KANSAS CITY, Mo. — You’re getting an awesome talent. Did we say
awesome? No. Try ridiculous. Ben McLemore plays basketball in real life
the way you play it on your Xbox, defying gravity and logic with the
mere push of a button.
The great ones make it look easy.
McLemore can thread a needle from 25 feet out as if it were a layup. The
former Kansas star doesn’t fly; he levitates above humanity on calves
cut straight from Hogwarts.
His forehead scrapes rims. His smile
lights up a room. This is smooth and salt and earth, all in the same
package. This is a nice, nice kid.
Too nice, in fact.
You
know your Michael Jordan types? The kind of cat who wants to reach in
your chest, pull out your heart and shove it in front of your face while
it’s still beating.
You’re not getting that.
You’re getting Scottie Pippen. Insanely gifted. Crazy good. Not an Alpha Dog.
As
a Jayhawk, McLemore deferred to Elijah Johnson and Travis Releford, his
seniors and mentors. It’s not that the St. Louis native didn’t have a
killer instinct, somewhere, buried deep down inside that affable soul.
It’s that coach Bill Self often had to grab a set of jumper cables in
order to try and bring it to the fore.
Gifted, Self loves. But mean, tough and ornery, he respects.
You’re getting oodles of the former.
The latter, well, that’s a wait-and-see.
But
know this: The 6-foot-5 McLemore will be a very, very good pro wherever
he lands in the NBA Draft this month, and it’s hard to see him landing
anywhere other than among the first four selections held by Cleveland,
Orlando, Washington and Charlotte, respectively.
He’s 20. If the ceiling isn’t the moon, it’s the stars beyond it.
But
know this, too: The fit has to be right. You’re getting a wing with a
tendency to wallflower. During the NCAA Tournament, Air Ben averaged
just 11 points per contest, and the Jayhawks went home in the regional
semis, felled by cold-hearted daggers launched from the cold-hearted
wrists of Michigan’s Trey Burke. McLemore may have a Jordan body, but
Burke is the one with the Jordan mindset.
Within the friendly
confines of Allen Fieldhouse, McLemore averaged 18.8 points per game and
drained 46.1 percent of his treys. On road courts, those numbers dipped
to 13.9 and 34.1 respectively. He shot the rock at a .345 clip in the
Big Dance, and wound up 4-of-16 from beyond the arc.
The tea
leaves seem to shift toward the Cavs tapping Kentucky center Nerlens
Noel with the No. 1 pick, but it could be a scramble after that. The
Magic seem to be a more logical McLemore destination, at first blush,
given that Orlando has the second selection and a veteran point guard in
Jameer Nelson under contract through 2015. Nor does it hurt that the
franchise’s coach, Jacque Vaughn, happens to be one of the most
venerated point guards in Jayhawks history.
"The Orlando Magic, I think that's a great program," McLemore told the Orlando Sentinel
last Thursday. "I think I could fit perfectly in that system and that
organization and help that team in different kinds of ways."
He
will be deadly, but the silent deadly. Air Ben is a pillar, and yet it’s
hard to picture him comfortably holding up the fort alone. What
McLemore has, you can’t teach. The trouble is, you can say the same
darned thing about what he hasn’t.
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter @seankeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.
