[ NBA SUMMER LEAGUES ]
English ready
to prove himselfThe former Rainbow star
will play in two summer leagues
After hitting a low point in his basketball life last week, former Hawaii guard Carl English is ready to begin his rebound.
English has signed on to play in two NBA summer leagues this month in hopes of catching on with a team as a free agent. English had hoped to be selected in last week's NBA Draft, but was not among the 58 players taken in the two-round event.
"The frustration is over and I have to focus and get the job done right now," English said in a telephone interview yesterday.
English has agreed to play with the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Pepsi Pro Summer League in Orlando and with the Indiana Pacers in the Rocky Mountain Revue in Salt Lake City, his agent, Harold Cipin, said.
The Orlando league runs from July 8 to 12. The Utah league runs from July 18 to 26.
English said he's scheduled to leave for a mini-camp in Indiana today and heads to Minnesota after the Indiana camp.
Cipin said English will not be paid for playing in the leagues, but the payoff will be the exposure he receives by playing in front of NBA coaches and scouts.
"He's going to work really hard and play hard at those two leagues and hopefully things will work out for him," said Cipin, a Toronto-based agent with Slingshot Management International.
English left UH with a year of eligibility remaining and officially ended his college career by hiring an agent.
English became a free agent after going undrafted. Although he will play with Minnesota and Indiana during the summer, he could end up signing with another team when training camps open in the fall.
English said he has put the disappointment of draft night behind him and is looking forward to getting back on the court.
"I'm fine," he said. "It was a low point. It's frustrating when you expect to go somewhere and you don't go. But that's over with now. I just have to go prove myself."
The NBA summer leagues give rookies, free agents and selected veterans a chance to hone their games or enhance their chances of hooking up with a club.
Like the NBA's pre-draft camp in Chicago in early June, the summer league will give English a chance to display his skills under game conditions. Cipin said that format should highlight English's repertoire better than the individual workouts he participated in prior to the draft.
Minnesota and Indiana were among the six teams that brought English in for an individual workout.
"It depends on what everybody's looking for, but these are games, so it's going to be more along the lines of how he played in Chicago," Cipin said. "I think it'll be better than a one-on-one or two-on-two workout for sure. He'll be able to display his entire game."
Orlando, Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota, Miami and Milwaukee have teams entered in the Pepsi Pro Summer League, which will also feature the professional debut of Cleveland's LeBron James, the top overall pick in the draft.
Minnesota plays Detroit in its opener on July 8. The Timberwolves face Cleveland on July 10.
The Minnesota roster includes the Timberwolves' two draft picks, high-schooler Ndudi Ebi and Rick Rickert of Minnesota.
The full rosters for the Rocky Mountain Revue have yet to be posted.
In the days following the draft, English said he was buoyed by the support he received from UH coaches and he's anxious for a chance to work his way into the league.
"I've got to bust my ass now and get back to prove a lot of people wrong," he said.