National Basketball Association

Outlook good for rising prospect

Published Jun. 28, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Inconspicuous, he is not.

Meyers Leonard grinned sheepishly as he ducked his head to exit an eatery inside Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. As he crossed the massive foyer, necks swiveled. Whispers grew.

“He must be 7-feet tall,” a woman within earshot said.

The NBA draft profile has Leonard listed at 7-foot-tall. In case there were any questions as to whether his stature is a defining trait, he was on this day wearing his University of Illinois game shorts.

“Gotta represent your school,” Leonard said as he prepared to board a train bound for New York City after working out for the 76ers on Tuesday.

And yet Leonard is done representing the Illini after only two seasons.

“I feel the timing is right for me to follow my dream of playing in the NBA,” said Leonard when he declared for the NBA draft on April 3, “and having the opportunity to provide for my mom and family.”

The 3:30 p.m. Acela Express to Penn Station did not have a sleeper car per se, but anywhere Leonard tucked his 85-inch frame would in essence be one. Leonard, who averaged 13.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game as a sophomore, opted to turn pro despite having failed to make even Third-Team All-Big Ten.

Since deciding to turn pro, though, the big kid from the small town of Robinson, Ill., has soared up the draft boards. Most experts have him being selected anywhere between No. 7 and 12 tonight.

“I think he’s going to prove better than some people think,” NBA director of scouting Ryan Blake said. “He can shoot the ball and can really run.”

Like Naismith Award winner Anthony Davis, the prohibitive first overall overall pick from Kentucky this evening, Leonard was born and raised in Illinois. Also like Davis, he underwent a six-inch growth spurt in one year during high school.

“I was as shocked as anyone when they told me I was 6-10,” Leonard said. “Besides a little knee pain, I had no idea.”

Davis hails from the south side of Chicago. Leonard grew up in a town of approximately 7,000 people tucked into the Land of Lincoln’s southeastern corner whose claim to fame is that the Heath Bar was invented there.

When Leonard was 6, his father, James, was killed while riding his bicycle in town. “It was a freak accident,” said Leonard of the death of his father, a 6-foot-4 golf pro who was 46. “He clipped his handlebars on a telephone pole. Maybe he got caught not paying attention.”

Tracie Leonard, Meyers’ mother, herself a 6-footer, had been athletic. However, a horseback riding injury and disk surgery left her with debilitating back pain. She was unable to work, putting the family into financial hardship while also making it impossible for her to get the proper care to relieve the pain and allow her to find employment.

His brother Bailey Leonard, two years his senior and a U.S. Marine, once told USA Today: “We slept on the living room floor with blankets and candles. No electricity. No water. No furniture.”

Into this void stepped Brian Siler, a local insurance agent with two sons of his own. Siler knew of the Leonards’ plight. He watched Meyers play with his older son, Austin, and wonder how this child would get by without a helping hand.

“Meyers didn’t have much,” Siler said. “He didn’t even have shoes for basketball. I felt like it’s something I should do. Why not help him out?”

As the years passed, Leonard’s assimilation into the Siler family became more complete. Leonard recalled, without irony, riding the three-or-so miles to the Siler home on his bike “no hands.” Siler remembered the countless times he would pick up Leonard to either eat dinner or spend the night at his family’s two-story home.
“By high school Meyers was staying at our house about six nights a week,” said Siler, who will one of Leonard’s five invited guests at tonight’s draft. “The funny thing is, every time we’d go to pick him up, his face was in the window looking out. Like a pet.”

Similarly, as the Acela rumbled toward Manhattan, Meyers Leonard stared out a window once more. His eyes grew wide.

“There it is. The Prudential Center,” said Leonard, looking out into downtown Newark, N.J.

The site of tonight’s NBA draft is where Leonard will learn which team has selected him — and where he and his mother will be moving.

“The first thing I’m going to do is get her medical help. It’ll start with an orthopedic surgeon,” Leonard said. “But I’d also like to buy a black Porsche Panamera.”

Leonard’s goals have grown nearly as fast as he has.