duncan228
06-05-2009, 11:52 PM
Magic's Lewis knows long odds (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Magics_Lewis_knows_long_odds.html)
By Jonathan Feigen - Houston Chronicle
LOS ANGELES — The bitterness was gone from Rashard Lewis’ voice, long-since surrendered to success. The words, however, came easily and often.
So much has happened since that night in New York when he slipped into the second round — even his hometown Houston Rockets passed on him three times — but he still returns there. No longer haunted by it, he uses it, summoning its lessons to drive him to work and believe and persevere.
He still says the words. He still brings up “the green room,” returning him to the draft night when he cried as every team, including his hometown Houston Rockets three times, let him slip into the second round and he began building a determination to succeed beyond all doubts. Playing in the NBA Finals in a town filled with green rooms, he said the words Wednesday, as the Orlando Magic began another series as the overlooked ‘other’ team, and then again Friday as they tried to rebound from the 25-point Game 1 loss.
“I’ve been in the league for 11 years, and I’ve always been criticized ever since getting drafted in the second round being in that green room,” Lewis said. “I think if anything, it just keeps the fire burning, makes me go out there and prove to a lot of people that I do belong in the NBA, and so far to me I’ve done a good job coming from a non-guaranteed contract to the position I’m in today. I’ve done something right.”
He did enough to earn a $117 million contract from the Magic, but even that brought criticism in his first preseason there. With a playing style more like a complimentary than star player, he struggled early with expectations that came with it.
“Coming to Orlando from Seattle, they didn’t know what type of player they was getting, and I think I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform at my best, and it was only preseason,” Lewis said. “I wanted to play hard and show the city what type of player they was getting.”
Instead of questioning and pressuring himself, he went back to proving himself. He has averaged 17.9 points on 44 percent shooting, then dramatically increased his production in both postseasons.
His numbers, however, do not define his job. By moving to power forward, Lewis allowed Magic coach Stan Van Gundy to also get Hedo Turkoglu on the court, creating matchup problems that became especially obvious as the Magic eliminated the Cavaliers. That, however, meant that he did not have the sort of defined role that most max-contract players assume while still carrying the expectations.
“It’s not so much that we go to him more,” Van Gundy said. “In a lot of ways we go to him less. There’s nights he’s got a good post-up matchup and we put him down there, other nights he’s got to get out on the perimeter, other nights where he has to play a lot of pick-and-rolls. I think that has made it difficult on him.
“He went through the questions at the beginning of the playoffs, whether he was worth his contract. I think his play in the playoffs, especially in very big moments, has sort of taken care of that question.”
Lewis stoked and carried the fire from those questions through his career, from high school to the draft-night green room, from Seattle to Orlando. And then it was gone.
When he was at the All-Star Game in Phoenix this season, his one-year old daughter Gianna battled vomiting, diarrhea and headaches. She had an extreme fever for 29 consecutive days. Doctors were unable to determine the cause, and Lewis was filled with frustration and fear.“She started breaking out in rashes, had ligament problems, her hips were hurting,” Lewis said. “The doctors didn’t know what was going on and we were about to take her to Houston to (Texas Children’s) Hospital there. They started doing blood work and bone scans and they found the virus and gave us the proper medicine.
“Most definitely during the time she was sick, it was a difficult time for me,” Lewis said. “During the time I didn’t really care about the game of basketball, I didn’t care if we won games, if we lost games. My main concern was my little girl because she was in and out of the hospital a lot. It was tough, but now that she’s healthy, I’m able to focus on the game a lot better.”
His daughter’s condition was diagnosed and treated days before he was to bring her to Houston’s Texas Children’s Hospital. He still returns to his hometown every off season, and has not given up on the idea lost that night in the green room of playing in Houston one day.
Lewis, who will turn 29 in August, has five more years left on his contract. As he did all those years ago when he had an idea about how he wanted to enter the league, he has a plan for the way to go out.
“After this contract, I’ll still be able to play, not as a main, go-to guy, but to help a team win championships, like a Robert Horry, one of those veteran guys who goes to a team and helps them advance to that next level,” Lewis said. “Every chance I get, I go home. My mom lives there. My brothers and sisters live there. That’s where I’m going retire. I’d still like to play there. Maybe I will.”
Even then, he will not forget his first evening in the NBA, and doesn’t want to. But it’s not lingering anger, but pride in how far he has come and a reminder of how he got there.
“I use it as motivation,” Lewis said. “It keeps me going. I think a lot of people forgot where I came from, how I got in the NBA. It wasn’t easy. I was one of those guys who was counted out and worked my way up to being one of the best players in the NBA.”
By Jonathan Feigen - Houston Chronicle
LOS ANGELES — The bitterness was gone from Rashard Lewis’ voice, long-since surrendered to success. The words, however, came easily and often.
So much has happened since that night in New York when he slipped into the second round — even his hometown Houston Rockets passed on him three times — but he still returns there. No longer haunted by it, he uses it, summoning its lessons to drive him to work and believe and persevere.
He still says the words. He still brings up “the green room,” returning him to the draft night when he cried as every team, including his hometown Houston Rockets three times, let him slip into the second round and he began building a determination to succeed beyond all doubts. Playing in the NBA Finals in a town filled with green rooms, he said the words Wednesday, as the Orlando Magic began another series as the overlooked ‘other’ team, and then again Friday as they tried to rebound from the 25-point Game 1 loss.
“I’ve been in the league for 11 years, and I’ve always been criticized ever since getting drafted in the second round being in that green room,” Lewis said. “I think if anything, it just keeps the fire burning, makes me go out there and prove to a lot of people that I do belong in the NBA, and so far to me I’ve done a good job coming from a non-guaranteed contract to the position I’m in today. I’ve done something right.”
He did enough to earn a $117 million contract from the Magic, but even that brought criticism in his first preseason there. With a playing style more like a complimentary than star player, he struggled early with expectations that came with it.
“Coming to Orlando from Seattle, they didn’t know what type of player they was getting, and I think I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform at my best, and it was only preseason,” Lewis said. “I wanted to play hard and show the city what type of player they was getting.”
Instead of questioning and pressuring himself, he went back to proving himself. He has averaged 17.9 points on 44 percent shooting, then dramatically increased his production in both postseasons.
His numbers, however, do not define his job. By moving to power forward, Lewis allowed Magic coach Stan Van Gundy to also get Hedo Turkoglu on the court, creating matchup problems that became especially obvious as the Magic eliminated the Cavaliers. That, however, meant that he did not have the sort of defined role that most max-contract players assume while still carrying the expectations.
“It’s not so much that we go to him more,” Van Gundy said. “In a lot of ways we go to him less. There’s nights he’s got a good post-up matchup and we put him down there, other nights he’s got to get out on the perimeter, other nights where he has to play a lot of pick-and-rolls. I think that has made it difficult on him.
“He went through the questions at the beginning of the playoffs, whether he was worth his contract. I think his play in the playoffs, especially in very big moments, has sort of taken care of that question.”
Lewis stoked and carried the fire from those questions through his career, from high school to the draft-night green room, from Seattle to Orlando. And then it was gone.
When he was at the All-Star Game in Phoenix this season, his one-year old daughter Gianna battled vomiting, diarrhea and headaches. She had an extreme fever for 29 consecutive days. Doctors were unable to determine the cause, and Lewis was filled with frustration and fear.“She started breaking out in rashes, had ligament problems, her hips were hurting,” Lewis said. “The doctors didn’t know what was going on and we were about to take her to Houston to (Texas Children’s) Hospital there. They started doing blood work and bone scans and they found the virus and gave us the proper medicine.
“Most definitely during the time she was sick, it was a difficult time for me,” Lewis said. “During the time I didn’t really care about the game of basketball, I didn’t care if we won games, if we lost games. My main concern was my little girl because she was in and out of the hospital a lot. It was tough, but now that she’s healthy, I’m able to focus on the game a lot better.”
His daughter’s condition was diagnosed and treated days before he was to bring her to Houston’s Texas Children’s Hospital. He still returns to his hometown every off season, and has not given up on the idea lost that night in the green room of playing in Houston one day.
Lewis, who will turn 29 in August, has five more years left on his contract. As he did all those years ago when he had an idea about how he wanted to enter the league, he has a plan for the way to go out.
“After this contract, I’ll still be able to play, not as a main, go-to guy, but to help a team win championships, like a Robert Horry, one of those veteran guys who goes to a team and helps them advance to that next level,” Lewis said. “Every chance I get, I go home. My mom lives there. My brothers and sisters live there. That’s where I’m going retire. I’d still like to play there. Maybe I will.”
Even then, he will not forget his first evening in the NBA, and doesn’t want to. But it’s not lingering anger, but pride in how far he has come and a reminder of how he got there.
“I use it as motivation,” Lewis said. “It keeps me going. I think a lot of people forgot where I came from, how I got in the NBA. It wasn’t easy. I was one of those guys who was counted out and worked my way up to being one of the best players in the NBA.”