After breaking the Duke and ACC all-time scoring records, J.J. Redick now has his sights set on the June 28 NBA Draft in New York. In the third installment of a regular summer series, Redick catches up with The Chronicle after his workout Wednesday with Seattle.
- as told to Gregory Beaton
It's been a busy week for me.
I worked out for Seattle today, Utah yesterday and Golden State last Friday. They were all pretty different. Golden State was five wings and two bigs, and only four of us could be on the court at the same time. The Jazz workout was four wings and today it was me, Randy Foye and two bigs. At every workout the structure was a little different and I think I showed some things.
At each workout there's a little drill work-some ball-handling, some shooting. Each team runs it a little differently. There's some 2-on-2 and 1-on-1 usually mixed in there as well.
I've met with those three teams, but Golden State not as much. When I got up to Seattle last night we had a little bit of a meet-and-greet at their facility. I pretty much sat down with everyone on their staff and chatted with them 1-on-1.
Utah is a place that I'm definitely interested in and I hope it's reciprocal. I met with their General Manager, Kevin O'Connor, in L.A. a few weeks ago and obviously I got to see them again yesterday. I talked with Coach Sloan and his staff. I felt like the workout and the interview went well.
The interviews after the workouts are definitely one of the most interesting parts of the experience. You can really get some bizarre questions. I've gotten everything from "How can you help the team?" to just asking me "What is 1-and-1?" They said they wanted to know if you think abstractly or concretely. There are a lot of psychological tests and questions. I understand, but it's funny sometimes.
I'm pretty familiar with that kind of stuff, though. We did some of that kind of psychological stuff at the beginning of this year to get to know each other better.
One of the workouts, I had to write a self-description. They said, "You have 10 minutes," and that was the only guideline. I was thinking, "Do I write about basketball?" I basically just made some stuff up. Every test has a little different format but all of them are getting at the same thing.
Teams are making a big investment. No matter who they choose they want to know what kind of person they're getting.
The travel definitely takes its toll, the whole process can wear you down. Some teams put me on first class, I won't name names. Some teams have put me on Southwest-you know, the whole find-your-own-seat thing.
I'm going back to L.A. before I head to Houston for a workout Saturday. After that I'm actually going to head to Duke for a few days before I go to Orlando for the pre-draft camp. I'm not going to play there, just going for the physical. The day the Orlando camp ends actually I'm going to work out for the Magic.
I'm not too worried about what number I get drafted. I want a good situation for me, a situation where I can prove myself right away. I couldn't care less what number I'm making. The difference in money between a few picks is not that big. Right now I'm working out for the teams between six and 14, and for Chicago, which has the second and 16th picks.
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