It took some time, but Glen Rice Sr. can now acknowledge it — maybe the best thing that could have happened to his son was for him to get kicked off the Georgia Tech basketball team.
Perhaps without it, Glen Rice Jr. wouldn’t be at the NBA draft combine in Chicago this weekend, performing for scouts and team executives.
“It takes that sometimes to snap them out of that wrong road they’re taking,” the elder Rice said Thursday. “Now that it did happen, you thank God that, OK, he was able to realize that.”
Since getting dismissed from the team in March 2012 by coach Brian Gregory following a charge of permitting unlawful operation of a vehicle related to a shooting incident outside an Atlanta nightclub, Rice has turned his life’s course. Rice, a Walton High grad, is at the combine on the heels of a dominant performance in the NBA Development League postseason. Rice led his Rio Grande Valley Vipers team to the league championship by averaging 25.0 points, 9.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game in the playoff run.
The immature youth who butted heads with Gregory and his predecessor Paul Hewitt, and was suspended by both, appears to have developed into a young man who has accepted responsibility for his behavior and is trying to make amends.
“Everybody makes mistakes,” Rice told NBA.com recently. “I made mine. The most important thing was to own it, accept it, and try to learn from it. Which I have. I’m ready to move forward. Whoever said, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ knew what they were talking about. I feel like that’s what’s happened to me.”
It has not been a rosy path. With only one year of eligibility remaining after his tempestuous three-year career at Tech, transfer options did not throw themselves at Rice. He ultimately decided to join the D-League, where he lasted until the fourth round in the November draft. He played with no NBA affiliation.
At first, he played sporadically, coming off the bench for the first half of the season. Having teammates get called up to the NBA finally opened a spot. He seized it, scoring 35 points in his first start and averaging 17.7 points per game for the final 25 games of the season before putting his imprint on the playoffs. His father continually reminded him that he was a good player, but he had to show it.
In the finals, when he scored 58 points in two games, “I tell you, he took it beyond good,” the elder Rice said.
Rice, 6-foot-6 and 198 pounds, likely projects as a shooting guard. ESPN draft expert Chad Ford pegged him as the No. 18 prospect in the draft. NBA scouting director Ryan Blake said he expected several teams to bring him in for individual workouts and interviews before the June 27 draft.
“He’s a very good athlete and he’s a good shooter, and when you can combine those two with some added intangibles, as an active defender, as a rebounder, you become valuable,” Blake said.
He has a supporter in the coach who sent him packing from Tech a year ago. Despite the rocky relationship, Rice continued to visit the basketball offices after being removed from the team. Gregory even met with him after the dismissal to ask him to keep up his studies, since the team’s academic progress rate would be impacted if he left with a GPA below 2.6. Rice complied.
“I really think he’s made a really good turn in terms of some of the stuff that he’s done this year, so I’m happy for him,” Gregory said. “I hope everything works out for him and he gets an opportunity.”
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