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Former Davidson star has NBA hopes
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Jason Richards works out for the Bobcats. He’s scheduled to work out for the Cavs today.
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Published: June 25, 2008
Updated: 06/25/2008 12:15 am
CHARLOTTE - CHARLOTTE - Jason Richards glanced around the Charlotte Bobcats' practice facility yesterday and saw Larry Brown, a Hall of Fame coach, barking out instructions and Michael Jordan watching from the sideline.
For an instant, Richards, the former Davidson point guard, let himself soak in the past four life-altering months.
"It's been a blast," Richards said after the predraft workout with the Bobcats. "Who would have thought when I was younger that I'd be working out for an NBA team -- and in front of Michael Jordan, too?"
Nobody.
But that was before Richards played the supporting role to star Stephen Curry in one of the NCAA Tournament's most unlikely and captivating stories. With Richards finding the sweet-shooting Curry at the right spots and making few mistakes, unheralded Davidson upset Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin and was a 3-point basket away from advancing to the Final Four.
The missed shot was a 25-footer by Richards that bounced off the rim at the buzzer in the Midwest Regional final, allowing Kansas, the eventual national champion, to hold on to a 59-57 win.
"When I go to these workouts, they ask about the shot, and it comes back to my head," Richards said. "But it's pretty much out of my head right now."
Richards is instead focused on making an NBA roster, a goal that would have drawn chuckles when he was a skinny, lightly recruited high-school player in Barrington, Ill.
Even now, Richards has a difficult road. It doesn't matter that he led the nation in assists with 8.1 a game last season, or that his 13-assist, no-turnover game against Wisconsin in a Midwest Regional semifinal impressed LeBron James. Richards probably won't be drafted Thursday.
At 6-2, Richards has the size of an NBA point guard. But critics say he's not quick enough to defend speedy, athletic guards on the perimeter and that he doesn't have the strength to work through screens.
"I'm not going to listen to what people say," said Richards, who's scheduled to work out for the Cleveland Cavaliers today. "I've been doubted so many times in my career that I just want to prove people wrong."
That attitude, court awareness and drive caught the eye of Brown, who put five other players through yesterday's audition. Jordan, a part-owner of the Bobcats who has the final say on draft night, also watched.
"Guys like him are hard to find. He just has a great feel for the game," Brown said. "He's well-coached. He's a great kid. He's a better athlete than you think. He'll get a chance. There are a lot of guys like him in our league. I don't see why he doesn't have a chance."
Coach Bob McKillop of Davidson thinks that Richards has the tools to play in the NBA. McKillop inherited a mistake-prone guard who shot a lot in high school, helped him become a starting point guard after two years as a backup and then watched him become one of college basketball's top floor leaders.
"I think he has the emotional and the mental and the physical capabilities of helping an NBA team out," McKillop said. "He has to have the right fit, and by fit it has to be a need that that particular team has. It also has to be a coach that values the kind of talents, attributes and qualities that Jason would lend to a team."
If Richards isn't drafted, he'll most likely be invited to play in an NBA summer league. That could lead to a training-camp invite. If not, Richards intends to play somewhere, probably overseas.
"It's a great opportunity to explore the world and play the game you love," he said.
But Richards wasn't thinking of France or Turkey yesterday. He had his eyes on his boyhood dream, the NBA.
"I'm a true point guard," Richards said. "There are a lot of combo guards in the draft and the league. I think having a true point that can run the offense and not turn the ball over and get the ball to the guys that can score, I think that's what they're looking for.
"I think that's why they brought me in, and I think I did a good job showing that today."
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