Sometime soon, Tyler Hansbrough will end one of college basketball’s great careers and move on to a very good pro one.
Won’t he?
“He’s a Carolina guy,” New Jersey’s Vince Carter said. “Think about it.”
The Tar Heels are a tight basketball fraternity – Larry Brown was out of work until fellow Carolina guy Michael Jordan gave him a job in Charlotte – so Carter’s opinion isn’t surprising. Nor is the agreement he would find among other of the program’s alums.
“I think Tyler’s going to be a very good NBA player. He’s worked so hard on his game these last four years and he’s got one more chance to win a national championship,” said Atlanta’s Marvin Williams, who played on North Carolina’s last title team in 2005. “He’ll go down as one of the best college players to ever play and he’s ready to take that next step to the NBA and I feel like he’ll have a great career in the NBA.”
Maybe he shouldn’t be so sure.
s mock draft. Neither even considered him the top North Carolina prospect, listing point guard Ty Lawson higher.
Hansbrough’s credentials say he’s better than that. The 2008 Associated Press player of the year had the greatest individual career in school history, becoming the only player ever to be a four-time, first-team All-ACC selection, and he went into the conference tournament poised to become the league’s career scoring leader.
But there are plenty of questions: Is he a good enough rebounder? Does he have a consistent enough jumper? Can he play as tenaciously as he does in college in a season that’s twice as long?
“Whether he’s going to go the heights of a Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, and guys like that, (James) Worthy, I don’t know about that, but I think he’ll be a good pro,” said Knicks president Donnie Walsh, who played with Brown at Chapel Hill in the early 1960s. “I think he plays so hard that his chances of succeeding are good.”
Hansbrough may trigger some comparisons to a former Carolina rival, Christian Laettner, who had a storied career at Duke but only a mediocre pro one. Brown ignores the negatives and sees many positives that Hansbrough offers.
“He’s another prime example. I hear what he can’t do,” Brown said. “Any guy that competes on every possession and plays as hard as he does is going to be successful.”
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oth came to the same conclusion when they arrived in Charlotte: The Bobcats were a young team without much knowledge of winning.
They’re not so young anymore – and maybe they’re done being losers, too.
Brown is well known for his preference for veteran players over youngsters, a luxury he didn’t have early in the season. But the Bobcats got older when they acquired Diaw and Raja Bell, two players who had played on winning teams, in a trade with Phoenix on Dec. 10.
“At first, we didn’t have older guys other than Nazr (Mohammed), and Nazr’s been great,” Brown said. “But we got Raja and then we got Juwan Howard, and having older veteran guys that are character guys have helped the young kids, especially dealing with me.”
Better yet, they’ve helped in the win column. Charlotte recently ran off a franchise-record six straight wins to surge into the hunt for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.
The biggest key to the turnaround has likely been Diaw, who was averaging better than 15 points since the trade, nearly double his average with the Suns. But he said he and Bell have been contributors because they don’t look for their stats, even though one of Charlotte’s biggest weaknesses was scoring.
, they look for the wrong thing. They’re like, ‘OK, we need some points,’ so they look for a big scorer.”
At first, none of them predicted much. Bell said it took a couple of weeks of watching the Bobcats be competitive in every game before he believed they could find the success they’ve enjoyed lately. Brown joked that when former North Carolina coach Dean Smith watched the Bobcats play, “He didn’t even think we’d win the ACC.”
But Brown has slowly found a roster he’s comfortable with, and the Bobcats went into the weekend with a 16-11 mark when Diaw and Bell are in the starting lineup with Gerald Wallace, Emeka Okafor and Raymond Felton.
“We’ve gotten some really quality players in here and our depth’s better,” Brown said. “All the changes we’ve made, even though some quality guys have left, the changes we’ve made have made us competitive where we can beat anybody on any given night.”
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BASKETBALL’S BEST: The Boston Celtics weren’t just the NBA’s best in 2008. They also were the best organization in sports, according to one set of rankings.
Bizjournals gave two of its top three spots to NBA clubs, rating the Los Angeles Lakers third.
rmula analyzing attendance, tickets sold and franchise value.
The Celtics won their 17th NBA title in 2008, sold every seat to all their home games, and saw their franchise value increase 14 percent, based on Forbes magazine’s estimate.
The Detroit Pistons (sixth) gave the NBA three of the top six teams in the rankings, which reviewed all 122 teams in the four major pro sports. The NFL’s Detroit Lions, who were winless last season, finished last.
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CURRY WORRIED?: The New York Knicks have around 11 million reasons for wanting to trade Eddy Curry. And if they can find a deal, Curry would understand if they take it.
“I’ve been here for a long time, so I want to see us get better,” Curry said. “And if it takes my contract to do it, then I would hate to leave, but if it results in the Knicks getting better, I’m for that.”
Provided he doesn’t opt out of his contract, Curry is scheduled to make $11.3 million in the 2010-11 season. If the Knicks could trade him before then, it might give them a chance to sign two top players in the summer of 2010, when LeBron James could lead a stellar free agent class.
For that reason, there’s been speculation the Knicks have and will continue to shop their former starting center. Yet Curry said he’s been given no indication that he’s not part of the team’s future.
in where they are right now,” he said. “Anything can happen, but I feel fairly comfortable in the fact that I’m going to be here, but if something changes, then there’s nothing I can do about it. Just roll with the punches. But I definitely want to be here and I’m not getting the feeling from anybody around here that they don’t want me here.”
Even without the salary cap issues, Curry seems a poor fit for the uptempo style the Knicks now play under Mike D’Antoni. D’Antoni was disappointed in Curry’s conditioning before the season started and criticized the center, saying he wouldn’t be a part of the rotation until he played his way into shape.
That’s never happened. Curry has been bothered by knee soreness and has been limited to less than 3 minutes of playing time this season. And even if they wanted him on the court so they could showcase him for a trade, D’Antoni won’t start using Curry as long as the Knicks are still in the playoff race.
In the meantime, Curry believes he’ll give his coach reason to keep him around.
“I plan on showing him through practice and through hard work I can help us win,” Curry said.
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