off topic guys.... dreams do come true.. kaya keep on dreaming.... read the full article NBA Finals: Pickering’s Cory Joseph living the dream with Spurs MIAMI—Cory Joseph is standing about midcourt of the American Airlines Arena, remembering a very long time ago when he’d find a way to get to a Raptors game to watch and to dream of one day emulating the NBA heroes on the court in front of him. Not 10 metres away, Tracy McGrady is sitting on the scorer’s table, holding court for a covey of reporters that far dwarfs the one-on-one chat Joseph’s having. The Pickering native looks over a reporter’s shoulder, sees the man who is now his teammate, a friend and mentor and remembers. “When I was a kid I was always watching him play,” Joseph said of his fellow San Antonio Spur McGrady. “I was fan of his. I was one of those kids at the game trying to get him to stay. I wish he heard me . . . I guess he didn’t.” A few minutes go by, one conversation ends and another begins and Joseph’s story is recounted to McGrady. “He told me that,” McGrady laughs. “He said he was like seven, eight years old. Long time ago.” Joseph and McGrady may be in the first NBA Finals at the same time and they may have some distant history back in the olden days of Raptors infancy, but that’s where any similarities end. Joseph has worked long and tirelessly to make himself in an NBA player; McGrady came by it much more naturally. Joseph, a six-foot-three point guard who has emerged as Tony Parker’s backup in the final month of the NBA season, would appear to have a long and prosperous career about him, a 21-year-old for whom the sky is the limit. McGrady’s 34, he spent part of the past season toiling in anonymity in China before hooking up with the Spurs as end-of-the-bench insurance for one last championship run. He watches games rather than play them, and he’s impressed by what he sees from his one-time fan. “The guy is going to be a helluva player,” he said of Joseph. “He’s not afraid, that’s what I like about him. He competes.” The primary reason Joseph is where he is — he played about three minutes in San Antonio’s Game 1 win over the Miami Heat — is because of a willingness to do whatever it took to impress the San Antonio front office. He was languishing on the end of the bench as a rookie, not getting any playing time or any better and asked for an assignment to the D League’s Austin Toros to work on his game. “Why not go there, work on my game, get game experience, learn the system more while playing,?” he said. “Really, you could do as much workouts as you want but there’s nothing like game experience. “To go there and get that was great for me, and whenever I got the opportunity here, it made me more ready to capitalize on it.” He was not blessed with McGrady’s raw talent, but Joseph has a determination, though, that sets him apart. A vast majority of first-round NBA draft picks, armed with a guaranteed contract, would resist the D League, see it as a demotion and an indictment on talent; Joseph knew what he need to do. “I think it says a lot about the maturity level the kid has,” said Sean Marks, the former Raptor who is now the director of basketball operations and general manager of the Spurs-owned Toros. “He says, ‘I need to get better and I’m not going to get better by sitting at the end of the bench, not really getting an opportunity to play or practice.’ In the meat of the season, you don’t get huge minutes up, even in practice. This was a huge opportunity for him to get better.” And for the dream he nurtured watching McGrady all those years ago to come true. “For sure, you dream of it when you’re a kid, you dream of playing in the NBA Finals, hitting the last shot,” he laughed. “Five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . Everybody does it outside in the driveway, in the park.” thestar/sports/basketball/2013/06/07/nba_finals_pickerings_cory_joseph_living_the_dream_with_spurs.html
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:34:17 +0000
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