Firebirds

<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft/big-board/players/jalen-suggs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jalen Suggs</a> has won at every level. High-school state champion (in basketball and football). U-19 gold medalist. National-title-game run in his lone collegiate season at Gonzaga.
Wherever Suggs goes, winning follows, and he doesn&rsquo;t expect that to change in the NBA.
Finishing with a 31-1 record, Gonzaga ran roughshod over their competition in large part due to Suggs&rsquo; all-around excellence. The five-star recruit from Minnesota averaged 14.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.9 steals per game on an elite 59.5 True Shooting percentage.
While Suggs is projected to be a top pick in the 2021 NBA Draft on Thursday, he nearly went down a very different path. He was also a star football recruit, ranked as the second-best overall player in Minnesota and the 15th-best dual-threat quarterback in the country, per <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/Jalen-Suggs-45572569/high-school-181332/?Sport=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">247Sports</a>. He led his team to a 4A Minnesota state championship as well as a runner-up finish.
As a senior, he <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/bs-sp-ravens-jalen-suggs-terrell-suggs-gonzaga-20210402-gxj3ck2z3fdslcy77sovjbwrci-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">totaled</a> 2,213 passing yards and 25 touchdowns as well as 978 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground. Defensively, he had nine interceptions (and returned two for touchdowns). Suggs, who is the second cousin of NFL star Terrell Suggs, became the first athlete to earn Minnesota's Mr. Football and Mr. Basketball honors in the same season. He received scholarship offers from Georgia, Ohio State, Iowa State, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Michigan State (while also <a href="https://247sports.com/college/alabama/LongFormArticle/Alabama-Football-Everything-Nick-Saban-said-after-first-spring-scrimmage-Bryce-Young-163570553/#163570553_1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">drawing interest</a> from Alabama's Nick Saban).
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Jalen Suggs, also an INSANE football player <a href="https://t.co/jqlsB7KEhT">pic.twitter.com/jqlsB7KEhT</a>
&mdash; PFF College (@PFF_College) <a href="https://twitter.com/PFF_College/status/1378559902902288384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 4, 2021</a></blockquote>

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Suggs ultimately decided to go the basketball route, which has paid off in spades for the 6-foot-4 combo guard. There are several traits taken straight from the football field that Suggs constantly displays on the court.
&ldquo;I mean, you of course see it in the aggressiveness,&rdquo; Suggs said when BasketballNews.com asked about his football background. &ldquo;The way I embrace contact [and] bring contact on the basketball floor, I think that directly comes over from the football field. And the vision, I think, is the biggest one, honestly. From being a safety, reading eyes, reading body language, seeing where guys are turning to make a pass or make a certain move. And then quarterback-wise on offense, just reading defenses. Seeing different windows to throw the ball in and have the ability to fit in those tight windows. I do think those are the two biggest things that go directly from the football field to the basketball court.&rdquo;
Prior to his time at Gonzaga, Suggs never had the opportunity to fully focus on basketball. As an elite multi-sport athlete throughout high school, he would go months without touching a basketball. In the summer and fall months, Suggs&rsquo; main priority was football. Now, as a basketball player 100% of the time, he feels he&rsquo;s just now scratching the surface of his potential on the hardwood.
&ldquo;The sky&rsquo;s the limit, honestly,&rdquo; Suggs said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s funny, I haven&rsquo;t been a full-time basketball player. I&rsquo;ve always had to split the time between football season. And during football season, I never touched the basketball for the five months I was locked in on football. All the basketballs were put up in the closet and weren&rsquo;t touched until I was done. I mean, I think I have actually the most improvement to make out of anybody in this draft. So, I mean, couple that with the work ethic that I know I carry and, honestly, it&rsquo;s scary to think how good I can become.&rdquo;
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Suggs rounds out the top tier of the 2021 NBA Draft class, which also features Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, and Evan Mobley. When asked how this draft stacks up to some of the top classes in NBA history, Suggs sounded very confident that this group could be special.
&ldquo;For as good as the top is, the rest of it is amazing as well,&rdquo; Suggs said. "I mean, I&rsquo;ve gotten the pleasure to play with some guys. It&rsquo;s funny, when you look at the top-five, it&rsquo;s me, Jalen [Green], Cade [Cunningham], Scottie [Barnes], Evan [Mobley] &ndash; all guys who I played with on USA basketball. For as great of talents as they are, they&rsquo;re even better people. That&rsquo;s what makes it so special. Our talent on the floor speaks for itself, but off the floor, in locker rooms, we&rsquo;re guys who lead, guys who you want in your locker room. So, man, just a special class, better people. I couldn&rsquo;t be more excited to go in and get this process started with these guys, and go through it with them too.
&ldquo;I think it has real potential to be exactly like that [2003 draft class]. We&rsquo;re all hard workers, all guys who are going to come in and make an impact. I can&rsquo;t speak highly enough about the guys at the top, to be honest. We definitely have a chance to rival that 2003 class that was legendary.&rdquo;
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There aren't many holes in Suggs&rsquo; game that stand out. The main areas where he could use some improvement are his outside shooting (33.7% from three-point range) and ability to create contact around the basket (3.8 free-throw attempts per game). Now, Suggs has hit the pre-draft process hard, working to perfect everything in his repertoire.
&ldquo;The best players in the league go into offseasons, or in-season, [and] there&rsquo;s always room to improve on everything,&rdquo; Suggs said. &ldquo;The best shooters can always get better. The best ball-handlers, the best finishers&hellip; I think, just overall, I&rsquo;m really looking to become a perfectionist in all the areas I feel like I&rsquo;m really good at. I don&rsquo;t feel like there&rsquo;s a true weakness, when you look at my game. I think [I&rsquo;m] just looking to perfect all those things and get them to an elite level, a top-notch level, in this league that I&rsquo;m going into is my focus.
&ldquo;As far as finishing around the rim, I think I&rsquo;ve always had a good floater, but sharpening that up and getting it to an elite level. Coming off of ball screens, the amount of spacing that&rsquo;s in this game right now &mdash; the way that everyone defends ball screens with the drop coverage &mdash; you get your floaters to look like lobs and lobs to look like floaters. If you got it money, it&rsquo;s honestly an easy shot &mdash; a simple two points and something that&rsquo;s really hard to guard. I think really getting that to an elite level will open up getting to the basket and finishing at the rim more, so I&rsquo;m focusing on that.&rdquo;
Projected as a consensus top-five pick &mdash; <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">currently slotted at No. 5 overall to the Orlando Magic in BasketballNews.com's latest mock draft</a> &mdash; Suggs&rsquo; competitiveness oozes out when asked where he could land. Putting a proverbial chip on his shoulder, Suggs says he will remember every team that passes on him and every prospect who is selected above him on Thursday night. Whenever a team passes on him, it will only add fuel to Suggs&rsquo; internal fire.
&ldquo;I mean, as far as where I go, that&rsquo;s not something I&rsquo;m really too worried about; I&rsquo;ll thrive in whatever system, whatever city, I end up in,&rdquo; Suggs said. &ldquo;Wherever I do end up, that&rsquo;s God&rsquo;s plan, so it&rsquo;s meant to be. I will say: the ones that do pass on me and take another prospect, it will come back. It will be to their detriment, honestly, because you can look at my track record &mdash;what I&rsquo;ve done and where I&rsquo;ve been &mdash; it&rsquo;s always win at the highest level. And my play has been at the highest level.
"As far as that goes, if somebody makes a decision that&rsquo;s not me, that&rsquo;s their opinion and I can never be angry at them for that, but I don&rsquo;t forget those kinds of things. That&rsquo;s just how competitive I am.&rdquo;

Jalen Suggs believes the 2021 NBA Draft could be an all-time great class. He also issued a warning to any executives who pass on him.

Jalen Suggs thinks 2021 draft 'definitely has a chance to rival 2003'

I had a special relationship with Hall-of-Fame coach John Thompson, and it all started when he chose not to recruit me.&nbsp;
Anybody I grew up with will remember that I always wanted to go to Georgetown; Syracuse was actually my second choice. I remember my high school teammate, Ryan Humphrey, saying that I was like the kid in the movie "Rudy" who always wanted to go to Notre Dame. That was actually pretty accurate.&nbsp;
See, I grew up admiring Coach Thompson ever since I heard him speak out about the racism of the NCAA. I remember him being asked how it felt to be the first Black coach to reach the NCAA Final Four and he replied, "I resent the hell out of that question if it implies I am the first Black coach competent enough to take a team to the Final Four. Other Blacks have been denied the right in this country; coaches who have the ability. I don't take any pride in being the first Black coach in the Final Four. I find the question extremely offensive."
I remember reading about how Coach Thompson specifically recruited inner-city Black players and molded them, both on and off the court.
He focused on their education, enforced discipline and structure, and educated them about society and being a Black man in America. He was a father figure in that he actually cared about his players far beyond wins and losses (although he definitely wanted to win). He made sure he stressed that his players graduate and not squander their time allowing the system to use them. Of course that was the coach and program I wanted to be a part of.&nbsp;
Also, he coached one of my favorite players, Alonzo Mourning - someone who I wanted to pattern my game after. He also coached Patrick Ewing, one of my favorite players growing up (as a New York Knicks fan). I wanted to be able to block shots like Dikembe Mutombo and have defenses literally draw plans to avoid bringing the ball inside. I wanted to carry on the tradition and wear No. 33 at Georgetown (which is one of the reasons why I wore No. 33 at Syracuse, but I&rsquo;ll explain that later).
I even went to Georgetown's basketball camp when I was in the eighth grade. I remember reading about the next center who was going there, Othella Harrington, and seeing pictures of Coach Thompson with his arm around all of the aforementioned men. I dreamed of seeing myself in that same picture, in that same pose, alongside the great centers of Georgetown at the end of that line.
In the summer of my junior year, I was being recruited by every major program in the country except Georgetown. Coach Thompson called me and told me that they had a lot of big men, naming off five: Jamel Watkins, Boubacar Aw, Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje, Jahidi White and Ya-Ya Dia, so they really didn&rsquo;t need any more bigs. I was heartbroken, to be honest. I may have even shed a few thug tears, but I vowed to terrorize Georgetown for my entire college career and picked their biggest rival, Syracuse University.&nbsp;
Fast-forward to Feb. 8, 1997, during my freshman year at Syracuse. That day, we faced off against Georgetown. Syracuse fans remember this as the "Donovan McNabb game" since the star quarterback and two-sport athlete ignited the Carrier Dome with an electrifying performance en route to a win over the Hoyas. Meanwhile, as a young freshman who didn&rsquo;t receive much playing time after the beginning of the season - I was playing behind and learning from the great Otis Hill - I had one of the worst games of my career. I set a Syracuse record for the <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2013/02/syracuses_1997_win_over_george.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quickest foul out by a player in school history</a> (and maybe even Big East history).
After not playing for a long stretch, I was put into one of the biggest games of the season due to Hill's foul trouble. I found myself in the unfortunate position of having to guard an explosive, quick-off-his-feet, 300-pound monster named Jahidi White, who could have been called the Shaq of the Big East.&nbsp;
As soon as I checked into the game, Coach Thompson ran every single play for White - and apparently told him to dunk on me every play. Well, I had too much pride for that, so I fouled him every time he tried it. I attempted to block the first few dunks and almost got my arm ripped off in Jahidi&rsquo;s Shaq-like power moves to the rim. So the next two times, I just fouled him.
I ended up fouling out of the game after seven minutes in front of 30,000 people at the Carrier Dome in one of the biggest games of the year. I remember looking at Coach Thompson as I was walking to the bench. He gave me a little nod that said, to me, "That&rsquo;s why I didn&rsquo;t recruit you." I was destroyed inside. I wanted to head straight to the locker room and hide in the closet until everyone left.&nbsp;
After the game, a ball boy gave me a note from Coach Thompson that simply read, "Keep working, keep your head up, you&rsquo;ll be fine."
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My sophomore year was really my breakout year, and one of the games I had circled on my schedule was the Georgetown game. I had a <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2013/01/in_1997-98_season_syracuse_get.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">monster night</a> - 23 points, seven rebounds, six blocks - and I was throwing down thunderous dunks, beating my chest, swatting shots into the stands and screaming into the crowd. I was so hyped, I couldn&rsquo;t even calm down to shoot on the free-throw line.
At the sound of the buzzer, my first thought was to run up to Coach Thompson. I shook his hand, looked him in the eyes and said, &ldquo;You could&rsquo;ve had me.&rdquo;
And he replied with a big smile: &ldquo;Yeah, I know."
That was the start of our relationship of mutual respect and support that spanned for two decades.&nbsp;
I came to D.C. in 2000 with the Washington Wizards. Coach Thompson would have me on his show and support my events around the city. He would offer advice, encouragement, chastisement and praise by call or text.
<a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2007/09/etans_antiwar_speech.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shortly after the invasion of Iraq</a>, I spoke at a big <a href="http://politicalaffairs.net/the-speech-everyone-is-talking-about-etan-thomas-electrifies-anti-war-washington/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">anti-war rally</a> in D.C. Coach Thompson called me afterwards and said, &ldquo;You have no idea what you just stepped into young man, do you?&rdquo;&nbsp;
And honestly, I truly didn&rsquo;t. I had been speaking all over D.C. about the war. I wrote three different poems and two different speeches against the war all from my first poetry book, "<a href="https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/561-more-than-an-athlete" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More Than An Athlete</a>."
&ldquo;You are lucky you play for [Washington Wizards chairman] Abe Pollin because if you didn&rsquo;t, this could be very bad for your professional career," Coach Thompson said to me. He also told me that he had the utmost respect for me, and if I needed some support when I felt the wrath of America after that speech, he was there for me.&nbsp;
For many years, I would have events around D.C. and when I looked into the crowd, I'd see Coach Thompson right there in the front row with his arms folded.&nbsp;
At Georgetown University, I had a debate with Bill Rhoden about his book, "40 Million Dollar Slave." Coach Thompson brought his entire team there - including a young Roy Hibbert, Jeff Green and Patrick Ewing Jr. - and had them all taking notes.
In my book, "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fatherhood-Ultimate-Challenge-Etan-Thomas/dp/0451414896/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1523315169&amp;sr=1-3&amp;keywords=etan+thomas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fatherhood: Rising to the Ultimate Challenge</a>," Coach Thompson wrote: &ldquo;In my life, I&rsquo;ve been fortunate enough to meet presidents, senators, congressmen, CEOs of major companies, cardinals of churches, heads of states from several countries and some of the finest athletes and coaches this world has ever known. I&rsquo;ve learned to respect them all and admired their accomplishments, but I&rsquo;ve never met a man who accomplished so much with so little as my dad. And I have come to realize that nothing has more meaning to me than the honor of being named after the finest man I have ever met, my Dad, John Robert Thompson.&rdquo;&nbsp;
I had never even heard him tell that story before and was honored by the fact that he felt comfortable telling me this for my book.&nbsp;
This past winter, I was watching a high school tournament at Wise High School and doing some recruiting for my AAU team, FBCG Elite Dynamic Disciples. Coach Thompson saw me before I saw him. He had someone chase me down and bring me to him. He said, "You better come over here and say hi to me."
He was in obvious pain with his walker, and I asked him how he was feeling. He smiled and said, "Just old, but you keep doing what you&rsquo;re doing."
I said, "Yeah, I'm looking at some players for my team." He responded, "That&rsquo;s great, but that&rsquo;s not what I&rsquo;m talking about. You keep using your platform and speaking and writing truth. I may not get around like I used to, but I&rsquo;m always watching you and I'm proud of you. Now move out my way, I gotta get out of here."
He left before I could even get a picture with him and my son Malcolm, who came up after the conversation. Afterwards, Malcolm asked me who the man in the walker was.
"One of the best coaches to ever walk the planet," I told him.
Rest In Peace, Coach John Thompson.

Etan Thomas looks back on his unique relationship with the late, great John Thompson.

Kody