Former Basketball player Popeye Jones prepares his son Seth Jones for the NHL Draft
Basketball and Ice Hockey might be two different games but their leagues National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Hockey League (NHL) are two of the most famous sporting leagues worldwide and most watched in the North America.
Popeye Jones, a former U.S international Basketball player, who played for six different teams Dallas Mavericks, Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, Washington Wizards and Golden State Warriors in the NBA after getting drafted by Houston Rockets
in 1992, has his son preparing to get selected in the 2013 NHL Draft.
18-year-old Seth was drafted in the first round of the 2009 Western Hockey League (WHL) Bantam Draft when he was selected 11th overall by the Everett Silvertips and would be favourite to be picked in the first round of the NHL Draft next year.
Popeye Jones was very closely associated with some NHL teams and players in the days when he played NBA and that made his son develop interest in the sport. In his time with Dallas Mavericks, he was often accompanied and had Dallas Stars’ players as his
neighbours. He went to see their games and that made him fall in love with the sport. He talked to NHL.com about it and said,
"We were following the [Dallas] Stars when I was with the Mavericks. I did a charity event with [Mike] Modano and thought he was a nice guy. So we went to a Stars game and we really fell in love with the sport. I started watching hockey and we adopted the
Stars as our team."
Now working as an Assistant Coach of the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA, Jones went to Toronto in 1996 and started liking the sport more but in 1999 when he met NHL star Joe Sakic, he decided to make all of his sons play the sport. He still remembers the moment
when he met the star and called him, but the NHL star did not know him. He added,
“I just said, 'My kids want to play hockey.' He turned and looked at me and said, 'From the look of you, your kids are going to be huge. They need skating lessons.'”
Today one of his sons, Justin Jones is playing college hockey and one is ready to challenge for the top selection spot in the Draft.
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