Many of you all have seem to have brushes with Pacers players, or just NBA players in general, and have been kind enough to post about it here. I always like reading those posts. Well, I happened to have had an opportunity myself tonight, and I thought you all might be interested in hearing about it.
I was in Manhattan for work today, and once I got to LaGuardia, spent a good bit of time ignoring my surroundings as I was talking to my wife on the cell phone. By the time I got off the phone, I was sitting in the transit bus taking us all to our plane. I look directly to the right of me, and I see these two massive femurs, and then I realize that I'm sitting next to one tall *******.
I happen to catch him look at his boarding pass, and I saw "Mullens" written on it, and realized I was sitting next to BJ Mullens. Turns out he's trying out for us tomorrow. We get off the bus, and start making our way to the plane. I was fortunate to be seated up on row 1, but his original seat was in the back of the regional jet (which some of you might know is really small and cramped). I call over to the flight attendant, noticing that the two seats on the opposite side of the row are empty, and coerce her to offer the seats to Mullens. Turns out that he took her up on the offer. I couldn't help but introduce myself by asking him whether he played ball for Ohio State. That turned into a pretty long discussion for a large portion of the flight. The flight ended at around 10:30pm, which doesn't seem like a great setup for a good night's sleep before a tryout. Given the amount of stuff we talked about, it's hard to recount all of the conversation, but here are some of the highlights:
He was surprisingly unengaged in the tryout / practice process: he mentioned how he just wrapped up a tryout with the Knicks today, and was in Detroit prior to that, but he couldn't recall who he practiced with, nor did he know who he was set to practice with tomorrow. He did know however, that he had 7 more cities to visit in the next seven days... pretty grueling, eh? Additionally, he didn't know who played at the 5 for the Pacers. When I mentioned Hibbert, Nesterovic, and Foster, he was familiar with Hibbert specifically, but didn't realize he came to the Pacers. "I haven't heard much about what happened to him, has he been any good?" That struck me as odd. My guess is that they would take the time to study the teams beforehand.
He grew up a big fan of Ohio State basketball, but really didn't follow the NBA very much. "I pretty much committed to Ohio State in the eighth grade" was a funny quote. He didn't have a dream place to play basketball for, and said he's only really followed the Cavaliers since Lebron James was brought in. He has a relationship with Greg Oden, thinks he's a hilarious guy to be around. Mentioned that Oden is at Ohio State now trying to work towards his degree. Personally seemed less driven to finish his own degree, but said "what else are you going to do over the summer?" Talked a lot about how most ball players in the public eye are limited in what they do with their spare time... which wasn't what I would have expected him to say. Also struck me funny that getting a degree was his way potentially of passing free time...
Didn't strike me as the sharpest knife in the drawer, but someone you could hold a good conversation with. To me he seemed aloof and laid back, and not very driven, but a good guy to hang out with... a good ole midwestern boy.
Felt pretty resolute about deciding to enter into the draft: "definitely happy I'm going to play in the NBA". Seemed confident that he was going to be drafted first round. Mentioned a few times how tired he's getting of the traveling.
His favorite team he's tried out for so far was the Pistons, felt as if there might be a place in their plans for him.
When I asked him about players he'd like to emulate, he didn't have a concrete answer. He seemed to like McDyess a lot, and when I mentioned Kaman (only person that came to mind at the time), he agreed that he shared some similarities. He basically skated the question by saying there were lots of players that had features he'd like to emulate.
Has been to Indy many times before and likes the city.
I'm an above average height guy (6'4"), but he made me feel tiny. 7'0" up close is impressive. He's lean and not very bulky... not fantastic definition, but solid... I'd guess he's a good 240-50.
If he ended up emulating Kaman, and lived up to his potential of being a good post defender with above average offensive skills, he'd be worth a late first round pick for us. Not sure how he'd fit with Hibbert, but if we traded Foster around draft time, they might consider him a project @ the 5.
After meeting him tonight, that wouldn't disappoint me all that much, but my vision for a Hibbert complement would be someone more driven, angry, mean... a banger. His personality didn't seem to fit that mold. He's not an imposing presence.
Hope someone found this interesting...
I was in Manhattan for work today, and once I got to LaGuardia, spent a good bit of time ignoring my surroundings as I was talking to my wife on the cell phone. By the time I got off the phone, I was sitting in the transit bus taking us all to our plane. I look directly to the right of me, and I see these two massive femurs, and then I realize that I'm sitting next to one tall *******.
I happen to catch him look at his boarding pass, and I saw "Mullens" written on it, and realized I was sitting next to BJ Mullens. Turns out he's trying out for us tomorrow. We get off the bus, and start making our way to the plane. I was fortunate to be seated up on row 1, but his original seat was in the back of the regional jet (which some of you might know is really small and cramped). I call over to the flight attendant, noticing that the two seats on the opposite side of the row are empty, and coerce her to offer the seats to Mullens. Turns out that he took her up on the offer. I couldn't help but introduce myself by asking him whether he played ball for Ohio State. That turned into a pretty long discussion for a large portion of the flight. The flight ended at around 10:30pm, which doesn't seem like a great setup for a good night's sleep before a tryout. Given the amount of stuff we talked about, it's hard to recount all of the conversation, but here are some of the highlights:
He was surprisingly unengaged in the tryout / practice process: he mentioned how he just wrapped up a tryout with the Knicks today, and was in Detroit prior to that, but he couldn't recall who he practiced with, nor did he know who he was set to practice with tomorrow. He did know however, that he had 7 more cities to visit in the next seven days... pretty grueling, eh? Additionally, he didn't know who played at the 5 for the Pacers. When I mentioned Hibbert, Nesterovic, and Foster, he was familiar with Hibbert specifically, but didn't realize he came to the Pacers. "I haven't heard much about what happened to him, has he been any good?" That struck me as odd. My guess is that they would take the time to study the teams beforehand.
He grew up a big fan of Ohio State basketball, but really didn't follow the NBA very much. "I pretty much committed to Ohio State in the eighth grade" was a funny quote. He didn't have a dream place to play basketball for, and said he's only really followed the Cavaliers since Lebron James was brought in. He has a relationship with Greg Oden, thinks he's a hilarious guy to be around. Mentioned that Oden is at Ohio State now trying to work towards his degree. Personally seemed less driven to finish his own degree, but said "what else are you going to do over the summer?" Talked a lot about how most ball players in the public eye are limited in what they do with their spare time... which wasn't what I would have expected him to say. Also struck me funny that getting a degree was his way potentially of passing free time...
Didn't strike me as the sharpest knife in the drawer, but someone you could hold a good conversation with. To me he seemed aloof and laid back, and not very driven, but a good guy to hang out with... a good ole midwestern boy.
Felt pretty resolute about deciding to enter into the draft: "definitely happy I'm going to play in the NBA". Seemed confident that he was going to be drafted first round. Mentioned a few times how tired he's getting of the traveling.
His favorite team he's tried out for so far was the Pistons, felt as if there might be a place in their plans for him.
When I asked him about players he'd like to emulate, he didn't have a concrete answer. He seemed to like McDyess a lot, and when I mentioned Kaman (only person that came to mind at the time), he agreed that he shared some similarities. He basically skated the question by saying there were lots of players that had features he'd like to emulate.
Has been to Indy many times before and likes the city.
I'm an above average height guy (6'4"), but he made me feel tiny. 7'0" up close is impressive. He's lean and not very bulky... not fantastic definition, but solid... I'd guess he's a good 240-50.
If he ended up emulating Kaman, and lived up to his potential of being a good post defender with above average offensive skills, he'd be worth a late first round pick for us. Not sure how he'd fit with Hibbert, but if we traded Foster around draft time, they might consider him a project @ the 5.
After meeting him tonight, that wouldn't disappoint me all that much, but my vision for a Hibbert complement would be someone more driven, angry, mean... a banger. His personality didn't seem to fit that mold. He's not an imposing presence.
Hope someone found this interesting...
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