Lance Stephenson on the verge of a breakout season
Lance Stephenson can remember well the moment he felt on top of the basketball world.
He was 12 years old, ranked the No. 1 spatagonia south america travelixth grade player in the country by Hoop Scoop, a national basketball player ranking service. Hoop Scoop editor Clark Francis said Stephenson was the best middle schooler he had ever seen.
I got 1, I was like, I nice, Stephenson said. always played two levels up. When I played with my age group it was like walking in the park. Going up for a layup was easy.
that day on, every time I played with my age group I was like, they too little for me. That when I knew I could be good. As a Coney Island teenager given the nickname Ready, he became New York City best high school basketball player. After a quick stop in college, he has toiled in relative obscurity in the Midwest up until last season with the Indiana Pacers.
Now, Stephenson, the Charlotte Hornets big free agent signing this offseason, is poised for a breakout with his new team. But his talent has always been belied by his outbursts.
Reserved away from the court, Stephenson displays a passion on the floor that results in triple doubles and ankle breaking moves but also technical fouls and head shaking antics.
More than basketball, he also wants to make movies and music. He just released a music video for his new rap song, a remake of the popular rap song, N a. He has ambitions of doing more songs.
But his love of basketball outweighs all, he says. Stephenson became one of the most improved players in basketball last season, and now he eyes an even bigger role with the Hornets, one of the hottest teams in the Eastern Conference.
mean I ain going to say I on top, but I feel like I close, said Stephenson, who will join teammates in Asheville this week for the start of training camp. I just keep workpatagonia capilene 4 full zip reviewing hard I canpatagonia argentina map new jersey1 be past the top. I want to be one of the best players to patagonia argentina map new jersey2play the game. It not just being nice and a good player. I want to be the best. Got Game Stephon Marbury was Stephenson idol growing up.
Marbury hailed from Coney Island, went to Lincoln High School and was named Mr. Basketball in the state of New York as a senior in 1995. After one season at Georgia Tech, Marbury was drafted fourth overall in the NBA draft.
up, Stephon was king in my neighborhood, Stephenson said. had all his outfits. Just to see how hard he worked and how competitive he was and how many All Star Games he made it to, how he played on thepatagonia alpine guide pants uk floor, it made me want to play like him or even better. In 1998, Spike Lee Got Game sports drama was released, and to this day it Stephenson favorite movie. He can count the number of times he seen it.
In the movie, NBA star Ray Allen plays Jesus Shuttlesworth, the nation top ranked basketball player at Lincoln High School who recruited by every major college basketball program in the country. It was a path Stephenson determined would be his, too.
was the same way, said Stephenson, who would go on to play at Lincoln. was like, damn that me. I was looking at myselpatagonia better sweater pale khaki amazonf on TV. That how I felt. Stephenson tales fpatagonia chile fly fishing lodges for salerom his teenage years have become Brooklyn hardcourt legend. Mayo, then the top rated high school senior, during a basketball camp. Mayo said after the game it was the first time he had felt like was coming after me. As a freshman in high school, Stephenson played with adults in the famed Rucker Park league, which earned him the nickname Ready by the courtside announcer. The next year he was the youngest of eight high school prospects featured in a documentary for That No. 1 Spot. Stephensopatagonia az bike shopn won an unprecedented four city titles while at Lincoln, and he was voted Mr. Basketball in New York his senior year after setting the state all time career scoring record. He went to the 2009 McDonald All America Game and surpassed what Marbury and current Oklahoma City guard Sebastian Telfair did while at Lincoln.
But trouble followed Stephenson. In 2008 he was suspended for a week from school for fighting a teammate. Later that year he was arrested for misdemeanor sexual assault for groping a female at school, and in 2009 he eventually pled to misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
His involvement with his own web based reality show Ready drew eligibility concerns. There were also questions when he and his family went to Under Armour headquarters, an apparel company founded by Maryland alumnus and booster Kevin Plank. Scholarships from top programs came and went for various reasons. Eventually, Stephenson signed to play for the University of Cincinnati, a program that had not gone to the NCAA tournament in four years.
Named the Big East Conference Rookie of the Year after averaging 12.3 points per game, Stephenson skipped his final three years of eligibility and declared for the 2010 NBA draftpatagonia argentina map new jersey.
His maturity still lagged far behind his basketball talents, though.
of who he was, he had been sheltered, Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said. from a very close knit family, and they tried to protect him, and rightfully so because of the hype he received at a young age. He hadn really been outside of his web, so to speak, where he had to meet new people and talk to new people. We spent a lot of time, just him growing up and meeting new people, trusting new people, talking to new people.
been through a lot for a young guy, so he got a lot of safeguards up. He doesn trust a lot of people, which is a good thing nowadays as a pro athlete and you meeting people. He definitely layered when it comes to that. Because he was such a big name at such a young age and some of the things that have gone on and the accusations he had to deal with. Twenty four NBA teams passed on Stephenson, including his hometown Knicks at Nos. 38 and 39, before the Indiana Pacers drafted Stephenson in the second round with the 40th overall selection.
Stephenson had never experienced anything like his rookie NBA season.
In the 2010 2011 season, Stephenson didn see action until late February in the Pacers 58th game. After 12 games and 37 points, Stephenson was benched for what wapatagonia everlong review restaurants described in reports as reasons.
Clark Kellogg, a CBS Sports basketball analyst and the Pacers vice president of player relations from 2010 until this summer, spatagonia argentina map new jersey3aid Stephenson was close to alienating his teammates because of his actions.
Kellogg said Stephenson didn handle constructive criticism well from coaches and teammates, he was late for treatments, he didn weight train or stretch the proper way, he talked during film sessions and he joked at inappropriate times.
didn take (getting benched) extremely well, but he knew that was what he had to do, Kellogg said. I think basketball is extremely important to him, and therefore he had a chance, despite some of the friction he created early on, there was always a hope early on that at some point he would [understand] what he needed to change.
knows he has a giftedness for the game, and he realized after the first seven or eight months with us he was sabotaging it himself if he didn make the changes. And he started to do that immediately after his rookie season.
In Stephenson exit meeting with thpatagonia guide jacket 2 jackete Pacers after his rookie season, he admitted he had approached things the wrong way that year and made it clear he wanted to change.
you heard him say that, you knew this kid was going to have a chance, Kellogg said. when he got the opportunity, he was able to show that his play warrants being a high level NBA player if he stays the course. Stephenson played just half the season in his second year, but where hepatagonia argentina map new jersey0 couldn get on the floor in Indiana, he could in Cincinnati.
Stephenson would drive nearly two hours back to his college campus to practice with the Bearcats once every other week.
had to sub him out, and he wouldn come out, Cronin said. would say, he not on our team, he won come out. But that him, though. He would play all night if he could. One thing the Pacers loved about him was, they could always find him. He was in the gym. Stephenson worked on his jump shot and pick and roll offense. In his third season he started patagonia mens jacket discountin 72 games and averaged 8.8 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.
