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Tyler Hansbrough will realize his NBA dream tonight
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Published: June 25, 2009
CHARLOTTE - Tyler Hansbrough has been through all this before. The questions about whether his skill set will translate at the next level, the skeptics pondering whether he's already maxed out his potential, none of this is new.
"Every time Tyler has gotten ready to move up to another level of basketball -- even back when he was 10 or 12 years old, going from elementary school to middle school -- people always wondered whether he could make it," his father, Gene Hansbrough, said this week. "Tyler's always been the underdog, and he's always proven those people wrong.
"I mean, just look where he is now."
That would be New York City, the site of tonight's NBA Draft, where UNC's four-time All-American could hear his name called as early as 11th overall after two impressive workouts with the New Jersey Nets. Two-and-a-half months ago, after the Tar Heels won the NCAA title, the forward from Poplar Bluff, Mo., wasn't projected as a lottery pick.
After averaging 20.7 points and 8.1 rebounds last season, he wasn't even expected to be the first Tar Heels player taken in the draft.
There were too many questions about his athleticism and height and about whether he had any "upside" left after staying in college for -- Gasp! -- four seasons.
But Hansbrough did what he typically does. The ACC's all-time scoring leader buckled down and went to work on chipping away at the naysayers' doubts.
"It seems like people were saying the same old things -- that I couldn't do this, couldn't do that," Hansbrough said in a phone interview Tuesday. "But that just challenges me like it always has and gives me an opportunity to prove people wrong."
Hansbrough started raising eyebrows at the predraft combine in Chicago, when he measured in just a quarter-inch shorter (6 feet 81/2 in socks) in height and a quarter-inch longer in wingspan (6-111/2) than
Oklahoma power forward Blake Griffin, the overwhelming favorite to be picked first overall tonight.
Then, in individual workouts, 23-year-old Hansbrough showed teams that he's more than just a frontcourt player who relies heavily on inside moves and putback shots. In one story relayed by UNC coach Roy Williams, Hansbrough worked out for a team that the forward didn't think was seriously considering him.
Hansbrough was irritated and wondering why he was there, Williams recalled.
"He said, 'So I just decided I was just going to act like everybody else in those workouts, I was going to shoot it every time I touched it,' " Williams said. "He said 'I made every shot I took. Now all of a sudden they like me, they may draft me.' "
And it's not just the jumper he spent his senior season improving that has pro teams reconsidering earlier assessments.
Former NBA coach Paul Silas said Hansbrough's ability to get to the free-throw line in college -- where he became the NCAA's all-time leader in free throws made -- "translates a lot better to the NBA than some people think."
"He knows how to draw fouls. He knows how to pump fake, to go up with it, to shield the ball. And he knows how to do that while being double- and triple-teamed, something ... he won't see much now," Silas said.
"When a player first comes to the NBA, it's hard to know the nuances, but he'll learn. And NBA officials do often reward the aggressive player, and he is that. He's got the skills that it takes to be successful."
Silas should know. He coached center Brad Miller, an undrafted player who evolved into an NBA All-Star, his first two seasons with the Charlotte Hornets. Silas said comparisons between Miller and Hansbrough are fair, although Hansbrough has a better outside shot than Miller had at this stage.
"I think people are going to make a mistake by not drafting Tyler Hansbrough," Silas said. "I really like his game. Stardom, who knows? But he's got the skills to play for a long time."
And it all begins tonight, when he'll sit in the "green room" at Madison Square Garden, surrounded by his dad, mom, older brother Greg, Williams and his agent. In addition, Hansbrough said, North Carolina teammates Bobby Frasor, Marcus Ginyard and Dewey Burke, as well as Frasor's dad, are traveling to New York to cheer him from the stands.
"I debated [going to the green room] for a little while, but it's always been a dream of mine to be there and shake Mr. [NBA commissioner David] Stern's hand," Hansbrough said. "I also thought it would be a good opportunity for me to represent North Carolina and my part of Missouri.
"I'm starting to get nervous, a little jittery, just because you never know exactly what's going to happen: who's going to make trades, who's going to finally take you. But I'm really confident that things are going to turn out well."
After all, he's used to hearing the naysayers, and then working hard to prove them wrong.
"Everybody says he can't do this, he can't do that," Williams said. "The only thing I know is his team won a heck of a lot of games. He won every award that you can win. He's the leading scorer and leading rebounder in North Carolina history. ... And he's only going to play in the NBA 10 or 12 years and make 30 to 50 million dollars."
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