Brandon Knight and Alec Burks have no regrets on leaving the college this year – NBA Update
Detroit Pistons first round 8th pick, Brandon Knight and Utah Jazz’s 12th overall selection from the 2011 draft Alec Burks must have had a lot of dreams about their first year in the National Basketball Association,
but unfortunately work stoppage has spoiled their entry into the league. Rather it has made their transition forgettable.
The lockout didn’t just scrape the summer league, but is most likely going to affect the training camps before the upcoming season. The league recently filed two law suits against the players and with no timetable set for the next
round of negotiations, there does not seem to be any progress in the pipeline as far as the new Collective Bargaining Agreement or CBA is concerned. This effectively means that the league will remain in the lockout for a long time.
Considering the current situation prevailing in the league, Knight has decided to return to the college to complete his degree. He earlier had concluded some training sessions with his old team-mates from Kentucky, the team which
he represented for one season.
Burks on the other hand is working out two days a week in Indianapolis under conditioning coach Ed Schilling and with his Utah colleague Gordon Hayward. Regardless of the situation, both Knight and Burks still don’t regret about
their decision of leaving the college early.
Knight said, “Once you move on, you can’t really look back and regret the decision you made. The best thing you can do is move forward.”
Whereas Burks said, “It didn’t matter for me. I was a lottery pick. A lot of people can’t say that. I made the best decision for my future. I knew that before I left school. If I didn’t know that, I wasn’t going to leave school.”
However, they both believe that losing the summer leagues was a great loss, as it definitely help rookies to learn a lot about their teams, even in the absence of big names, who rarely participate in the event.
Burks, who is currently engaged in pro-am games, said, “I think it’s a big deal. You get to learn the system better. Now you’ve got to learn on the fly, pay attention to everything. It is kind of hard not having it.”
It’s not just Knight and Burks, who are going through this situation, but all the players who turned professional before the lockout struck the league, are facing similar issues. The 20 year old Burks, so far has no plans to return
to the college like Knight. He is currently focusing to enhance his game with whatever little opportunity he has in this labour uncertainty.
For that very purpose, Burks’ agent Andy Miller recently arranged a workout session for him with veteran point guard Chauncey Billups, who is also his client. In that workout Billups helped Burks enhance his shooting range.
Knight also believes that he needs to work more on his ball handling and intimated that he will soon visit Los Angeles to workout with NBA Most Valuable Player of the previous season Derrick Rose.
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