Hunter working out at SF - Springer

[Eggcentric@xxxxxxx]

Guess you can never have too many small forwards. It was a shrewd move
signing Hunter as a practice player to teach Williams, McCarty, Jones,
Brown, Pierce the fine art of rebounding at that position.

Josh - thanks for loaning Shira your tape measure.  You have to love her 
"at a CHARITABLY listed 6 feet 7 inches."

Egg
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Instinctive Hunter
Celtic rookie has a nose for rebounding

By Shira Springer, Globe Staff, 8/17/2003

WALTHAM -- Though he earned a spot on the Celtics because of his
rebounding, Brandon Hunter is not one-dimensional. He can change
diapers. Heat a baby bottle to the perfect temperature. Cook a family
dinner. He learned to keep a clean home, and wash and sort laundry at
age 10. By that age, Hunter was helping to raise his two youngest
siblings, sisters Jenna and Jenelle.
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When asked about his parents, Hunter offers "no comment." He figures
there will be a proper time to talk about them, when he finds the
right way. For now, suffice it to say they were not around when he and
his five siblings were growing up in Cincinnati. Hunter was raised by
his grandfather, Arthur Clark Jr., who told him to never make excuses
and never back down. Clark handed Hunter adult responsibilities well
before junior high school, and the two quickly grew to be more like
brothers, despite the 38-year age difference.

"My grandfather used to tell me he wasn't my maid, so I better come in
and learn how to cook or I'd go hungry," said Hunter. "My grandfather
taught me to be a man."

Hunter had little time for extracurricular activities, which explains
why he came late to basketball and cannot believe someone will
actually pay him $1 million to play for the next two years. He joined
his school basketball team in eighth grade but never made a single
practice. He tried organized ball a second time as a junior in high
school, and this time he stuck with it long enough to realize he had
talent. Recruiters for major college programs were slow to come to 
the same conclusion, however.

All of this helps explain why the role of undersized power forward
perfectly suits Hunter's personality. He enjoys the challenge of
outrebounding bigger opponents. Like other NBA players who believe
they have been unfairly judged too small or too slow or not athletic
enough, Hunter has a lot to prove. Minutes after signing with the
Celtics last month, Hunter chose No. 56 as a reminder of where he was
selected in last spring's draft, how far he has come and how far he
must go. Hunter is the first second-rounder signed by Boston in seven
years.

"I hate `what-ifs?' " said Hunter. "I don't want to be 35 and say,
`What if?' What if I worked out two or three times a day in college?
What if I studied more? What if this? What if that? So I just give it
my all every day and let everything else take care of itself."

Getting the bounces

Any college senior seeking career advice during a recession would 
have heard something similar to what George Jackson told Hunter last
summer: Find a marketable skill and use it to stand out among the
crowd. For Hunter, that skill was rebounding. He finished his senior
season at Ohio University as the country's leading rebounder,
averaging 12.6 per game at a charitably listed 6 feet 7 inches. He
finished his college career as the school's leading career rebounder
with 1,103, breaking the record set by Gary Trent, now with the
Minnesota Timberwolves.

Jackson coached Hunter at Withrow High School in Cincinnati, where
rebounding was everyone's job. Nothing made Jackson angrier than
allowing the opponent a second chance to score. He had all five
players crash the glass. He ran rebounding drills ad nauseam in
practice. The Withrow program has a history of producing strong
rebounders, including Tyrone Hill, LaSalle Thompson, and now Hunter.

"We knew getting the kids we got from the inner city that they don't
go to all the fundamentals camps growing up," said Jackson, now an
assistant at Seton Hall. "They don't have the great shooting technique
and all the proper form. If we know that there's more than a 60
percent chance we're going to shoot and miss, then you better instill
in your players the urgency to rebound. Brandon caught on quick.
Nothing he'll do in the pros will surprise me."

The Celtics are in need of a solid rebounder, someone to help Paul
Pierce and Antoine Walker on the glass. Last season, Boston averaged
40.5 rebounds per game, ranking 26th in the NBA. With an average of
10.4 offensive rebounds, the Celtics ranked second to last. Hunter
hopes to get the minutes to help improve those statistics.

"Rebounding is about athleticism, but mostly positioning and really
wanting it," said Hunter. "I'm pretty strong. I'm wide. I'm pretty
athletic, so I just put guys on my back and just go get the ball. I'm
trying to show them that's what I can do. I think it's true, if you
can rebound in college, you can rebound in the pros because it's all
about the positioning and knowing where you are on the floor."

Rebounding is also about timing. On the court, Hunter has benefited
from near-perfect timing. In life, he has not been so lucky.

Tragedy intervenes

Hunter declared for the 2002 draft as an early-entry candidate, worked
out for Indiana, and questioned general managers and coaches about
where he might be selected. Because he was not a sure first-round
selection, Hunter withdrew his name. But the experience left him
certain he could play in the NBA. If he waited one more year, Hunter
knew, he could finally give back to his grandfather. Then everything
changed on July 28, 2002.

Returning from a family reunion in Hawkinsville, Ga., Clark and three
other relatives were half an hour from Cincinnati when Clark fell
asleep at the wheel. Upon waking, Clark jerked the steering wheel and
rolled his Ford Explorer three times on a stretch of Interstate 75
that runs through Dry Ridge, Ky. The three passengers suffered only
minor injuries. Clark was paralyzed from the neck down. He died March
13, 2003, the night before Hunter's last college game, a loss in the
Mid-American Conference semifinals. Hunter received the news hours
before tipoff, played off raw emotion, then drove home to attend the
funeral.

Asked how much he regrets that his grandfather cannot see him now,
Hunter said, "Like crazy. He sacrificed so much for me, and as soon as
I get where my goal was [he's not here].

"In high school, I knew whatever I did I wanted to make a lot of money
so I could help my grandfather a lot, not just giving him $200 for his
car payment, but giving him $200,000 to buy a house. I thank him every
day. I see how much he taught me without even saying anything. He
taught me an aggressive mentality. How many players do you know that
are good that if they were more aggressive, they would be great 
players?"

By all accounts, Hunter was a strong-willed, serious kid. Though he
had no time for organized sports in junior high, he dedicated extra
hours to training in high school. He would leave the house at night to
work out at the Withrow track. At first, his uncle, Larry Hunter,
thought Brandon was finding trouble on the streets of Cincinnati. But
when Larry trailed his nephew one night, he found Brandon running
stadium stairs at the high school. Whatever anger Brandon felt about
his family situation he channeled into basketball.

"I'm not going to say he was abused, but he wasn't treated well, like
he should have been, by both sides of the family, his mother and
father," said Larry Hunter. "It affected him, but he basically was
able to come out of it and really do something with himself. Maybe it
was because he had a supporting cast like myself, his other uncles,
his grandfather. He didn't let a nonexistent relationship with his
mother and father hold him back from trying to do something."

Sizing him up

Distraught after an apathetic home loss to Akron his junior year at
Ohio University, Hunter took out his frustrations on a ball rack and
water cooler, throwing them across the locker room. Despite coach Tim
O'Shea's instructions to stay, Hunter showered, dressed, and left
without a word. He could not listen to excuses from his teammates.

But before leaving the Convocation Center that night, he stopped to
sign autographs for a group of kids. For obvious reasons, Hunter has a
special affinity for his young fans. He never wants to disappoint
them. That was clear last week when he became the Celtics' newest
ambassador to the community. As part of the Citizens Bank Summer
Caravan, Hunter and Walter McCarty hosted a two-hour clinic at the
Medford Boys & Girls Club. Hunter talked about his specialty --
rebounding -- but his message was more about heart and effort 
trumping size.

"In Las Vegas, Paul [Pierce] said, `Let's go one-on-one in the post,'
" said Hunter. "I told him, `I will murder you. You're too little.'
Paul said, `It's not about size. It's about heart.' I just looked at
him and gave him a laugh and I thought to myself, `I'm not here
because I'm 6-10.' "

Hunter is here primarily because of what he can do on the glass.
Almost as soon as team officials saw him record three straight
double-doubles in summer league play, they entered into contract
negotiations. Determined not to face any "what-ifs?" when training
camp starts, Hunter worked out twice a day at the Celtics' practice
facility last week, then returned to Cincinnati for a long weekend. He
will be back in town this week for more workouts.

According to Hunter, he has focused "mostly on wing stuff," learning
the Boston system as a small forward. While he may lack power forward
height, he has strength and bulk to spare at a stacked 260 pounds.
When asked to identify his biggest weakness, Hunter pointed to
shooting, though he has been practicing the type of open jump shots he
expects to have with defenses drawn to Pierce and Walker.

"We want to see what we have in Brandon," said assistant coach Frank
Vogel. "He brings a lot more to the table if he can play some [small
forward]. So we're just experimenting with that to see if it's a
possibility."

Scouts who saw him play at the Shaw's Pro Summer League and Tim
Grgurich's Las Vegas camp remarked on Hunter's consistency. He is the
type of player who rarely has a bad game and can be counted on to
practice hard. Even if Hunter sees limited playing time, he can be the
tough player Jim O'Brien needs for productive workouts. But Hunter
believes he can earn minutes, just as he earned a two-year NBA deal.
"For me to get drafted 56 was kind of disappointing," said Hunter. "A
lot of it was because of my size. I didn't hear in one poll about my
mid-range jump shot, my tenacious rebounding, my ability to guard
quicker people. All I heard was, `He's too small.'

"So I definitely have a really big chip on my shoulder. A lot of guys
have proven that when they're undersized they can play. I can play,
and that's what I'm out to prove."