The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Unusual journey ends up at UGA
Smith says no to UCLA, then joins Bulldogs without signing letter.
Roquan Smith, who committed to Georgia on Friday, has gained national notoriety as one of the first big-time football prospects to bypass signing a national letter of intent on signing day or after.
And when the linebacker from Macon County High spoke on the phone with almost all of UGA’s coaching staff Friday morning to tell them he was coming, Smith got some interesting feedback.
“The UGA coaches were fine with Roquan not signing an NLI — actually one of the coaches said that if his son is good enough, they’re not going to let him sign an NLI either,” Macon County coach Larry Harold said.
“I’m not going to say which UGA coach it was. You’re going to have to ask them. He was like, ‘Coach, if my son is good enough and is in the same position as Roquan, I’m not going to let him sign an NLI. I understand exactly why you’re doing this.’ They get it. So I guess the buzz is going around.”
Smith (6-foot-1, 205 pounds) signed an athletics aid agreement Friday but declined to sign the binding NLI after nearly getting burned by UCLA on signing day last week.
Smith can change his mind about Georgia until he attends
Recruiting
to be,” he said. “We live in America. That is what we teach our kids. But as we get older, things don’t work out the way you want them to. You lose or you get burned or you have a bad experience. You probably get a little more careful. The extreme of that is you start basing decisions out of fear: ‘If it’s not going to happen, I’m not even going to try.’ Your world gets smaller. That’s not a full life.
“I could feel it in life. But I could also really feel it in basketball. I was dealing with some injuries. I wondered, do I try to push through this and expand my game and try new things? Or do I try to stay specialized and just do what I’m comfortable with? It connected with me on a bunch of levels.”
Two summers ago, Korver was introduced to misogi by friend Marcus Elliot. They came up with the concept to paddleboard the approximately 25 miles from the Channel Islands to Santa Barbara. A group of them trained for a couple of weeks, for about an hour each outing. It was not enough.
They left early the morning of the big paddle hoping to catch calm water. No such luck. Korver said he fell off his board 45 seconds into the trip. It was difficult to even get back on the board. Group members questioned their sanity. They questioned the safety of the venture. They rued the bloody toes and swollen knees from having to kneel on the board. Three hours in, they had made little progress.
“Eventually, you are like ‘You know what, we are going to do this. There is no turning back. We are doing this. How do I do it?’ All the excuses and all that junk that is in your head falls away and you lock in, on how am I going to make it back to Santa Barbara? We looked at the mountains of Santa Barbara and we picked the highest point, and we aimed for that.”
Korver worked on the mechanics of every single stroke. Once he perfected one detail, he moved on to a smaller one. He Kyle Korver will have a busy weekend in New York. He’ll compete in the 3-point contest today. found himself lost in those details. He enjoyed the challenge of mastering each nuance. Santa Barbara got closer. Nine hours later the journey was complete.
This summer, the group returned to the water. The challenge was to carry a nearly 70-pound rock 5 kilometers across the bottom of the ocean off shore. They took turns moving the rock as far as possible in one breath. A good distance was 10 feet. Many hours later, another task was complete. Another boundary was pushed. Another lesson was learned.
The journeys helped Korver expand his basketball game. He already was one of the top shooters in the NBA. He leads the league in 3-point fieldgoal percentage. He was named an All-Star replacement and at age 33 will make his first appearance in the game Sunday. He will also compete in the 3-point contest today.
Korver is well on his way to joining the rare club of players who have made at least 50 percent of their field goal attempts, 50 percent of their 3-point attempts and 90 percent of their free-throw attempts.
“It carried over, and I started thinking about basketball and shooting,” Korver said.
“I love the mechanics, and I’ve always tried to have good mechanics. How do I break this down smaller? How do I find the details of my shot? How do I find the details of that detail? I started looking at shooting differently and trying to make every movement efficient and cut out stuff that really wasn’t helping me. How do I make my shot the exact same every single time? I had people tell me my shot looked the same every time, but I’m finding all these new things that aren’t. It was revolutionary to me.
“If (the paddleboard journey) wouldn’t have been so hard, I don’t think it would have clicked in my mind.”
Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer appreciates the offseason work by Korver — although he’s not likely to recommend others on his team carry rocks under water.
“He is pushing the envelope in all ways, shapes and forms,” Budenholzer said. “It’s great to be around a player and person like that.”
Korver said there will be another challenge, as of yet undecided, next summer. There is always another limit to be pushed.