Cheeks waiting for his Hall of Fame call
The practice court had cleared on Tuesday, and Thunder assistant Maurice Cheeks came walking out of one of the back rooms, chatting calmly with head coach Billy Donovan. More than a thousand miles away, Bob Ryan was probably still incredulous.
Forget probably. It was Ryan, after all, who last year went all the way in on national television for Cheeks. The legendary sports writer said in February 2017 that “there’s nobody today better” for enshrinement into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Yet, with four days until the announcement of the 2018 class, Cheeks is still on the outside looking in.
So, even if Cheeks can exist with a cool head despite being snubbed year-after-year by the Hall of Fame since becoming eligible in 1998, basketball diehards like Ryan simply cannot.
“I’m self-appointed regional president of the (Maurice Cheeks) fan club, I can tell you that,” Ryan told The Oklahoman.
No matter the result when the Hall of Fame announces its 2018 class at the NCAA Final Four
On the court, Terrance Ferguson never seems to slow down.
But in his commercial acting debut, Ferguson learned that life as a pitchman centers on downtime.
Thunder forward Paul George picked Ferguson, his rookie teammate, to star in a pair of Gatorade commercials that the two shot this winter at the Cox Convention Center, where Ferguson found that acting can be a little slow and a lot repetitive.
“I probably said ‘Whoa’ like 50 or 60 times, honestly,” Ferguson said after Tuesday’s practice. “I’m not even going to lie. I was saying like ‘Whoa. Wow,’ just changing it up. It was great. It was fun though.”
Ferguson and George teamed up to pitch Gatorade Flow, a new variation from the sports drink company George endorses. Ferguson actually learned from his agent — not directly from George — that George wanted him to do the ad.
George is an old hand at ads, and he likes to present endorsement opportunities to younger teammates. He had former Pacers teammate Joe Young feature in a Gatorade ad when George played in Indiana.
Ferguson, George said, was a natural on-camera fit.
“I think he’s got a bright future, so I wanted to introduce him to that kinda early,” George said. “He’s got a lot of personality. So, it was definitely fitting for that opportunity. But… it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work from repeating lines to acting out the same scene over and over again, doing it on different cameras, different angles. So, it’s a little bit repetitive. But I thought the shoot came out really good."
Ferguson said he “definitely didn’t expect” to be in a national ad during his rookie season.
“(George) basically just told me I’m a young guy in this league, and he wanted me to gain relationships all around the league,” Ferguson said. “He was basically just giving me a help in, a steppingstone toward that, and I appreciate that.”
Perception is reality
Steven Adams seems a little difficult from a distance.
At least, that was George’s impression. Before he played alongside Adams in Oklahoma City, George had the sense that Adams was a bit of an on-court pot-stirrer.
“Going against him, I thought he was some cocky, arrogant dude who always just wanted to start trouble,” George said. “I just thought he was one of those bigs that (at) every opportunity, he wanted a problem. And when I got here, it was the truth.”
That drew a big laugh from the media scrum at Thunder practice on Tuesday.
“Nah, nah. He’s actually a great dude,” George said. “He’s actually an incredible teammate. He’s actually pretty funny. He does want those problems down there. That is actually true.”
Final Four familiar for Donovan
Billy Donovan has been where John Beilein is.
On Saturday, Beilein will coach Michigan in the Final Four against this NCAA Tournament’s most enduring underdog, 11th-seeded Loyola Chicago.
In 2006, Donovan’s Florida Gators beat No. 11 seed George Mason in a national semifinal en route to the first of back-to-back national championships.
“I think what ends up happening is one, you have to realize going in and it’s almost like a road game,” Donovan said. “That’s the one thing because everybody wants to see the Cinderella go all the way through.”
That’s an added challenge for what already is a daunting environment for college players, Donovan said, especially those who haven’t played in a Final Four before.
The daily media presence is smaller in college basketball, Donovan noted, than in the NBA. But at the Final Four, locker rooms are open and suddenly players have “50 reporters in front of them” for the first time.
“There’s a lot of firsts for them,” Donovan said. “There’s a lot of different questions and storylines. So being able to focus on what’s really important I think is really critical in terms of how the team plays.”