4A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2008
ATHLETES (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
like, "What am I going to do?"
Back in Tulsa, Billy Thomas drives to the basket on Russell Carter, a first-year pro from Notre Dame who's nine years younger than Thomas. Thomas gently lays the ball off the glass and gives Colorado an 84-78 lead. An NBA scout sits courtside, scribbling notes.
But 'tweeners' can find a niche in the NBDL, the league Thomas called home for most of this season. As the de facto minor league for the NBA, the NBDL, or D-League, is home to former college stars, NBA busts and many more players who still dream of NBA success. Life in the D-League is a life of inexpensive motels, charter vans and little money.
Thomas wasn't considered an NBA prospect when he left Kansas in 1998. Too small to play shoot-guard and not skilled enough to play point guard, Thomas was the definition of what NBA scouts called a 'twener'.
According to Thomas, a C-level contract in the D-League pays about $13,000, while a few players might make closer to $25,000.
Aaron Miles, former Kansas guard, dishes the ball back out after driving the lane in a game against Texas Tech during his senior year at Kansas. He graduated from Kansas in 2005 as the school's all-time assists leader. He went undrafted in the 2005 NBA Draft despite helping lead the Jayhawks in back-to-back Final Fours in 2002 and 2003.
Scott McClurg/Journal-World Photo
towns such as Greenville, S.C., and Salina. By that January, he was playing for the CBA's Dakota Wizards in Bismarck, N.D.
"I prayed all that week, and I came to the conclusion that maybe it wasn't
"More so than ever,guys think they can go to the next level.It's crazy. They put all their hopes and dreams into one impossible goal."
"I have a greater understanding for the business now," Thomas said. And the business of professional basketball can be bitter. Thomas has spent entire seasons living out of hotels. He's had to deal with financial headaches and lean on loved ones when times got tough. There are few million-dollar contracts in European basketball and none in American minor-league basketball.
"Not a lot of people can live off $13,000," Thomas said. Sometimes, between seasons, Thomas would worry about when that next paycheck was coming.
Three weeks later, Thomas was released again. His second 10-day contract had run out, and Thomas headed back to the D-League back to the life of economy motels and commercial flights, away from the five-star luxury of the NBA.
"They told me I did everything right," Thomas said. It wasn't enough. The Cavaliers needed a big guv.
Cavaliers needed Thomas to help fill out their roster after a midseason trade. The Cavaliers signed Thomas to a 10-day contract on Feb. 22. That night, he was on the court, playing alongside LeBron James, scoring nine points on 3-of-11 shooting from three-point range, as the Cavs defeated the Washington Wizards 90-89.
"Those thoughts are always in
in the cards to make the NBA" Thomas said.
"I relished that moment," Thomas said.
But as he sat on a flight to the CBA all-star game, at peace with himself, a call came in. The New Jersey Nets wanted Billy Thomas.
Thomas played 25 games for the Nets in 2005, before being released. The next season he had a 17-game stint with the Washington Wizards.
This season, Thomas has played briefly for both the New Jersey Nets and Cleveland Cavaliers. The
GREG GURLEY
Former Kansas guard
s are always in the back of your mind," Thomas said. "I've had to learn and become a better manager of money."
His short stays in the NBA have helped with brief infusions of cash One
10-day contract in the NBA matches Thomas' entire year's salary in the D-League.
On an early April day in Germany, Scooter Barry, 41, sat in his house outside of Braunschweig and looked at photographs. The memories came flooding back. Memories of a lifetime dedicated to basketball, of 19 years in foreign cities and foreign leagues.
Barry left Kansas in 1989, a
young kid with sandy blond hair. Little did he know,hed still be playing basketball 19 years later. He couldn't predict the struggles, sacrifice and joy brought on by nearly two decades of basketball.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Aaron Miles plays for Cajasol Baloncesto Sevilla in Spain's top league, ACB, this season. "The people here are nice," Miles said of his new home in Seville, Spain. "The weather is beautiful."
As a reserve guard on "Danny and the Miracles," he won an NCAA title under Larry Brown in 1988 and played on Roy Williams' first Kansas team his senior season. He wasn't just Scooter Barry, Kansas basketball player, he was always the son of NBA Hall-of-Famer Rick Barry, practically basketball royalty.
He was just a self-described "6-foot-2, thin, white kid from Danville, California," and basketball was his life.
"Being Rick Barry's oldest son. I had all the pressure of trying to compete and follow in his shadow," Barry said.
As expected after Barry's senior season, he was not selected in the 1989 NBA Draft. He attended the Boston Celtics' free-agent camp, played his way into an invitation to their veteran camp and played his first NBA preseason game matched up against future Hall-of-Fame guard John Stockton. As he recalls, on his first possession, Barry cut to the basket, Larry Bird hit him with a backdoor pass and Barry shuffled the ball to Robert Parish for a dunk.
"I'm thinking, I made it," Barry said. "I just made an NBA play with Larry Bird and Chief and I'm here."
Here didn't last long. The Celtics needed one more guard to fill out
their roster, and they chose Georgetown point guard Charles Smith, who played on the 1988 U.S. Olympic team.
"We can't cut the Olympic point guard and keep Scooter Barry," he remembers.
Association, for San Jose, just miles from his boyhood home. After one more season in San Jose, Calif., the phone rang. It was a German club in Braunschweig. Hed be the first American to play for the club. Barry packed his bags and headed across the Atlantic.
Barry's European odyssey took him to four different countries.
He met his wife, Kersten, in Germany. Together, they lived the "gypsy lifestyle", Barry said.
One season in Tenerife,
Spain, the next in Messina.
Italy, with stops in Australia and
"Three different times, people thought my career was over," he said.
At age 35, Barry was playing in the French league All-Star game in Paris while Kersten sat in the stands.
"I just loved the game so much," Barry said. "I'm a junkie."
While most players give up the game in their mid-30s, Barry played until he was 39.
Belgium. "I've tried to get involved with the customs, and I tried to get the full life experience in every country I was in," Barry said.
"A lot of guys, to be honest, a lot of them have never thought about anything beyond their sport."
DR. ANDREW JACOBS Sports psychologist
"I prayed all that week,and I came to the conclusion that maybe it wasn't in the cards to make the NBA."
Everywhere he went, every game
He played that season in the now disbanded Continental Basketball
But they told him they thought he could still play. Don't get a regular job just yet, they said. Play in the minor leagues and see where you end up.
BILLY THOMAS Former Kansas guard
the Celtics' brass telling him.
he played,
he said he
remembered the
words of
Roy Williams,
his former
college coach. "Be
thankful for
every game and
every opportunity
you get to
play this great
game, because
one day it
I wasn't getting paid on time," Barry said. He had to go to court twice to claim money he was owed. Kersten found the gypsy lifestyle was not ideal for raising children. One season, Barry, Kersten and their dog spent nearly four months living in a hotel, waiting to get an apartment.
stops," Williams told him.
"It could be lonely," Kersten said.
"There were a lot of teams where
Barry's 19 years of professional basketball allowed him to see the darker side of European hoops; teams with shabby facilities and rogue owners who refused to pay players.
"Every country, there's a different system, different language. You're constantly moving, so the relationships you make are superficial"
They also felt financial strains.
"I got my degree in psychology, and I went and tried to play basketball," Barry said. His long playing career cost him any chance to gain work experience.
"It's not like I was making millions that I can live off of the rest of my life," Barry said. "I don't have a pension."
"The 17 years I played basketball is life experience, but it makes for a pretty funny resume when you go and apply for a job."
Barry's journey ended in Leon — a city in northwest Spain. After 19 years and six different countries, Barry was ready to call it quits. He was 39 years old, playing against players nearly half his age, still holding on. Barry was playing spot minutes, his body finally started to feel its age and he was spending more time on the bench.
"I hated that," Barry said.
He was miles away from his pregnant wife, Kersten, and 3-year-old daughter, Lauren, and their home in Germany. Barry and his wife had lost a child in pregnancy while he was playing in Tenerife
— his last basketball address before Leon. That memory still deeply affects him.
Barry wanted to be there when his first son, Grant, came into the world. He wanted to walk his kids to school; and after Grant was born, Barry and Kersten decided family had to come first.