San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Nobody’s All-American
Eventual lottery pick Vassell recognized his potential long before anyone else did
Devin Vassell was 16 years old the day he first saw his future laid out for him. Like many a teen about to begin his junior year of high school, Vassell began to mentally peer around the bend and plot what came next.
“I said to myself, I’m going to go to a college for two years,” Vassell said. “And then I’m going to the NBA.”
There was just one obstacle in the path of Vassell’s best-laid plans. Nobody had bothered to tell college recruiters about
it.
At that point, college programs — at least the type that typically vault underclassmen to the NBA — weren’t knocking down the door of the lanky, rawboned kid from Suwanee, Ga.
Indeed, Vassell’s four-year journey from his junior season at Peachtree Ridge High School outside Atlanta to where he found himselfWednesday — drafted 11th overall by the Spurs — was a rocket ship ride of Space Force proportions.
One of the few people not surprised to see Vassell become an NBA lottery pick, apparently, was Vassell himself.
“I feel like I always talked about it and had trust in myself that it would work out,” Vassell said.
The Spurs are glad it did.
Vassell’s rapid rise up NBA draft boards came as the Spurs were making their first lottery selection since 1997.
In the 20-year-old Vassell, the Spurs see the kind of versatile, energetic, defensive-oriented player who can make an immediate difference.
“He impacts the game in so many different ways — his ability to create, to make plays for others, to score at all three levels,” general manager Brian Wright said. “We think he’s going to impact the game on both ends of the floor and be a good player for a long time.”
Heading into his junior year, Vassell