| A Cramped Plane Ride With Martell Webster Authored by D. Hunter Johnson - June 10, 2005 - 5:18 pm
A few days ago I was taking a trip from San Francisco back up to my homeland (Seattle) for a rainy weekend BBQ event celebrating my father’s birthday. On the full-flight, I had the misfortune of being cramped next to the tallest man on the plane. Sharing the two seats in front of the emergency exit row were two men, 6’6” and 6’7” respectively. Needless to say, there wasn’t much shoulder room which made for a lot of incidental bumps that eventually forced us to converse.
After helping him reset his Dell digital jukebox we got to talking about growing up in Seattle. I asked him where he graduated, only to be thrown back by the revelation that he was going to graduate very soon from Seattle Prep High School. A surprise as he looked and spoke as if he were a 25-year-old man. He told me his name was Martell, and the rest soon fell into place. I was sitting next to future lottery pick Martell Webster, who was on his way back home after a workout in L.A.
Seizing the rare opportunity, we talked hoops, me being a former player myself, yet nowhere near to the same level of competition as this gentleman. We knew a few of the same people including current New Jersey Net Brian Scalabrine, another product of the great northwest. Until now, I had always been curious about what some of these ‘straight-out-of-high-school’ players thought about the potential of and NBA lock-out. What will they do if not allowed to make their millions that they had, to this point, worked so hard for? While this was not, by any means, an official interview, I was able to gain some insight on the thoughts of a high school superstar as he prepares for life in the League and potentially life without.
Regarding a potential lockout, he did not seem worried, rather the opposite, he was prepared. In the event of a lockout, his plan was to continue his training so that he didn’t miss a step. A lockout would not last forever. His arrangement was quite simple, to continue advancing his game for the time when his number was called. He was going to get to the League eventually and he knew that. For someone, let alone an 18-year-old, whose dream of playing in the NBA and with that, instant millionaire status, was at risk of being pushed back, he did not seem to let it bother him all that much. No doubt, a result of realizing that it was out of his immediate control.
Among the many issues involved with setting up a new collective bargaining agreement is a proposed new rule that would set the League minimum age limit to 20 years of age, similar to that of the NFL. Personally, after seeing the results/failure of some youngsters making the high school to NBA jump, I had a tendency to lean toward enforcing some type of age limit. However, as I was talking with Martell, my opinion began to shift a bit. Though he did not speak much regarding the proposed age limit, my opinion changed as a result of how mature this youngster really was, mind and body. The jump to the NBA was not a risk, it was an inevitability, one that he had been training for a long time now. He had done his cost/benefit analysis and recognized that he could indeed make the leap to the NBA.
Mr. Webster was a man. Not only was he a man, like his predecessor LeBron James, he was composed, unruffled and ready for the jump to the NBA. In other words, this was not Kwame Brown.
Now teams and scouts have a better grasp Mr. Webster’s physical abilities and after reading some reports, Webster will need a little time to develop. But another important trait teams look at is personality and maturity. Can a player handle the jump right out of high school? Martell did not know me, nor did he know I was a hack-writer for a legitimate sports site. He didn’t have to do anything to impress me; he could have easily played the part of a pompous, spoiled soon-to-be millionaire like so many do when they the money coming their. And yet, in spite all of this; he made the choice to be personable and friendly. A trait that, along with his NBA build, should have many teams salivating. |
