Welcome Brevin Knight
Every basketball player grows up dreaming about the NBA. I'm pretty sure, though, that nobody grows up dreaming of doing it the way Brevin Knight has.
The veteran point guard has enjoyed exactly one full season with a winning team. That was as a rookie in Cleveland. He's spent six full seasons with teams that have lost 50 games or more. Knight's been on expansion teams in Charlotte and relocated teams in Memphis.
Forget playing for Phil Jackson, Pat Riley or Gregg Popovich. Knight has played for Randy Wittman, Lon Kruger, Sidney Lowe and Bernie Bickerstaff.
It's far from the most glamorous path, but Knight has had one of the 420 or so most coveted jobs in the world the last 11 years. He's been an NBA player, and now Knight will finally get the chance to play for a contender with the Jazz.
Thanks to Jonathan Rinehart of the Jazz's p.r. staff, we got Elias Sports Bureau to run the numbers on Knight's career. He's played in 655 games for eight teams and has a career record of 233-422, good for a .356 winning percentage.
That's the equivalent of suffering through a 29-53 season . . . for an entire career. Obviously, Knight's numbers are worse for having played three seasons with the Bobcats, but stints with the Grizzlies and Clippers don't help, either.
He averaged 10.1 points and 9.0 assists during the expansion 2004-05 season and felt Charlotte overachieved during his years there. The Bobcats improved from 18 to 26 to 33 victories in three seasons. Knight still makes his off-season home in North Carolina.
* * *
For the first time in five years of covering the NBA, I'm actually going to have a player on one of my teams who's shorter than me. Knight's listed at 5-foot-10 and every reporter in the room Thursday was sizing him up, myself included.
The closest I've come before was with Chucky Atkins and Shammond Williams on the Lakers, but I think both those guys had an inch on me. I've definitely got an inch on Knight, and I have to say that it feels great.
Another reporter who shall go nameless told a story about venturing into the Denver Nuggets' locker room when Earl Boykins was on the team just so he could stand next to the one NBA player he could tower over.
--Ross Siler
The veteran point guard has enjoyed exactly one full season with a winning team. That was as a rookie in Cleveland. He's spent six full seasons with teams that have lost 50 games or more. Knight's been on expansion teams in Charlotte and relocated teams in Memphis.
Forget playing for Phil Jackson, Pat Riley or Gregg Popovich. Knight has played for Randy Wittman, Lon Kruger, Sidney Lowe and Bernie Bickerstaff.
It's far from the most glamorous path, but Knight has had one of the 420 or so most coveted jobs in the world the last 11 years. He's been an NBA player, and now Knight will finally get the chance to play for a contender with the Jazz.
Thanks to Jonathan Rinehart of the Jazz's p.r. staff, we got Elias Sports Bureau to run the numbers on Knight's career. He's played in 655 games for eight teams and has a career record of 233-422, good for a .356 winning percentage.
That's the equivalent of suffering through a 29-53 season . . . for an entire career. Obviously, Knight's numbers are worse for having played three seasons with the Bobcats, but stints with the Grizzlies and Clippers don't help, either.
He averaged 10.1 points and 9.0 assists during the expansion 2004-05 season and felt Charlotte overachieved during his years there. The Bobcats improved from 18 to 26 to 33 victories in three seasons. Knight still makes his off-season home in North Carolina.
* * *
For the first time in five years of covering the NBA, I'm actually going to have a player on one of my teams who's shorter than me. Knight's listed at 5-foot-10 and every reporter in the room Thursday was sizing him up, myself included.
The closest I've come before was with Chucky Atkins and Shammond Williams on the Lakers, but I think both those guys had an inch on me. I've definitely got an inch on Knight, and I have to say that it feels great.
Another reporter who shall go nameless told a story about venturing into the Denver Nuggets' locker room when Earl Boykins was on the team just so he could stand next to the one NBA player he could tower over.
--Ross Siler
4:48 PM
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