NBA DRAFT COMBINE
Along with workouts on the court and in the weight room, Chase Budinger has kept a close eye on nutrition en route to the NBA draft.
But if the former UA wing breaks down and has a doughnut today, his interview coach won't blame him.
It's Sunday, after all.
Steve Shenbaum, president of Florida-based Game On Media, said he sharpened the improvisational skills of Budinger and Jordan Hill by playing situational games and encouraging them to build a library of personal stories.
That way, when NBA teams throw verbal curveballs at them during interviews as they did last week, the players could weave in a clever, meaningful or triumphant moment from their past.
In Budinger's case, there may be no better way than to tell the story of his family's closeness than through doughnuts.
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"It's an incredible story," Shenbaum said. "They would always eat doughnuts and that's his biggest sweet tooth. He just lights up talking about them. It was like a ritual for them. He said, 'They actually taste better on Sunday because that was the day my family and I had doughnuts.' "
For Hill, a top subject to bring up is his 3-year-old son, Jordan Crawford — whom NBA executives routinely ask about anyway.
"He has a way of talking about his son," Shenbaum said. "He talks about being a father and how that helped him mature. He's real open about that."
By throwing into interviews their top "coins," as Shenbaum calls the personal stories, players may avoid sounding too scripted during NBA interviews.
"It's all authentic," Shenbaum said. "A coin is something they value about themselves that has nothing to do with basketball. They have to come up with 10 coins and it's not as easy as you think — something like animals, travel, siblings, languages."
Shenbaum said he also had the players pretend to talk like an expert on a subject they knew nothing about and practice three levels of appropriate tones in response to questions — joking, midrange and serious.
Along the way, Budinger said, they had fun.
"He's a great guy," Budinger said. "It's helped to be more relaxed and be myself. We did a bunch of improv stuff. It just gets you flowing."
Xavier star leaving
Xavier forward Derrick Brown said during combine interviews that he's nearly set to stay in the draft permanently, though he said coach Sean Miller's move to Arizona did not affect his decision.
Brown said he had a good relationship with Miller.
"He's always in the office. Great guy. Players coach," Brown said. "He's not a slick guy. What you see is what you get."
Changes needed
The NBA's plan to cancel pre-draft games and run only combine drills backfired to some extent this week when most of the projected high lottery picks, including Hill, still opted out of the drills.
Jonathan Givony, president of Draft Express, said he heard grumbling from several NBA executives who were unable to see the top prospects on the floor.
"They've got to put something in the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) that if you don't come to this, you're not going to be drafted," Givony said.
Rolling the dice
Guard Brandon Jennings may still land in a position in this year's lottery to what he might have if he had played with the Wildcats last season instead of going to Italy.
But Ryan Blake, the NBA's assistant director of scouting, said Jennings took a big risk by leaving because he was automatically thrust into this year's draft by doing so — whether or not he devalued his stock overseas.
"He made some money, and good for him," Blake said. "I just don't think it's good advice. What if he got hurt? If he had stayed and was hurt, he could have gone back to school. But if someone leaves college and signs a pro contract, they're automatically eligible for the next draft."
Blake said it also did not bode well for Jennings that he was kept off his Lottomatica Roma team's roster for the playoffs. The team had lost two Italian big players to injury and replaced them with a foreign post player, thus leaving it over the quota for non-native players.
"What does that tell you?" Blake said.
