro ((Navaro will play for the Memphis Grizzlies this year.)) Barsa (short for barcelona) faces yet another problem as swingman Alex Acker arrived to practice yesterday only to fail a routine examination by team doctors ... It seems he has been hiding a knee injury which will prevent him from playing anytime soon." Then it goes on to describe how he had behavior problems at his former team...
So that's that. Like Ohad, I suspect the Pistons may have known about the injury, which might have been why Acker wasn't invited to play on the Las Vegas Summer League team. (Either that, or he was deemed expendable after the Pistons drafted two guards in the first round.) In any case, this should offer a bit of closure for anyone still tracking Acker's career from afar.