|
MaRbUrYiSaKnIcK
Posts: 20319
Alba Posts: 0
Joined: 8/15/2004
Member: #737
USA
|
Seton Hall Star Hoping For Roster Spot with Knicks
Barrett Ready for Big Show
by Tom Kertes
Note: On October 25, Barrett, along with center Mengke Bateer, was waived by the Knicks.
NEW YORK, NY, Oct 24, 2004 -- During warmups, from his frontrow perch at the Knicks-Mavericks preseason game, eleven year-old David Tarnofsky has a look of befuddlement etched onto his otherwise excitedly smiling face. "I'm almost twelve -- and I know a lot about basketball," he says. "I've been a Knicks fan since the day i was born. But I have no idea who that little guy is out there."
The "little guy", of course, is rookie point guard Andre Barrett. Who was wearing an almost Tarnofsky-an look of thrills-filled wonderment as he ran onto the floor between star guards Stephon Marbury and Jamal Crawford. "I know I belong here," the Bronx-born free agent from Seton Hall says. "But actually being here, it still feels like some kind of an amazing dream come true." After not being drafted last June, Barrett -- an All-American point guard at Rice High School who managed to stand out in the uncompromising Big East in spite of standing somewhere between 5 81/2 and 5-10 -- "could have gone to any number of NBA Summer League squads during the offseason. But once (President, Basketball Operations) Isiah (Thomas) called, there was no question where I would be," says Barrett. "When a point guard legend like Isiah wants you, you don't say no. Plus, I'm a New Yorker, all the way through and through. If I have any choice among NBA cities, I want to play in New York."
Thomas signalled his similarly high regard for Barrett by phoning him in the immediate minutes following the conclusion of the NBA draft. "First he called Trevor (second round draftchoice Ariza), then he called me," Barrett recalls with a smile. "You can't even imagine what that call meant to me." A first shot at the pros with the very team he grew up rooting for? "That -- and more," says Barrett. "Sure, I was an enormous Knicks fan as a kid. I grew up rooting for this team, watching all those fierce playoff rivalries with the Bulls and Michael Jordan and against the Miami Heat. But the Knicks also represented a certain New York toughness to me as well. Those were tough battles conducted by tough people. And I'm just like that. Am I tough? Of course -- that's what got me through. How else could I have succeeded in this game at my height?"
It must have been, well, tough. "Pure basketballwise, not really," says Barrett. "First of all, all my life at every level, I've played against people taller than me. So I'm used to it. I can honestly tell you I've gotten to the point where height doesn't really matter to me. In fact, I feel that I'm more of a problem TO THEM. I'm pesky. I'll hawk the ball. I never go away. I'll be in your face. I'll never get tired. And when you do, I'll just keep on coming after you."
The difficulties derive more from the inevitable perception of a small player in a big man's game. "From an outside perspective, people tend to say a lot of things," says Barrett. "You're too small, you can't do it, whatever. But to that I say 'how do you know?' I've excelled at this game, been an All-American at every level. In fact, I've ALREADY DONE IT. And I've been able to do it because I've worked hard at this. So, really, since you haven't experienced what I have, how would you know? While you were out doing whatever, I was working my you-know-what off, developing my game at every moment I've ever had."
In addition to his toughness and umatched work ethic, Barrett REALLY knows how to play the point position. "Well, yeah, the Knicks Summer league coaches told me they enjoyed coaching me," he says. "I work hard every second I'm out there. I see the floor. I push the ball. I use my instincts. I try to get everyone involved. I get everyone to their right place on the floor. In the Summer League, we started 0-2, then we never lost again -- won four in a row. The team played well. Trevor was excellent. Mike Sweetney had a great summer. And the coaches told me I had a lot to do with all of that." Barrett averaged 7.7 points and 3.5 assists in 28.3 minutes per game over the summer. "It gave me a lot of confidence," he says.
Barrett was practically born with the knowledge and love of hoops. "Mom tells me that my Dad was there at my birth at the hospital," he says. "But the moment they cleaned me up he was gone to play a basketball game." Naturally, Dad was Andre's first basketball teacher, along with AAU coach Artie Green. "I'm like a sponge," says Barrett. "You absorb knowledge, that's how you become good. I listen -- and I learn from everyone. My dad. Artie. My coaches at Seton Hall."
Characteristically -- and, these days, uniquely -- Barrett stayed at the Hall for the full four years -- and did it in spite of some seriously funky circumstances. "My first year, there was tremendous turmoil," he recalls. "Many others would have left. I had a chance to leave -- the University of Florida wanted me. Maryland -- the team that won the championship a year later -- wanted me. But the type of person that I am, if there are problems I don't run away from them. I face them head-on. So I decided to tough it out at Seton Hall. I wanted to be the key to the turnaround of that program."
The four years of college, along with the coaching of Tommy Amaker and onetime Knicks forward Louis Orr, have been beyond-instrumental to Barrett's development. "I needed every minute of it," says Barrett. "People look at you and say 'you're playing a game and getting paid for it. This is easy." Well, you know what? This is not easy. Especially, if you're a point guard -- the coach on the floor, the head of the horse -- it's not easy. That's why so many great college 'two guards' who try to play the point in the NBA struggle so badly. There is so much to know: the plays, the defenses, which player likes the ball at what particular spot, who's hot and who's not, and about a million other things. It's a job. You want to be good at this level, you've got to eat and sleep basketball. And that's what I do."
Barrett, of course, understands that he may, or may not, end up sleeping and eating basketball with the Knicks. "In this business, the Summer League and the preseason are like an audition," he says. "I audition for the Knicks -- and this is a great bunch of guys with unbelievable chemistry -- but, at the same time, I'm also auditioning for the entire NBA. The most important thing is that the Knicks have given me a chance to show my stuff. And that every one of my teammates tell me that my game is legitimate and that they have no doubt that one day I'm going to be an NBA player."
Marbury is finally home at MSG!
|
10/25/2004 6:09 PM