before the playoffs start on August 2<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nEditor\u2019s note: The following one-on-one interview has been edited and condensed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Which NBA players have gone to the Drew League so far this summer?<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cDeMar DeRozan was a guest speaker at the kids\u2019 clinic last Saturday. Then he came back on Sunday. His team won the championship last year, but he hasn\u2019t played yet this year. But his team was playing on Sunday. So he came and hung out with Casper Ware and the \u2018Cheaters\u2019 team that won it. Jaren Jackson Jr. also came last week to watch. He was supposed to play, but he has an injury with his foot and he couldn\u2019t play.\u201d<\/p>\n
What were the highlights of DeMar\u2019s clinic?<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cWe had about 50 kids there. They had a Q&A. DeMar talked about growing up in Compton and what inspired him. They asked him who was his basketball hero. His home and inspiration was Kobe [Byant]. He emulated himself after Kobe. Kobe wasn\u2019t just a great player. He had other things that he wanted to accomplish with working with kids. So that\u2019s what he\u2019s following.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
What has DeMar done for the Drew given his roots and how often he\u2019s there every year?<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cHe\u2019s being there and making himself available for the kids at special events. He\u2019s being natural. He\u2019s not being standoffish. He shows up to games unannounced and comes in and sits down. Kids flock to him. We love having him at the Drew.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
What did it mean for DeMar to be part of the championship-winning team last year?<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cA lot. They were down by 24 points in the fourth quarter, and he brought them back. He had never won a \u2018Drew League\u2019 championship, and he had been playing since he was 15. In the NBA, fans will say, \u2018You don\u2019t have a ring.\u2019 In the city, it\u2019s the same thing. They say, \u2018You don\u2019t have a Drew League championship.\u2019 So he got it. I think he may not play this year because he\u2019s thinking, \u2018I finally did it.\u2019 But you never know. If he\u2019s going to play, he has to play this weekend. He can\u2019t play in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
How do the rules work for the NBA guys?<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cWhat we do with the NBA rules is first we had a rule that you had to play a minimum of three games to be eligible for the playoffs. About 10 years ago, we said, \u2018If you just play a game, that gives you eligibility for the playoffs.\u2019 So we always knew NBA guys would start showing up that last weekend of the season. So we may have a whole circus coming down. I\u2019m not sure. But since Summer League is over and we\u2019re the last one standing, we may get some more players coming this weekend. We\u2019ll have games on Saturday and Sunday (11 am at King Drew High School). We have two women games and four men\u2019s games.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the early buzz on which NBA players might show up this weekend?<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve heard Bronny [James], but nothing clear on that yet. I heard Bronny might play. But nothing concrete. Earlier in the summer, there was talk about Dalton Knecht and Cam Christie playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
If it happens, what would it mean to have Bronny in a Drew League game?<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cI think it would great. It would be interesting to see how he matches up with these guys. It would be interesting to see. Since his dad played a couple of times down here, who knows, maybe he\u2019ll pop up there with him this weekend (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n
How do you compare the buzz between when LeBron played in 2022 and when Kobe played in 2011 during the lockout?<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cIn 2022, there was a bigger facility at King Drew. The crowd was bigger and there was more seating. There was the same impact with everyone wanting to see LeBron. But I don\u2019t think anything will ever compare to Kobe\u2019s visit to Washington Park at the Drew League. He was a Laker from the beginning. LeBron is there. But is he going to stay? You never know. Kobe was always here [with the Lakers]. He didn\u2019t have to be pulled out to play. He wanted to play. The one with LeBron, it just happened that DeMar\u2019s team was playing. They were at a program. He asked DeMar, \u2018Where are you going to work out at?\u2019 He said, \u2018I got a game at the Drew.\u2019 He asked, \u201cDo you think I can play?\u2019 That\u2019s how things happened with LeBron and DeMar. But they were both epic moments. We appreciated what both of them did.\u201d<\/p>\n
What epic moments stick with you during LeBron\u2019s game?<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cWe knew he was coming. But it was one of those things that you wouldn\u2019t believe it until he took the court. He was in the locker room a long time getting taped and getting prepared. The teams were already on the floor. LeBron is a specimen. When you see him as a basketball player, you see his size. He was having a good time during warmups speaking to the people in the corner. Corey Maggette came up\u00a0 Draymond Green was there. It was a different Saturday afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n
LeBron had already helped the Lakers win the 2020 title in the bubble. But to what extent did you see his Drew League appearance help cement a stronger bond with LA fans?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cThey\u2019re holding onto more moments. They don\u2019t just want one. They don\u2019t think one is enough. If he can pull another one off with Luka [Don\u010di\u0107], that would help solidify it. But LeBron was great. Fans were taking pictures. He went out to his SUV. People tapped on the glass. Usually guys don\u2019t open up when they tap on the glass. But he stuck his head out and took selfies with the fans. He\u2019s a real, nice guy. He stayed in the locker room and took pictures with people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t standoffish. That\u2019s the main thing that we have with the Drew League. If you come down there, you have to blend in with the community. You can\u2019t be standoffish. They\u2019ll pick it up right away. The majority of the people there are not going to a Lakers or Clippers game. That doesn\u2019t usually happen. You\u2019re also not coming down there to lollygag. You\u2019re coming down there to work on your game. There is some competition there and other NBA players are there. If you\u2019re coming there, just respect the facility. We\u2019ve been here before you were born. That\u2019s to all NBA guys. KD was very good when he came down. LeBron didn\u2019t disappoint us at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kobe produced a lot of excitement with his Drew League game because he\u2019s Kobe, he\u2019s a Laker and he hit a game-winner over James Harden. But what else sticks with you before, during and after Kobe\u2019s appearance?<\/p>\n
\u201cLeading up to it, we didn\u2019t know what to expect. We didn\u2019t know until we were asked to get him into a private place to change. I had to come and escort him to our recreation room where nobody else was in. All of our other players were in another rec room getting dressed. I took him in there, talked to him and told him how we\u2019re so excited to have him. We never had a player of his magnitude here. We told him that we appreciated him. We said, \u2018The most important thing is that these kids get to see him and not way at the top on the flagpole and see you all the way down there.\u2019 He just started laughing and smiling. He said, \u2018I\u2019ll try to give them a show.\u2019 He definitely did that. When he came out of that room into the hallway and the door of the gym, the crowd clapped slowly and then everybody started screaming when he came onto the floor. That gave me chills. We were in South Central on a Tuesday evening. This happened in the community. Everybody was happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
What fan interactions did you witness?<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cSomebody asked him, \u2018Who\u2019s the top player of all time?\u2019 That\u2019s when he counted on his fingers. He said, \u2018Wilt [Chamberlain], me and then Mike [Jordan].\u2019 The crowd was talking and lighting him up. There was some good light-hearted interaction with that. I was right there. It was near the scorer\u2019s table. At that time, I thought he was probably right. He still had a few more years left in the league. Me personally, I like Wilt but I probably would\u2019ve put Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] in that slot. That was my thought process.\u201d<\/p>\n
What did you see from Kobe\u2019s game-winner and the aftermath?<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cMaybe we only feel this way. But I think my play-by-play announcer [George Preciado] needs to be in the NBA. He\u2019s the best play-by-play announcer, especially for summer basketball. He patterns himself after Chick Hearn. The way he counted that down, it was perfect. Earlier, I had to go and open the room again. Once the game was over, security wanted to rush Kobe to that room and not fiddle with the locks. So I cracked the door open. But after Kobe hit the shot, he wasn\u2019t rushing out. He put his arms up in the air. He let the kids run into his chest.<\/p>\n
Before that moment, I said to myself, \u2018I know he\u2019s not going to hit this shot. There\u2019s no way we\u2019re going to see this. When he did that and turned on James, James picked him up high. James didn\u2019t back down. He went at him. But Kobe still made it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Why were you skeptical that you\u2019d see a Kobe moment considering you\u2019ve seen so many of them?<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cWell, I felt like, \u2018Are we really deserving of this moment?\u2019 We\u2019ve seen this all across the globe take place. That was the greatest moment in Drew League history in 52 seasons.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
How did the KD and LeBron cameos during the 2011 lockout compare?<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cKD was the first one to arrive and play. It was unannounced. Social media wasn\u2019t as big back then. He just went to the Drew League. He came through the backdoor with no entourage and no security. He just came right on in and got on Game\u2019s team. When KD threw the ball off the backboard and rammed it, that sent numbers everywhere. He was excited. He\u2019s the only one we ever let play twice in the same day. We were like, \u2018You\u2019re All-NBA. If you want to play again, come on.\u2019 So he had a good time.<\/p>\n
Then the following week, \u2018the Cheaters\u2019 were playing. That team is affiliated with Baron Davis. He called me and told me, \u2018Don\u2019t start the game yet; I got a surprise.\u201d I said, \u2018Baron, we got seven games today. This is game four coming up. We can\u2019t hold off too long.\u2019 He said, \u2018Give me a few minutes.\u2019 Then LeBron came. A few big SUVs pulled in front of the park. There was already a crowd. He originally just came to watch. But then he asked, \u2018Can I play?\u2019 I said, \u2018Of course you can play!\u2019 I took him in the back and got him a uniform. He enjoyed it and played well.\u201d<\/p>\n
And do I understand correctly that paved the way for Kobe to want to come?<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cYeah, Kobe\u2019s reps had reached out and said, \u2018Kobe wants to know if he can play.\u2019 I said, \u2018The only thing we have coming up is the playoffs. He hasn\u2019t played a game. He can\u2019t play in the playoffs.\u2019 So we tried to figure out a way to make this happen. Then we realized that on Tuesday that we had a scrimmage. So we turned it into a real game before heading out to play the Goodman League on Thursday. So all the NBA guys were there. We had enough to split teams up. We contacted his reps and said, \u2018We got a game that he can play in. But it\u2019s a real game and people are going to go after him. If he wants to do it, it\u2019ll be Tuesday night.\u2019 So they called back and said he\u2019ll be there. A lot of times you\u2019re nervous to ask people to sign things. But he was like, \u2018Sure, whatever you got, leave it right here.\u2019 He signed about seven pieces of merchandise. He was great.\u201d<\/p>\n
What has Harden meant to the Drew League?<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cIn his earlier years, he meant quite a bit. But the last few years, he doesn\u2019t really come around anymore. He doesn\u2019t really support it as he was at first. That\u2019s why DeMar is what we call \u2018the face of the Drew League.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with being him back in LA with the Clippers?<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cNo, we had more interaction with Norman Powell. I hated to see Norman go [get traded to Miami]. But that\u2019s okay. That\u2019s his choosing.\u201d<\/p>\n
How does that register with you?<\/p>\n
Smiley: \u201cI understand it. But to me, during that lockout season, he really helped us. But I thought we really helped him, too. Before that, summer basketball was just summer basketball. Then we had those mega games against the Goodman League. James was right there. During that time, he wasn\u2019t a starter for OKC. We helped him put him on that pedestal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interesting point, because once Chris Paul<\/a> was traded to Houston, they actually played together first in the Drew League.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nSmiley: \u201cYou\u2019re right. Daryl Morey was sitting courtside at King-Drew to see them play. It was great. They played very well together and fed off each other. Management looked happy. CP3 was happy, and did a video showing him on his way going to Drew and how he was looking forward toward playing.<\/p>\n
The other matchup everyone wanted to see was when Klay Thompson played James in 2014 when they were two of the top two guards in the league. It was packed. They matched up and were going at it.\u00a0 They were clearing it. There was no double teaming. There was no trapping.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They played hard. But the floor got slippery. They slipped a couple of times, so we shut it off. We didn\u2019t want to get anybody hurt. They weren\u2019t going to slow down. So we had to pull them off each other.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron with Bronny (Photo by Emilee Chinn\/Getty Images) Every week, Mark Medina shares his thoughts and insights on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-38448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}