I’ve been called a lot of things by friends and readers, but homer has never been one of them.
Until I drafted my fantasy NBA team.
One of my good friends, who is in the league with me this year, made a point of telling me multiple times that the only reason I drafted Al Horford (Atlanta Hawks) and Joakim Noah (Chicago Bulls) was because I am emotionally attached to them from their time in Gainesville.
I added Corey Brewer (Minnesota Timberwolves) off waivers a couple days later, and that certainly didn’t help my adamant denial of his accusations.
My friend and I were in the front row of the O’Dome’s student section for their second championship run, and we both made the trip to Atlanta to watch the ‘04s beat Ohio State in the national championship game.
We saw the way UF coach Billy Donovan had his guys playing, and there was no doubt they would go on to become solid professional players, taking everything they learned at Florida with them.
What was weird to me is that my friend was so quick to assume Noah and Brewer — and Horford to a lesser degree — were always going to be the same players they were in their first two years in the NBA.
Sports is definitely a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business, but we can’t even give guys until the end of their rookie contract to develop as players?
Noah is leading the league in rebounding (11.9 per game), averaging 11.5 points per game and adding 1.8 blocks per contest. Horford is also averaging a double-double and 1.8 blocks per game, and Brewer has emerged as the same defensive presence he was as a Gator, averaging 2.1 steals per contest while scoring in double figures for a struggling team.
“The thing that I’m really most proud about with our guys, as I look at them, is they’re not just NBA players. They didn’t just make it. They’re making significant contributions to their teams,” Donovan said. “They really are doing very, very well there. They’re guys that are playing and are major parts of their teams.”
All three guys were top-10 picks in the draft, though Horford was really the only one to play substantial minutes in his first two seasons.
But the thing that made those guys great in college wasn’t that they were more talented or physically gifted than everyone else, it was that they cared about playing together as a team and outworking their competition. And that translates over time.
“You never know what the future is going to hold, and sometimes when you look at a guy’s career early, it’s really hard to say and put him in a box and say, ‘This is the way his career is going to be,’” Donovan said. “At least with those guys that I’ve coached. Because they’re too intelligent, they have too much character and they work too hard.”
Donovan should be commended for the way he prepares his guys to succeed at the next level.
Former Gators David Lee (New York Knicks), Udonis Haslem (Miami Heat), Jason Williams (Orlando Magic), Matt Bonner (San Antonio Spurs) and Marreese Speights (Philadelphia 76ers) are all making significant contributions to their NBA squads, which says a lot about what a player learns while in college under Donovan.
“I think if you’re not going to work hard here, you’re not going to make it,” UF senior Dan Werner said. “I think that’s what coach Donovan brings. That’s what he wants out of his guys, and those guys are great examples.”
So thank you, coach Donovan.
The Gator Nation appreciates being able to flip on the TV and watch its college hoops heroes do some serious work in the NBA.
And so does Noah’s African Vikings (my first-place fantasy team).
