Manu20
07-23-2006, 12:52 AM
Hard-working Bowen living American dream
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA072306.1C.BKNteamusa.bowen.151eefb.html
Web Posted: 07/23/2006 12:00 AM CDT
Mike Monroe
Express-News Staff Writer
LAS VEGAS — Some nine months after the Dream Team's domination of the 1992 Olympic basketball tournament in Barcelona, Spain, a skinny, 6-foot-7 forward from Cal State Fullerton sat in his parents' home in Los Angeles and watched the NBA draft, hoping to hear his name called before the final round was completed.
When no call came, Bruce Bowen made a decision: He would not abandon his dream to play at the highest level, even if it meant leaving the United States before coming back to play in the NBA.
Today, Bowen, the defensive standout who has been an integral part of two Spurs championships, is on the brink of becoming a member of an elite team that will represent the United States as it tries to regain a hold on the top spot in the international basketball world.
"I am an American dream," said Bowen, reflecting on his long journey.
Indeed, the fact Bowen is even in the Team USA camp is the sort of rags-to-riches success story that has made America a land of opportunity. Of the 24 players selected to form the core group from which the teams for the 2006 FIBA World Championships and the 2008 Olympics will be selected, only Bowen and Kings center Brad Miller were undrafted. Seventeen players in the Team USA cadre were drafted in the top 10, including three who went No. 1 overall.
Bowen's road to the Team USA training camp, which concludes here Tuesday, included stops with Eventux and Beausancon of the French pro league; the Fort Wayne Fury and Rockford Lightning of the Continental Basketball Association; and the Heat, Celtics, 76ers and another stint with the Heat, all before joining the Spurs for the past five seasons.
Thirteen years ago, the thought he might someday represent the U.S. in international competition was too unlikely a prospect even to qualify as a dream.
"I'm thinking about those days after the draft right now," Bowen said after a session at Cox Pavilion on the UNLV campus, where Team USA has been training since midweek. "I remember knowing how far behind I was in fundamentals, just things like being able to catch and shoot. There were so many things I hadn't been taught.
"It was fortunate for me that the first place I went in the NBA was Miami, because I learned a great deal of basketball from Pat Riley and I learned how to work hard. I learned to go at game speed, even in preparation, because that's what you have to go at, at all times, to be successful in this game."
Bowen's first stop with Riley and the Heat was brief. Signed with just a month remaining in the 1996-97 season, he played one game. He played two seasons in Boston and half a season in Philadelphia before Riley brought him back for the final half of the 1999-2000 season. By then he had made himself a tenacious defender.
Still, Bowen worked to develop his game beyond being a defensive stopper. He sees his invitation to be part of Team USA as vindication for his years of hard work.
"I was so raw," he recalled of his early days. "The defensive stuff, where I can stay in front of somebody, that's not something that's hard to teach. But to be able to take that and run with it and add certain things to your game, when everybody is saying what you can and can't do, I feel I am an American dream.
"There are those who come over here and they are thankful for an opportunity and you hear them say, 'This is the American dream.' Well, I can come here to this training camp after I had to leave my country to play the game of basketball, and now I am successful."
Ultimate role player
Tim Duncan's disappointment has become Bruce Bowen's opportunity.
It was the failure of the 2004 Olympic team to win the gold medal — an outcome so frustrating that Duncan's summation of his experience was "FIBA sucks" — that prompted USA Basketball to re-examine its approach.
One conclusion: The team needed a few role players, as well as superstars. If such players happened to combine defensive excellence and 3-point shooting ability, well, all the better.
Suns chairman Jerry Colangelo, named Managing Director of Team USA, thought Bowen the perfect role player to invite.
"When I thought about the team composition and the roster of players to select from, role players were very important to me," Colangelo said. "Bruce Bowen typifies what a role player is all about."
Colangelo had help reaching his conclusion.
"To recognize what Bruce brings to a team I think is something (Spurs coach Gregg Popovich) has advocated to USA Basketball for a while," Spurs general manager R.C. Buford said.
Buford believes Bowen has a unique advantage in what amounts to a tryout camp: always having had to prove himself.
"I think the travails he had reaching the level of play he has made serve him well," Buford said, "because he has a confidence level no matter what people believe. He's exceeded expectations. If hard work and drive have any kind of impact on the process, there's not going to be anybody who's prepared more than him."
Indeed, Suns coach Mike D'Antoni, a Team USA assistant, declared Bowen in the best condition of any player in camp. That edge was on display in a spirited scrimmage on Saturday before an audience of former NBA greats. Bowen made one of the best plays of the day when he outran a long lead pass, tipped it away from opponent Gilbert Arenas, scrambled to the corner to save the ball before it went out of bounds and, in one motion, fired a long pass back to teammate LeBron James for a layup.
Each of his teammates on the sidelines rose and applauded.
"He has done what he's done the last 10 years: play great defense and make open shots and be a great person," D'Antoni said. "He's the glue of any team. He's got a real shot at making this team. He's a winner, and I think you've seen that in San Antonio. That's what (coach Mike Krzyzewski) loves about him for Team USA."
If Bowen's selection was a surprise, those who have watched him perform this week insist he is anything but an afterthought.
"Aw, hell no," said Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan, another of Krzyzewski's assistants. "He was brought here for a reason. We need a guy like this. He has a great chance of making this team. That he has two championships and he is 35 years old helps him, too, simply for the fact we are a very young team and playing in hostile situations."
Bowen's competition
Because of injuries and family considerations, only 18 players are available in the pool from which the 15-man squad for the Asian tour will be selected. Amare Stoudemire, remains in a recovery process after knee surgery in September, although he has participated in the team's drills and scrimmages.
Looking at the selection process objectively, it appears Stoudemire might be asked to wait for 2008 and one of two point guards, Seattle's Luke Ridnour or Chicago's Kirk Hinrich, will be cut because New Orleans' Chris Paul has been one of the stars of the camp and three point guards aren't needed.
Bowen likely needs to beat out either Bobcats rookie Adam Morrison or the Rockets' Shane Battier to make the cut for the Asian tour. However, he has not approached the camp as if he has to beat out anyone.
"I am secure in what I do," he said," and if I don't make it, I am also secure I will have given 110 percent here."
This much is certain: Should he make the final cut, no player will be more appreciative.
"You can't downplay this," he said. "You can't act too cool about it. Some people may have this opportunity numerous times. Some of these guys participated with USA Basketball as teenagers. I didn't have that opportunity, so it means that much more to me, because this is my first time."
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA072306.1C.BKNteamusa.bowen.151eefb.html
Web Posted: 07/23/2006 12:00 AM CDT
Mike Monroe
Express-News Staff Writer
LAS VEGAS — Some nine months after the Dream Team's domination of the 1992 Olympic basketball tournament in Barcelona, Spain, a skinny, 6-foot-7 forward from Cal State Fullerton sat in his parents' home in Los Angeles and watched the NBA draft, hoping to hear his name called before the final round was completed.
When no call came, Bruce Bowen made a decision: He would not abandon his dream to play at the highest level, even if it meant leaving the United States before coming back to play in the NBA.
Today, Bowen, the defensive standout who has been an integral part of two Spurs championships, is on the brink of becoming a member of an elite team that will represent the United States as it tries to regain a hold on the top spot in the international basketball world.
"I am an American dream," said Bowen, reflecting on his long journey.
Indeed, the fact Bowen is even in the Team USA camp is the sort of rags-to-riches success story that has made America a land of opportunity. Of the 24 players selected to form the core group from which the teams for the 2006 FIBA World Championships and the 2008 Olympics will be selected, only Bowen and Kings center Brad Miller were undrafted. Seventeen players in the Team USA cadre were drafted in the top 10, including three who went No. 1 overall.
Bowen's road to the Team USA training camp, which concludes here Tuesday, included stops with Eventux and Beausancon of the French pro league; the Fort Wayne Fury and Rockford Lightning of the Continental Basketball Association; and the Heat, Celtics, 76ers and another stint with the Heat, all before joining the Spurs for the past five seasons.
Thirteen years ago, the thought he might someday represent the U.S. in international competition was too unlikely a prospect even to qualify as a dream.
"I'm thinking about those days after the draft right now," Bowen said after a session at Cox Pavilion on the UNLV campus, where Team USA has been training since midweek. "I remember knowing how far behind I was in fundamentals, just things like being able to catch and shoot. There were so many things I hadn't been taught.
"It was fortunate for me that the first place I went in the NBA was Miami, because I learned a great deal of basketball from Pat Riley and I learned how to work hard. I learned to go at game speed, even in preparation, because that's what you have to go at, at all times, to be successful in this game."
Bowen's first stop with Riley and the Heat was brief. Signed with just a month remaining in the 1996-97 season, he played one game. He played two seasons in Boston and half a season in Philadelphia before Riley brought him back for the final half of the 1999-2000 season. By then he had made himself a tenacious defender.
Still, Bowen worked to develop his game beyond being a defensive stopper. He sees his invitation to be part of Team USA as vindication for his years of hard work.
"I was so raw," he recalled of his early days. "The defensive stuff, where I can stay in front of somebody, that's not something that's hard to teach. But to be able to take that and run with it and add certain things to your game, when everybody is saying what you can and can't do, I feel I am an American dream.
"There are those who come over here and they are thankful for an opportunity and you hear them say, 'This is the American dream.' Well, I can come here to this training camp after I had to leave my country to play the game of basketball, and now I am successful."
Ultimate role player
Tim Duncan's disappointment has become Bruce Bowen's opportunity.
It was the failure of the 2004 Olympic team to win the gold medal — an outcome so frustrating that Duncan's summation of his experience was "FIBA sucks" — that prompted USA Basketball to re-examine its approach.
One conclusion: The team needed a few role players, as well as superstars. If such players happened to combine defensive excellence and 3-point shooting ability, well, all the better.
Suns chairman Jerry Colangelo, named Managing Director of Team USA, thought Bowen the perfect role player to invite.
"When I thought about the team composition and the roster of players to select from, role players were very important to me," Colangelo said. "Bruce Bowen typifies what a role player is all about."
Colangelo had help reaching his conclusion.
"To recognize what Bruce brings to a team I think is something (Spurs coach Gregg Popovich) has advocated to USA Basketball for a while," Spurs general manager R.C. Buford said.
Buford believes Bowen has a unique advantage in what amounts to a tryout camp: always having had to prove himself.
"I think the travails he had reaching the level of play he has made serve him well," Buford said, "because he has a confidence level no matter what people believe. He's exceeded expectations. If hard work and drive have any kind of impact on the process, there's not going to be anybody who's prepared more than him."
Indeed, Suns coach Mike D'Antoni, a Team USA assistant, declared Bowen in the best condition of any player in camp. That edge was on display in a spirited scrimmage on Saturday before an audience of former NBA greats. Bowen made one of the best plays of the day when he outran a long lead pass, tipped it away from opponent Gilbert Arenas, scrambled to the corner to save the ball before it went out of bounds and, in one motion, fired a long pass back to teammate LeBron James for a layup.
Each of his teammates on the sidelines rose and applauded.
"He has done what he's done the last 10 years: play great defense and make open shots and be a great person," D'Antoni said. "He's the glue of any team. He's got a real shot at making this team. He's a winner, and I think you've seen that in San Antonio. That's what (coach Mike Krzyzewski) loves about him for Team USA."
If Bowen's selection was a surprise, those who have watched him perform this week insist he is anything but an afterthought.
"Aw, hell no," said Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan, another of Krzyzewski's assistants. "He was brought here for a reason. We need a guy like this. He has a great chance of making this team. That he has two championships and he is 35 years old helps him, too, simply for the fact we are a very young team and playing in hostile situations."
Bowen's competition
Because of injuries and family considerations, only 18 players are available in the pool from which the 15-man squad for the Asian tour will be selected. Amare Stoudemire, remains in a recovery process after knee surgery in September, although he has participated in the team's drills and scrimmages.
Looking at the selection process objectively, it appears Stoudemire might be asked to wait for 2008 and one of two point guards, Seattle's Luke Ridnour or Chicago's Kirk Hinrich, will be cut because New Orleans' Chris Paul has been one of the stars of the camp and three point guards aren't needed.
Bowen likely needs to beat out either Bobcats rookie Adam Morrison or the Rockets' Shane Battier to make the cut for the Asian tour. However, he has not approached the camp as if he has to beat out anyone.
"I am secure in what I do," he said," and if I don't make it, I am also secure I will have given 110 percent here."
This much is certain: Should he make the final cut, no player will be more appreciative.
"You can't downplay this," he said. "You can't act too cool about it. Some people may have this opportunity numerous times. Some of these guys participated with USA Basketball as teenagers. I didn't have that opportunity, so it means that much more to me, because this is my first time."