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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > December > 19
Friday, December 19, 2008
Ex-Jacket grabs unlikely spot in NBA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The contract was signed, and then everything changed. No, this has nothing to do with Rafael Furcal. This is a happier tale.
Anthony Morrow was headed to the Ukraine to play basketball. The deal had been cut, although with which team he can’t remember. Then the Golden State Warriors, for whose summer-league team he’d played — he’d also been with the Miami Heat’s — offered guaranteed money to sign.
Cute story, huh? A guy from Georgia Tech doesn’t get drafted but finds a spot in the NBA.
Wait. It gets better.
On Nov. 15, Morrow scored 37 points against the Clippers to set a league record for most points by an undrafted rookie. He did it in his first pro start. He did it with such little fanfare that Baron Davis of the Clippers asked reporters: “Oh my gosh. Who was that guy?”
Said Morrow: “The only person who knew me was Eric Gordon. We played against each other last year.”
Morrow scored 25 points against Portland three days later, and suddenly the unassuming young man who’d been taking BART — San Francisco’s MARTA — to games was being hailed by U.S. News, an austere publication that doesn’t normally cover the Golden State Warriors, as a “hero” for “all workplace rookies.”
It would be nice to report that Morrow has gone on to score 30-some points in every game, but the cold truth is that he no longer starts. Still, he’s part of the Warriors’ rotation, and his average of 10.4 points ranks him eighth among rookies.
Morrow scored 15 points against the Hawks on Friday night. At noon he’d been greeted by a media conclave — two TV cameras, two print reporters — after Golden State’s shootaround. He conceded the past two months have been one giddy ride. “I’ve tried to take it all in stride,” he said, which is surely easier said than done.
He led Tech in scoring in two of his four seasons, but he was never the focal point. He was the standstill shooter — “You’re just a catch-and-shoot guy,” was how Paul Hewitt constantly prodded Morrow — who over time learned to dribble a little and make a post-up move. But he never made as much as third-team All-ACC, and even Morrow wasn’t surprised at not being drafted.
Said Don Nelson, Golden State’s coach: “[General manager] Chris Mullin picked him up. I didn’t know who he was. I later found out he played at Georgia Tech. To have that kind of skill — shooting — and go undrafted is amazing.”
Morrow: “I always believed I had a chance. It was a matter of opportunity. Every time I took the court against somebody who was drafted, I took it personally.”
And now he’s a double-figure scorer in the only league that matters, and according to his coach, Morrow is “trying to take the next step — becoming a basketball player. … When they took away his [outside] shot, he didn’t have the rest of the game. But he’s coming along nicely. … He’s the hardest worker on the team.”
Over 123 collegiate games, Morrow averaged 11.4 points, never scoring more than 31 in a game. In his first NBA season he’s averaging nearly that much, and he’s doing it for a team based in a city he’d never visited until he reported to work. It’s a feel-good yarn that just happens to be true.
“Of course I’m the same guy,” said Morrow, pretending to bristle at the suggestion that sudden success might have sapped his customary sweetness, and certainly he seems as wide-eyed and engaging as ever. Heck, he’s just thrilled to be in the U.S. The NBA is a raging bonus.
So how well did he know the Ukraine? “I visit every year,” said Anthony Morrow, lying.
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