Williams' best bud gets a helpful shove

[RonnieBrewer (Ronnie Brewer)]

Utah Jazz: Williams' best bud gets a helpful shove
By Phil Miller
The Salt Lake Tribune

BOISE - Dee Brown is just about the best friend Deron Williams has ever had. 
They're so close, Brown even has a tattoo on his right forearm as a tribute
to their friendship. So now that Brown is trying to earn a job with his team,
Williams has already mapped out a strategy for helping his buddy stick with
the Jazz.

   "Bust his ass," Williams vowed. "Every day. Every day." 
   Some friend, huh?

Yet Brown wants to be treated no other way. The practice-floor competition
between them has been cutthroat for years, and they like it that way. "We've
been going at it as long as I can remember, and neither one of us lets up,"
Brown said Monday, the first day of the Jazz's fall training camp. "We make
each other better. Deron's not going to look at me and say, 'I better let up
on this guy.' I'm the player I am because of playing against Deron."

Well, that and a few other things, too. Brown is fast and fairly sure-handed,
and he will try to establish a reliable jump shot during camp. But he has
already caught Jazz coach Jerry Sloan's attention with his willingness to work.
Brown spent most of September in Utah, practicing every day, and the coach
thinks he knows why. He's seen the same work ethic from Williams, after all.

"You've got to ask, how many of these guys here have been in a championship
game?" Sloan said, gesturing around Boise State's arena.

The answer is four - Carlos Boozer while at Duke, and Williams, Brown and
fellow rookie Roger Powell with Illinois. Those four not only share powerful
memories of the Final Four, but an appreciation for the sacrifices necessary.

And that knowledge is a resource Sloan wishes all his players could draw upon.

"You can see from how hard those guys work that they understand what it takes
to get to that level," Sloan said. "Most guys have never been there. They don't
understand how tough it is to get there. They think they do, but a lot of
guys think they are knocking themselves out, but they're just trying to fool
someone. That determination like these guys have is something you watch for."

Watch for, and then develop. To do that, the Jazz turned to their own
hard-work icon, sending Brown to Spokane, Wash., for a week last month to
work with John Stockton, just as Williams did the year before.

Two-a-day practices in Stockton's private gym, with the all-time assist
leader sharing a few of his secrets. Brown admits, he was a little awed.

"He can still see the game. He showed me a lot of moves, things that can
spring you free, or spring you free into some space where you can deliver the
ball to teammates," Brown said. "Not many guys get to go through something
like that, so I was blessed and honored to have that chance. I know he's
going to be a great coach someday." 

Brown might, too. He's already one of the most confident and upbeat members
of the Jazz, the sort of guy "who can lift you up by himself, just with his
great attitude," Williams said. That sort of approach made him "the poster
child for Illinois basketball," Williams said.

But school's out, and now Brown needs to ramp up his talents to NBA level.
Make his shots, deliver deft passes, turn into a true point guard. Williams
doesn't like to consider the possibility that Brown, who was only drafted in
the second round last June and doesn't have a guaranteed contract, might not
survive final cuts later this month.

"I'd definitely be upset. I know it's a business, but I'd be upset for him,"
Williams said, then batted away any such thoughts. "I have a lot of confidence
in Dee that he will make this team, and stick in the league for a long while
to come."

 [e-mail]

http://www.sltrib.com/jazz/ci_4438982

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→ RonnieBrewer:"Bust his ass," Williams vowed.
推 Poleaxe:I know he's going to be a great coach someday.
→ Poleaxe:史龍接班人?
推 TimChiu:Bust his ass? Literally?
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