Watkins lands with Spurs
Open-gym workouts in San Antonio pay off in two-year deal for ex-SU center.
http://www.syracuse.com/sports/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1221123337261430.xml
Thursday, September 11, 2008
By Mike Waters
Staff writer
After playing for the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA’s Las Vegas summer league and then joining the Dallas Mavericks’ summer league team in the Rocky Mountain Review in Salt Lake City, Darryl Watkins could have gone home and hoped for an NBA team to call.
Instead, Watkins started commuting between his home in New Jersey and San Antonio. Four days a week, the Spurs held open-gym workouts. For Watkins, it was just another chance to put himself in front of NBA executives.
On Wednesday, Watkins’ agent said the former Syracuse University center was on the verge of signing a two-year partially guaranteed deal with the Spurs.
“I think it’s a great situation for him,” Reggie Brown of Chicago-based Priority Sports said Wednesday. “San Antonio is a great organization from top to bottom. It’s the perfect situation for Darryl to realize his NBA dream.”
Watkins’ NBA dream took a couple detours last season. Watkins, who played for Syracuse from 2003 to 2007, was an undrafted free agent after his senior season. He signed with the Sacramento Kings and appeared in nine games for the Kings, averaging 1.3 points and 1.3 rebounds. But Sacramento released him on Dec. 10.
Watkins spent the rest of the 2007-08 season in the NBA’s Development League, splitting the year with the Los Angeles D-Fenders and the Iowa Energy.
Watkins hit the summer league circuit in search of another NBA opportunity, but it was the decision to spend the second-half of his summer in San Antonio that resulted in the contract with the Spurs.
“It’s been a great experience,” Watkins said by telephone from San Antonio Wednesday night. He said he has gone up against Tim Duncan on a couple occasions. “I came down here for an open gym and it ended up turning into something else. It’s been a real positive for me.”
His experience in the D-League last season wasn’t as positive.
“It was pretty difficult starting out in the (NBA) and then having to go to the D-League,” Watkins said. “I had to cope with that and try to make it work.”
Brown said he had received “several lucrative offers” from professional teams overseas, but he had been holding out for an NBA deal.
“The NBA is his dream,” Brown said. “I feel like Darryl’s getting better every year and if there’s a time to take a gamble on yourself, it’s while you’re young. He wanted the chance to play in the NBA. The overseas opportunities, hopefully, will still be there if things don’t work out.”
San Antonio has 13 players signed to guaranteed or partially guaranteed contracts. The NBA limit is 15 players, although teams can carry just 12 players on their active roster during the season. The Spurs begin their preseason training camp on Oct. 1.
“It’s a good situation because I’m with a great organization,” Watkins said, “and it’s great to be back in the league with a team that looks like they’re interested in having me on their team for the entire season.”