Bradley eyes 2019-2020NBA Defensive award

YANNICK QUINTAL

NEW Los Angeles Lakers guard Avery Bradley wrapped up the third and final day of the Avery Bradley Skills Academy Basketball Camp at the Central Regional Indoor Sports Area in Saith Park, Chaguanas on Friday.

Newsday caught up with the former All-Defensive Team shooting guard, hours before he returned to the United States, to talk about how the local talent has shaped up, the possible future of basketball development in the Caribbean and his goals for the 2019-2020 NBA season. Here is the second and final part of the interview...

YANNICK QUINTAL (YQ): The NBA hosted a Basketball Without Borders camp in the Bahamas in 2017 and there have been players born in the Caribbean that have made it and had success in the NBA; more recently with Bahamians Buddy Hield and DeAndre Ayton as well as household names like Al Horford, JJ Barea and basketball greats such as Patrick Ewing and Tim Duncan. Carl Herrera was a Trinidadian-born player that was a role player on the championship teams of the Houston Rockets in the 90s. So what is the possibility of the NBA implementing their Basketball Without Borders programme in the Caribbean?

AVERY BRADLEY (AB): Yeah I mean I would love to. That is my vision and I think it’s needed. I always tell people, you know, my high school teammates were Tristan Thompson (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Cory Joseph (Indiana Pacers). Tristan Thompson has Jamaican roots and Cory Joseph has Trinidadian roots and a lot of people don’t know that, you know? They’re both from Toronto. I feel like most of the players in the NBA that are from Toronto which is a lot, over the past five years; a ton, and they’re all very good players and all have Caribbean roots. And I feel like, Andrew Wiggins (Timberwolves), Joel Anthony (plays in Argentina) who I played with. I played with Al Horford (76ers) from the Dominican Republic. There’s a lot of talent here. It’s just, we just got to do a better job of teaching them how to play basketball properly and again like I said, there could be a lot of professionals that come from the Caribbean like as of late, (DeAndre) Ayton and Buddy Hield (The Bahamas).

YQ: What are your personal goals going into the season as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers and your thoughts on playing with LeBron James as opposed to playing against him over the past nine years?”

AB: So my personal goal is to win Defensive Player of the Year. I feel like being on this stage, playing with some of the best players in the world. Playing with one of the best players in the game, if not the best. I feel like it’s a great opportunity to show what I can do defensively, and I just want to give myself a chance to be the player I know I can be. All my goals equal that.

That’s what I look forward to and I’m definitely looking forward to playing with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins, Rajon Rondo, Kyle Kuzma, Danny Green, Jared Dudley, that’s just to name a few of the guys. I’m looking forward to playing with all my teammates. I always look at, when you’re going to part of a new organisation, you don’t only learn from the front office, you’re able to learn from your teammates, each and every one of them. I appreciate all of them and I feel like it’s going to be great for me on and off the court, learning from certain guys.

YQ: What are your thoughts on this past Free Agency period from a parity and competitive standpoint, with the way the talent has been spread around the NBA?

AB: Yeah I think what the NBA was able to accomplish this past free agency, it was the coolest free agencies that I was able to be a part of. It’s a lot of talent spread out throughout the league. It’s not as lopsided as it has been in the past. Although I do feel like every team is still competitive. You know the West is still tough. There’s no nights off.

I feel like how we were able to spread out the competition and the talent throughout the league it’s going to make the NBA very exciting this year so, I hope the fans are ready for this NBA season ‘cause it’s gonna be big.