th
4B the university daily kansan
sports
thursday, february 12. 2004
GIDDENS: Basketball star deals with pressures of notoriety
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
in only eighth grade and stood just 5 feet 6 inches tall. The event came out of nowhere, and the neighbor who was there to witness it was in just as much disbelief as I.R. himself.
"I dunked it and he's like 'did you just do what I think you did?' Giddens said. "He's like 'do it again, do it again,' so then I dunked it two or three more times and was just ecstatic."
The morning following his dunk, at school, Giddens did the same in his junior high gym. His time to impress his friends with his new skill was limited, as the basketball season was ending. He was forced to wait until the AAU circuit, a summer league, began for him to display his new-found abilities in the game.
When J.R. met Roy
An AAU summer basketball game was not only when Giddens flushed his first meaningful dunk, but it's also what first introduced him to then-Kansas coach Roy Williams.
In the summer before his junior year of high school, Giddens was in the middle of a game, when he glanced into the stands and recognized the legendary Kansas head coach. It was the first time a major college coach had come to watch him play.
J. R. immediately turned on the juice. He knew what would get coach Williams excited, and that's exactly what he gave him with dunk upon dunk mixed in with the range of his other athletic talents, such as his quick feet and silky jump shot.
Giddens stayed in contact with Williams that season, and accepted a scholarship offer to play for the Jahawks towards the end of his junior year at John Marshall High School before most major college coaches even knew about him.
"Coach Williams was telling me I was going to be a McDonald's All-American the next year and this and that," Giddens said. "He told me I was going to be his little secret."
"My dad told me that every time I put on a uniform,it's like a business suit."
J. R. Giddens Freshman guard
In his senioryear, he did just that, averaging 22 points and 10 rebounds per game as a senior. He was named a McDonald's All-American along with fellow Kansas recruit, big man, David Padgett, from Reno, Nev. By the time his high school career was done, Giddens was one of the nation's top-20 high school recruits.
In a McDonald's game that was highlighted by the appearance of LeBron James, Giddens was the second-leading scorer for the West team, tallying 16 points. He had the type of game expected of him. It's what his parents have told him to expect every time he plays.
"My dad told me that every time I put on a uniform, it's like a business suit," Giddens said. "They said when you get the chance to show the world, show them great things."
Giddens and Padgett headlined a stellar recruiting class for Williams, and would prove to be his last batch for the Jayhawks. Just days after the Jayhawks lost 81-78 in the National Championship game to Syracuse, Williams made the tear-filled announcement that he was leaving for North Carolina.
Giddens was not even on campus yet, but said he had no intentions of jumping ship and re-evaluating his other suitors, which included Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Purdue, and Illinois.
He loved Kansas far too much,
and it was to become home.
From teenager to icon
There's a special title that goes with being a Kansas basketball player.
instant, because that's how fast you are a celebrity. In Giddens' case, he was a celebrity before even stepping on campus as a freshman.
Even though you may be only 18 years old and still wet behind the ears, you must become a man in an
"I realized that when my junior year in high school when I came up here for Late Night," he said. "When I hung out with the guys, I saw how the fans put them up on a higher stand, and they kind of looked up to them."
When a player puts on a Kansas basketball uniform, he is instantly transferred from being a teenage nobody to an icon.
"When you walk into a class, everyone's going to say 'hey there's the new freshman basketball player,' and the day that you don't go to class, everybody's going to notice that the new freshman basketball player's cutting class today," former Kansas coach Roy Williams said.
"And along with that being put up on a pedestal, after a game our guys may stay around and sign autographs for a half hour, even when their parents are trying to get them to hurry up so they can go eat. It's part of the price that you pay."
The players have no choice as to whether they pay that price. Most nights during the school year include studying and tutoring sessions late into the night, as well as curfews, limiting the time allowed for a social life.
There are great privileges such as being a role model for thousands of kids, getting preferential treatment around town and being a celebrity on campus. But there are also the down sides. Too much attention can get stressful, and build up pressure to maintain the hero image.
"We go to places, and people might get mad because we get in and get VIP treatment, or people's girlfriends come up and talk to us and you see a guy give you a dirty look, but I think it's all funny," Giddens said. "Some people think that the benefits we get are unfair, but they don't realize a lot of the stuff we go through. You know there's benefits and not benefits."
Giddens has a good defense mechanism though — he just
acts like himself. He's still a teenager whose hobbies include sleeping and watching the Disney Channel. He's the same kid who helps out his home town friends by sending them his extra pairs of shoes, warm-ups and sweatsuits that the school provides for him. But with so many people clamoring to be your buddy, or just be around you for that matter, it's a lot to handle.
"Even though I play basketball and sign autographs for little kids, we're regular people just like everybody else," he says. "We just happen to play basketball at the University that has the best fan support in the world. They treat us like we're on a pedestal, and that has its ups and downs."
Facing the competition
Fans speculate that there's no way Giddens will stay around for a full four years, much like another former Jayhawk he is constantly compared to — perennial NBA All-Star Paul Pierce.
Physically, he is a coach's dream. He's 6 feet 5 inches tall with an NBA body. He has a long and lean frame that benefits his defensive attributes. His incredible leaping ability comes from a strong lower body, with calves that look almost the size of a human head.
He possesses a jump shot that looks awkward, but is almost always dead-on. His defensive quickness and agility is enough to force an opponent into submission. Most important, he's developing the ability to take over a basketball game in what looks like an effortless blur.
That was the case on Jan. 17.
Midway through the second half at Texas A&M, Kansas was surprisingly being held at bay by the Big 12 cellar-dweller Texas A&M Aggies.
Giddens delivered three consecutive three-point bombs which put the Jayhawks up 47-36, and the game was a done dea at that point.
Fortunately for Giddens, he is not in a situation where he is relied upon heavily every night to lead the Jayhawks in any statistical categories. But that afternoon, he
Jared Soares/Kansan
J. R. Giddens signed a basketball following a recent home game. Signing autographs are a typical activity for the team as celebrities in Lawrence.
showed flashes of the future. he simply continuing his development towards what his mother, Dianna, expects him to become.
"My mom said 'When you were born, I could tell you were going to be something special.'" Giddens said. "Hopefully that's what's on going right now."
The future
Like any wide-eyed college freshman, Giddens has bright hopes for life once his time in Lawrence is through.
Sure, he dreams of riches and fame, but there's more he wants to do with it than buy the Escalades, flashy jewelry or 10-bedroom mansions that define the excess of today's NBA superstars.
"I want to be an NBA All-Star, one of the best to ever play the game," Giddens said. "I want to make a lot of money and give a lot of it away to help people, maybe adopt some kids, raise a family."
But Giddens should not be
getting too far ahead of himself right now.
For now, he's walking into the John Hadl Auditorium following the Jayhawks' 65-56 victory over the Missouri Tigers to speak with the media.
Giddens can hardly hold still he's so excited. He flashes his signature smile, politely makes eye contact with his interviewers, and fidgets with a stat sheet while he answers questions.
His reaction to his first taste of the Border War was that of any other freshman leaving the Fieldhouse that night. He talked about the energy, the noise and even the kid dressed as a Tiger in the crowd holding a sign that read "I Eat Poop."
At the end of his accounts of the evening, he calls his 11-point, seven-rebound performance his "greatest night in Kansas."
So far.
Edited by Guillaume Doane
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