By: Dave McMenamin - ESPN.com NBA
There was a time when Mike Taylor was a bit of a
phenomenon on the Los Angeles hoops scene.
The former Indian of Chipola College was drafted by Portland in the
second round in 2008 out of Iowa State, the 6-2, 165-pound guard
was traded to the L.A. Clippers on draft night.
Taylor was overshadowed by fellow Clippers rookies Eric
Gordon and DeAndre Jordan and was buried in the
depth chart on a cluttered roster that was led by a
rehabbing Baron Davis and a trio of big men -- Chris
Kaman, Zach Randolph and Marcus Camby -- who
could never seem to stay healthy at the same time.
But in late March of that forgotten Clippers season, Taylor caught
lightning in a bottle. The Clips were on the tail end of a brutal
late season six-game road trip. They had lost the first three games
of the trip, and 11 of 13 overall, when they arrived at Madison
Square Garden to play the New York Knicks. Taylor, who
averaged 5.7 points his rookie season, exploded for 35 points on
14-for-20 shooting, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals.
The Clippers won. The rook was rewarded with major minutes in the
Clippers next game in San Antonio. He came through again with 23
points on 10-for-13 shooting.
Taylor averaged 29 points on 72.7 shooting in those two games, yet
hasn’t played a game in the NBA since the end of that
season.
Fast forward four years later. Taylor is on the court playing
against a team that includes James Harden, DeMar
DeRozan and Terrance Jones. It’s not the NBA, it’s
a Sunday at the Drew League -- L.A.’s own summer pro-am
league -- and Taylor is up to his old tricks, scoring the
game’s first bucket and crowding Harden immediately after the
ball fell through the hoop, unapologetically playing full court
defense against a guy who outweighs him by about 60 pounds and who
was both an All-Star and an Olympic gold medalist in the last
calendar year.
“It’s professional basketball,” Taylor said after
the game was over. His team, Kings of L.A., trailed team Money Gang
by 16 at the half but battled all the way back, losing 103-100 when
Taylor missed a desperation 3 at the buzzer.
Taylor finished with 30 points on 10-for-18 shooting, six rebounds,
four assists and three steals. Two other players scored 30 --
Harden, who signed a five-year, $80 million deal with Houston last
fall, had 35. Dorrell Wright, Taylor’s teammate, who signed a
two-year, $6 million deal with Portland this summer, had 33.
Taylor, who played in the Czech Republic last season and later with
the L.A. D-Fenders, the Lakers’ D-League affiliate, is simply
looking for a training camp invite where he can show what he can do
against that competition the same way he does it in the
Drew.
“We got high-level professionals out there,” Taylor
said. “Even though it is kind of recreational, summer league
basketball, when you have that caliber of players out there, it
gets kind of serious.”
The Drew League in South Central L.A. is celebrating its 40th
anniversary this season.
It’s serious and big time and mom-and-pop all at the same
time. Some of the headliners who show up are the same names
you’re likely to see participating in NBA All-Star weekend
(and Nike has stepped up as a corporate sponsor), yet at the
concession stand you can purchase a cup of homemade “Drew
Aid” for just $1.50.
The games don’t matter nearly as much to the big-name players
who run in them as an NBA regular-season game would, yet in a way,
they matter more. Admission is free and many of the NBA stars that
are regulars grew up in the area, so the stands are filled with
family, friends and neighbors who usually only get to see them play
games on TV.
For a guy like Taylor, it’s about proving
something.
“It’s just being a competitor,” Taylor said.
“I like to compete and from the very first jump, it
doesn’t matter who’s out there. I’m going to give
my 200 percent.”
For a guy like Harden, it’s about getting a good run in, not
getting embarrassed and putting on a bit of a show in the process.
While it seemed like Harden was coasting for much of Sunday’s
game, he still ended up as the game’s high scorer and did
most of his damage in the fourth quarter to make sure his team -- a
star-studded collection of talent culled by the rapper The Game --
held on for the win.
For guys like Bobby Brown, Marcus
Williams and Hassan Adams, who all had brief stints in
the NBA at one point and played in the game that tipped off just
before Harden and Taylor’s, it’s about pride. Their
Drew League team, L.A. Unified, is consistently a top squad every
summer.
For guys like Gilbert Arenas and Nick Young, who played on the
same team even earlier in the day (Arenas scored 33, Young scored
31), it’s about continuing a brotherhood that started back
when Arenas’ father coached Young’s AAU team and
continued when they became teammates on the Washington
Wizards.
There are basketball players at all stages of life in the league
dumped into one big melting pot. The D-League hopeful, the Euro
journeyman, the budding NBA superstar, the marginal NBA guy
scrapping to stay in the league, the guys who peaked in high school
but still love to play, they all share the same stage.
Harden was in a rush to leave the gym Sunday because he was taking
his nephews to the airport to catch a flight. As he made a beeline
towards the exit, politely declining a handful of photo requests
along the way and doing the walk-and-talk with a couple other
acquaintances who approached him, there was one guy for whom he
stopped dead in his tracks: Casper Ware. Ware, a 5-10, 175-pound
guard who finished up his college ball at Long Beach State in 2012,
was the Drew League MVP last season. Harden might be an All-Star
and Olympic gold medalist, but he’s no Drew League MVP. He
paid his respects.
The Drew League’s been known in L.A. for decades, but really
gained recognition on a national level during the NBA lockout of
2011 when everyone from LeBron James, to Kevin Durant,
to Kobe Bryant suited up to play at the dilapidated
little gym at Washington Park (the league has since moved to
King-Drew High School to accommodate larger crowds, and might need
to move again, as evidenced by the line out the door at least
200-people deep trying to get in for the Harden game when the gym
was already at capacity).
With the work stoppage situation looking bleak, NBA players flocked
to pro-am leagues and hastily arranged charity games throughout the
summer as a show of solidarity that the owners could lock them out
of the NBA, but they could never take the sport of basketball away
from them.
Bryant’s appearance at the Drew was one of the signature
moments of the summer, a bright spot for hoopheads who were being
demoralized from talk of “BRI” and “B-list
issues,” and flocked to YouTube videos of performances like
Bryant at the Drew or Durant at Rucker Park, to get their fix of
the sport.
“That was an epic game,” Drew League commissioner Dino
Smiley recalled. “We asked in the locker room, we knew Kobe
was going to play and we had all these NBA guys -- DeMar, James
(Harden), Derrick Williams -- so I said, ‘Kobe
wants a real game, who is going to make him play hard?’ And
James Harden raised his hand and said, ‘I got his ass.’
That’s where it all started.”
Bryant broke a 137-137 tie by hitting a fadeaway from the foul line
at the buzzer over Harden. Bryant finished with 45 points, Harden
had 44. The two have developed into fierce competitors against one
another ever since, with Harden getting payback by knocking Bryant
out of the playoffs in 2012 when he was still with
the Oklahoma City Thunder, and then luring Dwight
Howard away from L.A. to come play for the Houston
Rockets.
“It’s a good rivalry and it’s fun to watch
it,” Smiley said. “We’re proud to say it all
started at our place.”
There will be many more rivalries started in the Drew League. More
friendships forged. More careers attempted to be turned around.
More stories to be told.
There will be many more players like Mike Taylor in the Drew,
married to the game, for better or for worse.
“It’s been a rocky road, but this is the life that I
chose,” said Taylor.