Free agent Brandan Wright still can't sign with a team until next week 

By CAROL STUART
Brentwood Home Page
Pro basketball player Brandan Wright was a man without a league and is still a man without a team, but he came back home to his family’s Brentwood residence – and to coach for his high school, Brentwood Academy, during the NBA lockout.

Wright, who as a free agent can’t sign with an NBA team until Dec. 9, has been helping out his school with the freshman basketball team during the work stoppage. Since a settlement was reached last week, the former University of North Carolina star coached his last game with the ninth-grade team last night against Lipscomb and won’t be back next week.

Brandan Wright has been coaching the freshman team at his high school alma mater during the NBA lockout. (Photos by Phil Goodman / Brentwood Academy)

“Obviously I love this place. It kind of made me the person I am today,” Wright said before Wednesday’s practice after school. “. . . I just like spending time around here being a positive influence on the school and the kids. They’ve done a lot for me, so I definitely want to give back.”

The 6-foot-10 Wright – who has an incredible wingspan of about 7-foot-5½, making him a tough defender – looms over the BA freshmen during practice. Players like Brentwood’s Dawson Knox weren’t star-struck because many had seen him around campus, but they were awed by his height.

“I think the whole team knew that he was coming. We were all excited about it when we heard about it,” said Knox, a 5-9 guard. “But we were all like ‘Dang, he’s really tall’ at first.”

Wright says he hadn’t really considered coaching for his post-NBA career until after this experience.

“I’ve kind of warmed up to it because when I was a little bit younger, maybe 19 or 20 years old, I would never think I would coach because I know how it is as a player, I know how tough it is, I know how locker rooms are. But I think I wouldn’t mind coaching high school or below. College or the professional level, I kind of want to stay away from that.”

During the layoff since April, Wright also has been busy working out with his trainer, Spencer Richardson, and now he can finally turn his attention to an actual season – and finding somewhere to play. After playing for the Golden State Warriors for his first 3½ years, he was traded in February toward the end of last season to the New Jersey Nets and now is a free agent.

“I had a place in California that I recently moved out of a couple of months ago. I had a place in New Jersey that I moved out of at the end of the season. And then I have a place here, so there’s been a lot of moving going on,” Brandan said.

In the meantime, he’s been back in town living with his folks – after traveling all over the country and world.

“Usually I’m not in town as much as I’ve been in town. But I live with my folks here, and obviously I’ll get a place whatever city I get into, and next offseason I’ll have my own place,” he said.

“It’s not all bad, because I was pretty focused this offseason, pretty much just training, that was taking a lot of time up in my days. It’s good to go home and have a good home-cooked meal, and I just pretty much went to sleep and just watched TV. That was pretty much my schedule for the last 7 months.”

'W'e're kind of upset that the NBA lockout is over'

This has been the longest layoff Wright has had since two years ago when he missed the entire season after having shoulder surgery. He had also missed several games the previous year and rehabbed the injury before blowing it out again.

“Physically it’s not tough. Obviously, the rest didn’t hurt us at all. It’s only going to help us in the long run,” he said about the lockout. “But mentally, you’re used to being in a groove in early to late September. It’s almost the New Year and we still aren’t playing. That can be a big setback.

“I was kind of losing my mind a little bit just because I’m used to playing basketball, I’m used to traveling, all those things. You just have a lot of time on your hands.”

Lyle Husband, Brentwood Academy’s high school boys basketball coach, asked Wright in August if he wanted to coach the freshman team if the lockout continued. The former BA star said it was an easy decision.

“The challenging part I find about it … is sometimes the guys don’t execute what you practice, which I can relate to, because I’ve been on the other side of the stick also,” Wright said about being on the bench.

“You want to get out there and do everything yourself, but you can’t play, you’re coaching. I think that’s the toughest because you know exactly what to do, but at the same time you have to respect the young guys, 14 and 15 years old, freshmen, just scratching the surface in high school basketball so you can’t expect them to be all the way up to your mind level.”

NBA player Brandan Wright stands a foot taller than BA freshman guard Dawson Knox.

Wright and Richardson have been coaching the freshmen in practice for two weeks before their first game on Monday – a 5-point loss. Now after only one other game, Brandan will give way to his brother Brian, a 2007 BA graduate who was going take over once the NBA lockout was over.

“It’s been awesome. He’s been a great mentor to us,” Knox said. “We’re kind of upset that the lockout’s over so he’ll be leaving us soon. . . . We’ve just loved it so far and we’re sad he has to go, but it’s been great.

While he had met him before, Dawson hadn’t really ever gotten to know Wright like he did at practice. The Eagles ninth-graders also got a little taste of what it’s like to have a 6-10 professional player on the court.

“When we were doing summer workouts, we didn’t have enough players to scrimmage with, and he stepped in on one of the teams,” Dawson said. “One time he just drove it all by himself down the court and just jumped up one-handed and dunked over our tallest player (6-3 Peter Richards).”

Wright went from sunny Cali to snowy Jersey

Brandan Wright was actually asleep – but not for long – when news of the settlement between the NBA owners and players association broke about 3 a.m.-4 a.m. last week.

“My phone was sitting on the desk and I heard the phone vibrating a lot, and I woke up and checked my phone,” he said. “A lot of people were saying the season’s back on, the lockout is over. So I cut the TV on and obviously they had the settlement.”

While the deal meant the players can get back to the court, free agents like Brandan are still playing a waiting game. His agent has been busy on the line for him and other clients to try to talk with teams over the next two years, but no verbal agreements can be made and teams can’t say they’re holding money for a player, Wright said.

“You’ve got to wait for the 9th to be a part of a team,” he said. “But it’s a date in sight, so it’s not like waiting until whenever we can get this deal done. The deal is pretty much done. I’ve just got to find out where I’ll be.”

Wright saw the business end of basketball last season when he was traded from sunny California all the way across to the East Coast with about 30 games to play.

“It’s a different transition because you know the simple thing as a common person, the weather is a big thing,” Brandan said. “I went from mid-60s, sunny, every now and then a little rain, to getting off the plane in New Jersey and it’s like 20 degrees and snowing. So I mean that’s one adjustment.

“Obviously you switch conferences – that’s another adjustment too. The style of play is a little bit different. It actually took me a little while to get adjusted. I wasn’t completely comfortable until like the last 10 games of the season.”

It also took Wright a while when he first reached the pro ranks out of UNC to adjust to the grueling travel and physical demands of NBA schedule.

“Everybody that comes into the NBA can play obviously; otherwise they wouldn’t be there,” Brandan said. “The biggest thing is the travel, how many games you play, how compressed it is. The first couple of years, it’s kind of hard to get up every single night -- it’s kind of hard to bring it. As a young player, it’s hard to learn that but over time you get used to that. …

“You play so many games, obviously you get beat up. No guy in the NBA is 100% after 2 or 3 weeks because it’s the nature of the game. We do our best to take care of ourselves. We’ve got the best trainers and conditioning guys in the world so they do the best they can.”

Early injuries a concern with shortened season 

Players in the NBA have been planning the past 2½ for the possible contract breakdown, so they knew they might not get paid for a while. “We weren’t unprepared. That’s why we weren’t willing to accept a bad deal from the NBA and the owners. So guys were ready to endure the salary losses that were coming up this season if we weren’t able to play,” Wright said.

While he has been working out since late April / early May at BA and at Art of Strength in Franklin, Wright says the shortened season poses some concerns to players’ health. The normal schedule of 81 games is stretched from October through April – a period of 7 months.

Brandan Wright's trainer, Spencer Richardson, will continue coaching the Eagle freshmen with Brandan's brother Brian, also a BA graduate.

“This season will go by extremely fast, 66 games being compressed in four months. That’s going to be a really fast-paced switch-up,” Wright said.

“. . . You see how the NFL lockout was, a lot of guys went down the first week and you definitely don’t want that happen to you. So you can do all the training you want, that’s why you want to go the extra mile. It’s hard when you miss out so long being with your team and things you’re accustomed to, it’s hard to protect yourself against things that can happen.”

Training camps are now scheduled to open Dec. 9, but Wright doesn’t think he’ll be able to be on the court until up to a week later due to physicals and paperwork once free agents make deals. The NBA season will finally tip off Christmas Day for some games, with everybody playing by Dec. 26.

While the players have been able to spend time with their family, they’ll now be leaving just in time for the holidays.

“You got Thanksgiving. It’ll be a different Christmas this year, not entirely different than the past,” Wright said. “In the past you were already in the groove. But this year you’ll just be cranking it up, which will be kind of tough because in the holiday spirit you want to spend time with your family. At the same time you want to get on track because the season’s coming back.”