One young man’s life is going to dramatically change on Thursday after 8 p.m., when former Kinston High School and UNC basketball star Reggie Bullock hears his name called by National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern.
Thursday is the NBA’s annual draft in New York City, when the 30 franchises in the top professional basketball league in the world select from a crop of the world’s top amateurs to play for their team. Bullock is considered by experts to be one of those top amateurs in the world.
It’s likely he could be drafted by one of the New York City-based franchises — either the New York Knicks or the Brooklyn Nets, according to a report published today in the New York Post. The Nets have the 22nd pick, while the Knicks own the 24th.
There are a couple of storylines at play with those possibilities; if the Nets draft him, he could join another Kinstonian on that roster in former NBA All-Star and scoring champ Jerry Stackhouse, who just wrapped up his 17th season in the NBA with the Nets.
Additionally, another former Kinston High School/UNC star is plying his professional trade in the Big Apple — Quinton Coples of the National Football League’s New York Jets. How sweet would it be to go to NYC sometime late this fall and catch a Nets or Knicks game featuring Bullock on a Saturday night and a Jets game featuring Coples on a Sunday afternoon?
Pretty doggoned sweet, if you ask me.
Bullock is going to become the sixth Lenoir County native to be drafted by a team in the NBA, joining Cedric Maxwell (1977), Mitchell Wiggins (1983), Charles Shackleford (1988), Stackhouse (1995) and Herbert Hill (2007). Tony Dawson was undrafted in 1989 but played for two NBA teams and several European squads in a distinguished professional career.
In Kinston, we’ve been in a unique position to watch Bullock grow from a somewhat shy freshman on the Vikings varsity to the leader he became that won two state titles and played for a third. At Kinston High School, we watched him become one of the nation’s top recruits and take the Vikings all over the country, from Florida to Hawaii to Illinois to Massachusetts.
At UNC, he also made quite an impression, becoming part of a top recruiting class that included Harrison Barnes and Kendall Marshall. He stayed in Chapel Hill a year after that pair left to make the Tar Heels his own this past season — and sparked a haircut craze in Eastern North Carolina that one Twitter commenter called a “Beyond Thunder Dome Mohawk.”
My favorite memory of him, though, was on Saturday, April 17, 2010. My Tina and I had the opportunity to ride a bus to, ironically, New York City, with a group of Kinstonians to watch Bullock play in the Jordan Brand Classic at Madison Square Garden.
He played well in the game, but that’s not what I remember the most. His beloved grandmother, Patricia Ann Williams, was one of the co-organizers of the bus trip and he spent a few moments on the MSG court hugging her when the game was complete. After the embrace, I came over to grab a few quotes from him for a story and his eyes still had a misty glow to them. That’s when he quickly told me he was going to ride back to Kinston with us on that bus.
Put this in perspective: This teenager gave up a night in a fancy Manhattan hotel, the chance to hang out with his friends and future UNC teammates and a comfortable plane ride back to North Carolina to fold his 6-foot, 7-inch frame into a cramped bus for eight hours so he could have more time with his grandmother.
More perspective: His grandmother passed away less than nine months later, meaning those extra few hours he spent with the woman who meant so much to him had extra weight.
Reggie, Kinston is extremely proud of you — not just because your name is going to be called by David Stern Thursday night, but because you have grown to become the outstanding young man your grandmother raised.
Congratulations, young man.
Bryan C. Hanks is the managing editor of The Free Press; his column appears in this space every Sunday. You can reach him at 252-559-1074 or at Bryan.Hanks@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BCHanks.
More on Reggie’s draft journey
Want to see what Reggie Bullock thinks about this week’s NBA Draft and his visits to squads all over the country? Follow him on Twitter at @ReggieBullock35.