A.J. Hammons is on to the NBA now, a second-round pick of the Dallas Mavericks.
Now — and he needs to understand, and embrace, this — comes the hard part.
Look, Hammons is a skilled 7-footer with soft hands, great feet and all the physical tools you can want in a true center. The basketball world should be his figurative oyster.
In this day and age, he shouldn't have been in college for any more than about 20 months. Yet, this past season he was still a man playing a boy's game.
Under a different set of circumstances, he might be completing his rookie contract by now.
But there were reasons he was still in college these past few years, reasons the NBA's kingmakers delved deeply into the past few months, investigating realities that don't just change overnight, not after 23 years, four of them playing college basketball at college basketball's highest levels for a program that genuinely does preach accountability.
Hammons has faced questions, important ones, and now comes the time to answer them. He's been inconsistent as a player and person. People think he's lazy, undisciplined. They worry what he might do when he has money in his pocket, a dynamic that can go one of two ways for a player once they make the jump.
I'm not chronicling all this stuff to rehash things that have already been beaten into the ground, but rather to underscore Hammons' opportunity now.
Hammons is a lottery talent, a player capable of phoning in double-doubles in the Big Ten at three-quarter speed.
But he wasn't a lottery pick.
Instead, he was a lottery ticket, a flier taken with little investment that can simply be pitched if it scratches.
It's on Hammons now.
It's on Hammons to be accountable, to take care of his body, to try harder and try harder all the time, to develop the work ethic that pros say pros need to make it. If you mixed A.J. Hammons' ability and body with Caleb Swanigan's work ethic, they'd have to call in the National Guard.
If Hammons grasps all this, the basketball world is still his oyster.
The NBA is no longer ruled by the center, but the center will always loom large.
As an individual, Hammons has questions.
As a player, Hammons has almost everything you can want in a center.
We'll see what he does with it.
Now — and he needs to understand, and embrace, this — comes the hard part.
Look, Hammons is a skilled 7-footer with soft hands, great feet and all the physical tools you can want in a true center. The basketball world should be his figurative oyster.
In this day and age, he shouldn't have been in college for any more than about 20 months. Yet, this past season he was still a man playing a boy's game.
Under a different set of circumstances, he might be completing his rookie contract by now.
But there were reasons he was still in college these past few years, reasons the NBA's kingmakers delved deeply into the past few months, investigating realities that don't just change overnight, not after 23 years, four of them playing college basketball at college basketball's highest levels for a program that genuinely does preach accountability.
Hammons has faced questions, important ones, and now comes the time to answer them. He's been inconsistent as a player and person. People think he's lazy, undisciplined. They worry what he might do when he has money in his pocket, a dynamic that can go one of two ways for a player once they make the jump.
I'm not chronicling all this stuff to rehash things that have already been beaten into the ground, but rather to underscore Hammons' opportunity now.
Hammons is a lottery talent, a player capable of phoning in double-doubles in the Big Ten at three-quarter speed.
But he wasn't a lottery pick.
Instead, he was a lottery ticket, a flier taken with little investment that can simply be pitched if it scratches.
It's on Hammons now.
It's on Hammons to be accountable, to take care of his body, to try harder and try harder all the time, to develop the work ethic that pros say pros need to make it. If you mixed A.J. Hammons' ability and body with Caleb Swanigan's work ethic, they'd have to call in the National Guard.
If Hammons grasps all this, the basketball world is still his oyster.
The NBA is no longer ruled by the center, but the center will always loom large.
As an individual, Hammons has questions.
As a player, Hammons has almost everything you can want in a center.
We'll see what he does with it.
