For a brief moment Thursday night, Husky Nation and the rest of the country thought Shabazz Napier would be reunited with former teammate Kemba Walker as a member of the Charlotte Hornets.
But as soon as the world learned Miami had worked a deal to grab Charlotte’s pick and put Napier into a Heat uniform, a member of the UConn family was quick to welcome Napier to South Beach and his team.
Ray Allen, the NBA’s all-time leading three-point shooter who was drafted fifth overall in 1996, sent a tweet to Napier.
“Congratulations to my fellow husky. Bienvinido a Miami. #UCONN,” Allen wrote.
After the Heat lost the NBA championship series to San Antonio, there was speculation Allen might retire. More recently, there have been reports that the former Husky great is leaning toward playing at least one more year. He recently vacationed with LeBron James, who is at the center of all things related to the Heat after opting out of his contract and leaving his future destination in doubt.
Most people think James will return to the Heat. Team president Pat Riley may have increased those odds by drafting Napier with the No. 24 pick. James turned to Twitter to lead everyone know that Napier was his favorite player in the draft.
Allen, who was in Dallas in April to witness Napier lead the Huskies to their fourth national championship, has the reputation as one of the hardest working players in the pros. Allen is the definition of a gym rat and has always stayed in great shape. He certainly knows the formula for success.
In the UConn locker room with Richard Hamilton after the Huskies defeated Kentucky for the title, I asked Allen to assess Napier as an NBA player.
“You ask me about any player and I’ll say the same thing: You never know,” Allen said. “You get drafted to a team. How do you think a person is going to fare, based on the team you get drafted by? Can you manage your time wisely? Some guys come in and [struggle].
“UConn had Denham Brown, he came to Seattle in 2006] and he just had a laxadaisical way about him. I was eight or nine years in [the NBA] at the time. I said Denham, ‘You’ve got to be me, here in the gym.’
“When you get to the bigs, you can’t think you’ve made it. You’ve got to come in and say, ‘I’m not happy where I am. I want to do it.’ That was the great thing about [Hamilton]. He wanted to take it to the next level. He wanted to be great.”
Anyone who has followed UConn knows Napier’s work ethic is much closer to that of Allen and Hamilton than it is to Brown’s.
GIFFEY GETS INVITE
Considering the bizarre nature of the NBA’s second round, there was really no serious expectation for UConn’s Niels Giffey to be drafted – and he wasn’t.
But Friday, it was widely reported that the Giffey will play for the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA Summer League.
UConn coach Kevin Ollie said Wednesday that if Giffey didn’t get an opportunity to play professionally in the U.S., he would be “pretty much set over in Europe.”
“Niels was relaxed more than anyone else [before the draft],” Ollie said. “He’s all set. That’s why I think his jump shot was better this year. He was like, ‘I already got my contract, I’m good.’ He’s not signed with anybody, he’s just got stuff on the table.”
Now that he has a chance, don’t count Giffey out.
In other UConn news, Darren Rovell of ESPN reported Friday that Napier has signed an exclusive autograph deal with Steiner Sports, one of the best sports memorabilia companies in the world.
HISTORY AT KANSAS
Kansas coach Bill Self was pretty pleased with the draft results. Jayhawks were picked with the No. 1 and No. 3 selections, the best in history in one of the schools best known for producing NBA talent. Freshman wing Andrew Wiggins lived up to his hype from a year ago and went to Cleveland at No. 1. Freshman center Joel Embiid, once considered the No. 1 pick, dropped but only to No. 3 when he was taken by Philadelphia despite the stress fracture in his foot. Embiid had surgery last week and could be back in four to six months, but some predict he will miss all next season.
“Obviously it means a lot for our program to have two guys to be so well thought of and drafted so high,” Self, KU’s 12th-year coach, said in a national phone teleconference from New York.
“We’ve had others taken high in the draft without question, never two this high. Coming in the same year with two kids that are as good a kids as they are players, I think it bodes well for our program and certainly gives a lot of Kansas fans a lot to brag about.”
Wiggins and Embiid fared even better than Paul Pierce and Raef LaFrentz in 1998. LaFrentz was the No. 3 pick to Denver and Pierce was the choice of Boston at No. 10.
The only other Jayhawk to be drafted first overall was Danny Manning in 1988. Manning is now head coach at Wake Forest.
KU’s top pick in the Self era was Thomas Robinson at No. 5 in the 2012 draft.
“I’d have been just as proud of him if he went two. I’m not more proud of Andrew than I was Ben or Thomas the year before, or the twins,” Self said. Ben McLemore went No. 7 a year ago. Markieff and Marcus Morris went 13 and 14 in 2011.
“I think there’s something about that label being No. 1 [that] I think will certainly bode well for our program. As many great players as Kansas has had, it’s been 26 years since we’ve had the No. 1 pick. We don’t want to wait another 26 years, but it’s certainly very exciting.”
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