Shakur has found confidence

So, unable to attract a defender or a foul, Shakur then threw up a 6-foot leaner at the basket … and missed.

This season, if Shakur manages to latch on to the New Orleans Hornets as a backup to Paul, he isn't likely to hesitate in such a situation. And if Shakur's early professional production is any indication, he won't miss the shot often.

Nor will he worry about it.

Three years of professional basketball - on a meandering path through Poland, Spain, Greece and Oklahoma - have lifted Shakur from the NBA waiver wire to a possible spot in an NBA rotation.

"I think I made a lot" of improvements, Shakur said Wednesday during a phone interview from Louisiana. "My senior year in college, I started to get my confidence back, but it wasn't always there. My first year in Poland, I started to regain my confidence, because you really have to shoot when you get an open shot there."

At Arizona, "I would say I was very confident in playmaking and in running the show, but now I can also take the open shot. Before, I didn't want to hurt the team."

Ironically, Shakur is now trying to help what is essentially Paul's team.

Once, before that 2004 Preseason NIT final, the two players' careers intersected on an elite plane. Both were considered among the top point guards in the high school class of 2003, and both joined LeBron James in the McDonald's All-American game.

But it was Paul who became the nation's top freshman in 2003-04, and he beat Shakur out as the starting point guard for a USA Basketball Under-20 team in the summer of 2004. Then the Demon Deacons won the Preseason NIT title, reached the 2005 NCAA Sweet 16, and Paul became the No. 4 overall pick in that summer's NBA draft.

After Paul became the NBA's Rookie of the Year in 2006, Shakur entered the NBA draft as a junior but withdrew. A year later, Shakur went undrafted as a senior and was cut by the Sacramento Kings on the first day of the 2007-08 season.

Eight months later, Paul signed a four-year, $68 million contract with the Hornets.

"I'm not surprised at all," Shakur said of Paul's rise. "Chris has always been light-years ahead of everybody. You saw how much he mattered last season when they didn't have him" because of an injury.

Shakur said he has remained friendly with Paul through the years, though their relationship had little to do with Shakur landing a partially guaranteed contract for this season.

Instead, Shakur said, what did it was familiarity from new Hornets GM Dell Demps, a former Spurs executive who watched Shakur work out in San Antonio, and also saw him when Shakur's Tulsa 66ers faced the Spurs' affiliate in Austin, Texas, last season.

Demps said upon signing Shakur that the former UA player has "great size and vision for a point guard."

Shakur's production with Tulsa was hard to ignore. He averaged 19.2 points and 6.9 assists, impressing the parent Oklahoma City Thunder enough that it twice called him up. Shakur never played in a game with the Thunder, however, and did not join them again this season.

"I wasn't disappointed at all," Shakur said. "I was very thankful they gave me the call-up and recognized how well I played. They were the first team that gave me the opportunity."

Shakur was invited to two previous NBA camps, in Sacramento (in 2007) and Minnesota (in 2009), but never played a game for either team.

After the Kings cut him in October 2007, Shakur went to Poland. He said he intended to try the D-League in 2008-09, but couldn't resist a good offer to play in Spain that season. Shakur finished that season in Greece, taking advantage of the location by flying in his girlfriend and visiting the Acropolis and other sites.

Yet it was in Tulsa - yes, Tulsa - where Shakur said things became really exciting.

That's where Shakur found himself running NBA sets and playing an NBA game before NBA coaches and scouts.

Suddenly, he could sniff that league some 100 miles away in Oklahoma City.

"I had no idea I'd have such a fun time playing basketball," Shakur said. "Everything we did in practice, from stretching to every play, was exactly the same as the Thunder did. Even (Thunder coach) Scott Brooks would come down and watch a practice sometimes. It was a great all-around experience."

While Shakur said the Thunder's roster is crowded this fall, with the Hornets he has a chance to become the backup point guard, if he can beat out new Hornets signee Jannero Pargo and guard D.J. Strawberry.

His long and bumpy journey to the NBA may, finally, be over.

"I think it made me stronger," Shakur said. "It made me perfect parts of my game so there's no question. If it comes down to it (for a roster spot), I wanted it to be that there's nothing you can say about my shooting."

On StarNet: See an interactive presentation about former Cats in NBA training camps at azstarnet.com/multimedia