Young Excited for Opportunity in Seattle

When the Seattle SuperSonics introduced first-round pick Robert Swift to the Seattle media, it was with a press conference attended by dozens of members of the media. When second-round pick David Young finally met the media Tuesday, it was a couple of beat writers, with a handshake and an introduction on The Furtado Center court after the Sonics had completed their pre-summer league practice.

Not that Young was likely to complain, mind you. A year ago, after Young had left the Xavier basketball team by agreement with former Musketeers coach Thad Matta, an NBA future seemed a long ways off. But after transferring to Division-II North Carolina Central and averaging 20.5 points per game last season, the improbable journey ended with Young selected 41st overall in the 2004 NBA Draft by the Sonics.

"I kept plugging at it, kept working hard," Young said. "I have a thing that God makes everything happen for a reason. I just put it in God's hands, kept on working hard, just believing, trying to get to this level."

At Xavier, Young was a role player, playing in a lineup that boasted four NBA draft picks - All-American David West, a first-round selection by the New Orleans Hornets last year, and a pair of other players selected in the second round last month, guards Lionel Chalmers and Romain Sato. Transferring to North Carolina Central gave him the opportunity to develop his ability as a go-to player and create his own shots.

"It was an opportunity for me to show a lot more of what I could do," Young said. "I showed some of what I could do at Xavier, but I did a variety of things there, played the point, was able to play three positions, so it was better in that sense. It gave me, I would say, a lot more exposure. It was a good situation for me."

After being named All-CIAA, Young still wasn't expected to be amongst the 59 players selected in the NBA Draft before he began working out for teams. While reports after the draft played up the fact that Young played for Randy McMillan, the brother of Sonics Coach Nate McMillan and an assistant at NC Central, it wasn't that connection that got Young a look, as he had already shined for other teams, including Houston, Washington and the L.A. Lakers.

All told, Young ended up working out for nine teams, including twice with the Sonics. That left him uncertain what to expect as draft day approached, though he took an intelligent, objective view of the rumors.

"I heard a lot of stuff," Young recalled. "I heard late first round. I heard mid-second, late second. You hear a lot of stuff like that. I had a few teams call me out (to work out) for the second time. It could have gone any way."

Young wasn't at all surprised by his success in workouts, noting that they played to his strength, and also giving credit to the way he approached the workouts, as well as the fact that he wasn't intimidated by well-known competition like Nevada guard Kirk Snyder, who ended up going to Utah with the 16th pick.

"My mindset," Young said. "I'm just about business. I play hard. I defend. Put me in a halfcourt set like that, and my skills will show. I can shoot the ball, I can create. Those things are going to show in a halfcourt set and what they want to see. They want to see if you can shoot the ball, and that's what I can do."

Despite the success in workouts, Young's selection still caused many in attendance at the Sonics draft party at The Furtado Center to wonder, "Who?" - including the media. Historically, the CIAA hasn't been a regular source of NBA talent, and the last player selected from North Carolina Central was way back in 1983. (Oddly, that pick, David Binion, was also taken by the Sonics - but in the tenth round, 221st overall and a mere 180 picks after Young was taken.)

That may be changing, however. The most notable CIAA product in the NBA is Detroit Pistons center Ben Wallace, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year and three-time All-Star out of Virginia Union. More recently, Sonics guard Ronald "Flip" Murray has emerged as a top young player out of Shaw University. Young is quick to recognize what these players have done for him.

"Flip opened up doors," Young said. "Guys like Flip Murray, Ben Wallace, those guys opened up doors for guys like me, without question. I give them a lot of credit for opening up the door, and it's up to me - it's up to us (Shaw forward Anthony Greenup, who joined on Young on the All-CIAA team this season, recently participated in the Charlotte Bobcats pre-summer league camp, though he failed to make the team) to keep on trying to open up doors for players like that and take advantage of the opportunities they gave us."

Young has already started putting in the necessary work to do just that, arriving early before the start of this week's Sonics summer training camp to get a head start on working out with the coaching staff. While Young will have to work hard, the opportunity is there for him to make an impact because of his ability to defend players on the perimeter, something the Sonics set out to improve this summer. After that experience, Young couldn't be happier to be here.

"It's a great organization," he said. "You've got guys like Rick Sund and Dave Pendergraft and the coaching staff, they're just good guys. They work with you, they try to show you things. It seems like, overall, this is a great organization to be a part of."