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Gilbert Brown was one of three players not taken in the draft. But, as expected, he does have some options, starting with the Boston Celtics.
It didn't take long after the draft for Brown to get a phone call:Gilbert Brown did not hear his name called Thursday night during the NBA draft, but the former Pitt player did not have much time to dwell on the disappointment. Minutes after the draft ended, Boston GM Danny Ainge phoned and told Brown he wanted to bring him in for a free agent tryout.
Ainge sounded pretty high on Gil and, Gil's pretty confident in his own abilities, too:
"Hands down, I was the best player at every workout I had," Brown said. "The one workout in Phoenix had Jordan Hamilton (selected 26th by the Mavericks) and Klay Thompson (selected 11th by the Warriors). I hit all of my shots, and no one oculd score on me. It was one of the best displays of my ability. A lot of people only had me as a defender and an athlete coming into the draft, but at these workouts I was able to show that I could do a lot more than what I did at Pitt. I showed I was able to score the basketball, and I was able to show them that I was an even better defender than what I showed in college."
Afterwards, Gil sounded at least a little surprised:
"I thought I had a really legitimate shot," Brown said by phone Friday afternoon. "As you see, the way the draft went with a lot of overseas picks, a lot of things fell out of the loop."
And after hearing from Ainge, he thinks Boston could be a good landing spot:
"Right now, it sounds like Boston is the best fit for me," he said.
The only thing is that, for Brown and others, there's the tricky situation of a potential NBA lockout. But his agent has a plan, and it includes being shipped overseas:
Brown's Los Angeles-based agent, T.J. Doyle, said the 6-foot-6 Harrisburg native already has an offer to play overseas with an option that will allow him to return to an NBA camp after the lockout ends.
"If you are undrafted, you should not wait because, with no summer leagues, they are not going to make a team," Doyle said Wednesday. "There's none of that this year. Instead of waiting around, you might as well go make money and work on your game and stay in shape."