Tigers

ATLANTA (AP) &mdash; Atlanta Hawks coach Quin Snyder, who took over the team in February, finalized his staff for next season on Wednesday.
Igor Kokoskov, who spent one season as the Phoenix Suns&rsquo; head coach, takes over as Snyder&rsquo;s lead assistant. The Hawks also hired Mike Brey, who spent the last 23 seasons leading Notre Dame&rsquo;s program.
The remaining assistants are Bryan Bailey, Brittni Donaldson, Steve Klei, Antonio Lang, Sanjay Lumpkin, Ekpe Udoh and Jeff Watkinson. Klei and Watkinson have been with the Hawks since March.
In addition, Reggis Onwukamuche will take over as player development coach, while Bryan George will work in player development, advance scouting and video.
The only holdovers from the staff Snyder inherited after taking over for Nate McMillan are O&rsquo;Neil Holder (player development) and Jacob Porter (video).
&ldquo;We have assembled a coaching staff that brings together a diversity of experiences and expertise to develop, connect with and challenge our players,&rdquo; Snyder said in a statement. &ldquo;Each of our coaches bring something unique to our group and I am excited to work with this staff and find ways to continually improve our team.&rdquo;
After McMillan was fired, Snyder coached the Hawks to a 10-11 mark over the remainder of the regular season. The team knocked off eventual NBA finalist Miami in the play-in game to claim a No. 7 seed, but lost to the Boston Celtics in the opening round of the playoffs.

Atlanta Hawks coach Quin Snyder, who took over the team in February, finalized his staff for next season on Wednesday.

Hawks’ Quin Snyder finalizes coaching staff for 2023-24 season

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) &mdash; When it comes to Auburn and the NCAA Tournament, the Tigers know how to make an opening statement.
Johni Broome had 19 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots, and No. 9 seed Auburn beat Iowa 83-75 on Thursday for its 10th consecutive opening-round win dating to the mid-1980s.
The Tigers (21-12) made 11 of 12 free throws over the final four minutes to lock up a second-round matchup with No. 1 seed Houston, which survived a scare from 16th-seeded Northern Kentucky..
It was a decidedly Auburn-oriented crowd two hours from campus.
&ldquo;They were loud and rowdy the whole game,&rdquo; Auburn guard Allen Flanigan said. &ldquo;It felt like a home game for us.&rdquo;
Broome even made his ninth 3-pointer of the season to push the margin into double digits for the first time with 16 minutes left.
The Tigers appeared poised to pull away in front of a partisan orange-and-blue crowd, going up by 17 with a 13-2 run midway through the second half sparked by Tre Donaldson&rsquo;s three 3-pointers off the bench.
The eighth-seeded Hawkeyes climbed back into it, twice cutting it down to four but coming no closer.
&ldquo;We knew they had another run in them,&rdquo; Broome said. &ldquo;We were like, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s make a stop and win this game.&rsquo;"
Auburn had six players score in double figures. Wendell Green Jr. had 15 points, and Donaldson, Jaylin Williams and KD Johnson each finished with 11. Allen Flanigan scored 10.
Payton Sandford scored 21 points for Iowa. Kris Murray had 15 points on 5-of-18 shooting and nine rebounds. Filip Rebraca scored 14 points.
The Hawkeyes found themselves playing in essentially a road game. But they declined to use that as an excuse.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re used to playing in hostile environments,&rdquo; Connor McCaffery said. &ldquo;Obviously if we had our choice we would have preferred it to be a little more neutral, but that&rsquo;s not why we lost at all.
&ldquo;We won at Rutgers, we won at IU (Indiana) and those places are 100 times louder than it was here today.&rdquo;
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery, Connor&rsquo;s father, echoed that sentiment after his team ended with a third straight loss.
&ldquo;Every game in our league is a hostile environment so it cannot be an excuse, nor do we want to make it one,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We were right there, and you have to give credit to your opponent.&rdquo;
Johnson had a scary moment in the final minute of the first half.
He went up attempting to block a shot by Rebraca, who pump-faked and sent Johnson somersaulting over the top of the Iowa player.
The junior guard landed with a thud on his lower back and buttocks, sending the crowd into a hushed silence. Johnson stayed down briefly, writhing in pain, before heading to the bench to get checked out. He played in the second half.
&ldquo;I was just scared,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;I wanted to make sure I didn&rsquo;t hurt myself in any other way. That was crazy.&rdquo;
BIG PICTURE
Auburn: Made seven 3-pointers in the second half after a 1-of-9 start.
Iowa: Fell just short of a fifth consecutive 20-win season. Missed all nine first-half 3-point attempts and finished 7 of 27 (25.9%) from deep. A team averaging 80 points a game was held to 26 in the first half.
&ldquo;Our speed and quickness was obviously a factor on the defensive end,&rdquo; Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said.
UP NEXT
Auburn is 1-6 all-time against Houston, among the favorites to win it all. The Tigers lost in the second round last season. The big question will be the status of Cougars All-American Marcus Sasser, who aggravated a groin injury and didn&rsquo;t play in the second half.

Johni Broome had 19 points, 12 rebounds and 5 blocks, and No. 9 Auburn beat Iowa 83-75 on Thursday in the NCAA Tournament.

Broome, Auburn hold off Iowa 83-75 in first round of NCAA Tournament

<a href="https://twitter.com/MarcJSpears/status/1573316253774934016" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to ESPN's Marc Spears</a>, the Detroit Pistons have added Keith Bogans, Rashard Lewis and Brandon Bailey as Assistant Coach/Player Development coaches and Brittni Donaldson as the Assistant Coach/Director of Coaching Analytics. George David has been elevated to Associate GM and Kevin Grigg to SVP and Chief Communications Officer.
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The Pistons add Keith Bogans, Rashard Lewis and Brandon Bailey as Assistant Coach/Player Development Coach and Brittni Donaldson as Assistant Coach/Director of Coaching Analytics. George David elevated to Associate GM. Kevin Grigg elevated to SVP &amp; Chief Communications Officer.
&mdash; Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarcJSpears/status/1573316253774934016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 23, 2022</a></blockquote>

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The Pistons add former players Keith Bogans and Rashard Lewis as assistant coaches and promote several members of their front office.

Pistons promote several members of front office, add to coaching staff

Many college students &mdash; even Division I basketball players &mdash; have a window of time around Christmas to travel home, see their families and press pause on the motion and stress of life at school.
Baylor freshman Jeremy Sochan did not have that luxury.&nbsp;
Sochan's mother, stepfather and brother live in Milton Keynes, a medium-sized city in the United Kingdom. Between the short break (Baylor men's basketball played on Dec. 20 and Dec. 28), the long flight and the surging COVID-19 pandemic, a homecoming simply was not feasible.
Instead, the highly-touted prospect bought a ticket to finally see his first NBA regular-season game, tagging along with Baylor assistant coach Bill Peterson and a couple of Peterson's friends to watch the Dallas Mavericks host the Milwaukee Bucks on Dec. 23.
The freshman was enthralled. He lingered in the American Airlines Center well after the game ended, soaking up the atmosphere.
"Afterwards he just kept saying, 'Coach, I can't thank you enough,'" Peterson told BasketballNews.com in a phone interview. "He just had a different appreciation for it. Because he was from another country, going to an NBA game wasn't something he did all the time."
Soon, Sochan will live those moments almost every day. The 6-foot-9-inch forward is headed to the 2022 NBA Draft as a sure-fire first-round pick and a possible lottery selection. Sochan's journey to June 23 includes crisscrossing the globe for basketball, and in his NBA Draft Combine interview, he aptly proclaimed himself a "citizen of the world."
"My family's from all over the place &mdash; Poland, America, and I lived in England most of my life &mdash;&nbsp;and it's hard to answer the question when someone says: Where are you from?" Sochan told BasketballNews.com over the phone. "Because you don't really have one specific place. So I try and explain it that way."
In the past five years alone, Sochan has suited up for five different elite basketball programs, beginning from his home in England and traversing through Poland, the United States (twice) and Germany. But the takeoff started in his hometown of Milton Keynes, where Sochan grew up after being born in Oklahoma and living briefly in Southampton.
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Where it all started 💙 <a href="https://twitter.com/ItchenBball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ItchenBball</a> <a href="https://t.co/MIZHcS6llo">pic.twitter.com/MIZHcS6llo</a>
&mdash; Jeremy Sochan (@SochanJeremy) <a href="https://twitter.com/SochanJeremy/status/1455881532934086658?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2021</a></blockquote>

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After playing for his local club, the Milton Keynes Trojans, Sochan spent one season at Itchen College in Southampton as a high-school-age freshman. (Sixth-form colleges in the UK are somewhat like private high schools in the U.S.). Sochan adamantly states that basketball is on a serious rise at the youth level in England, and he might be right.
According to an article from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/author/vithushan-ehantharajah">Vithushan Ehantharajah</a><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/us-sport/nba/british-basketball-teams-players-b1825787.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&nbsp;of The Independent</a>,&nbsp;basketball ranked as the second-most popular sport at the recreational level behind only soccer, and over 1.3 million people said they hooped at least once a week in a study between 2018 and 2019. Per the same 2021 article, the United Kingdom is ninth in the world and first in Europe for NBA League Pass subscriptions.
In Sochan's estimation, the problem is a lack of funding that limits the ceiling of player development. It's part of the reason he moved on from UK programs.
"Unfortunately, I feel like it's not funded well enough, and there's not a lot of exposure or resources for basketball," Sochan said. "So at times, it's difficult. It's difficult to rent a court. It's expensive, and you'd have to have a massive group of people... But there's a lot of potential, and it's a country with a lot of immigrants [and] a lot of people around the world. So if they put money in it, and resources, it's gonna be a great place for basketball, for sure."
As Sochan made waves in England, his mother, Aneta Sochan, was leveraging her connections abroad. Aneta is Polish and played Division II basketball at Oklahoma Panhandle State University before her own professional stint with Polonia Warszawa in Poland. She moved to England with Sochan's late biological father, Ryan Williams, as Williams pursued a professional career, and later settled in Milton Keynes with her current partner, Wiktor Lipiecki. Sochan's holidays were typically spent with Aneta's extended family in their home country.
Aneta sent emails and film to the Polish Basketball Association, looking for inroads for her son. Eventually, they came in the form of development camps in Poland and Spain, and persuading Dawid Mazur to allow him to compete for a spot on the Poland U16 National Team.
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Sochan exploded in his second year with the program. He put up 16.1 points, 9.6 rebounds, 3.1 steals and 3.0 assists per game in the summer of 2019, leading Poland to the European Class B title and winning MVP honors in his tour de force through the continent.
Sochan had proven himself on one of the largest European stages. But as his name reached scouting circles in the United States, Sochan transferred to La Lumiere High School, a national powerhouse program in Indiana. It featured a loaded roster that fielded some of the country's top prospects, including draft classmate Jaden Ivey and Louisville commit Kamari Lands. Sochan's third high-level team in three years &mdash; and three countries &mdash; tested his resolve as a young talent.
"It was interesting because I feel like there's differences, of course, between European basketball and American basketball," Sochan said. "In America, I feel like the players are a lot more confident... just more confident and free, and at first, it was a little bit difficult for me to understand that. But I feel like as time went on, [me] building confidence and my teammates believing in me, it got a lot easier."
A barrier to entry exists whenever an athlete joins a new team. For international players like Sochan, that barrier can feel thicker and taller, particularly with the stereotypes that persist surrounding European hoops.
Later on at Baylor, Peterson wanted Sochan to challenge the narrative.
"I would joke with him a lot about [how] one of the monikers in the NBA is that European guys are soft, or they're wusses. That goes around the NBA," Peterson said.
"So he would say to me, 'I do not want to be a wuss. I'm not a wuss,' he would always say, and I said, 'I know.' Sometimes when guys hit you, you gotta hit 'em back. You gotta stick 'em on an offensive or defensive boxout. You gotta hammer 'em on a screen. It sends a message."&nbsp;
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Time and again, Sochan demonstrated his physical toughness and determination. He did it by solidifying himself as a four-star high school recruit at La Lumiere in 2019-20, becoming the youngest player in Poland men's senior national team history in 2021 and smothering opponents with the Bears in 2021-22. Sochan also charted his own course when the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted his basketball plans.
Sochan returned home for school vacation in the spring of 2020 as a high school junior at La Lumiere. Then, the school told Sochan to stay in Milton Keynes for an extra week as activities paused. One week became two weeks, then a month. Sochan ultimately never returned. As the United States reeled from the impact of the virus, Sochan pivoted back to Europe and settled on Orange Academy, a development program under German pro team Ratiopharm Ulm.
"Germany was pretty good with the COVID situation, and also, they were one of the only clubs to offer me no contract, so I could be eligible for college," he said. "So it was a great opportunity."
Sochan verbally committed to Baylor in the summer of 2020 before he headed to Germany. But the pandemic and travel hurdles kept him from visiting campus after he committed; all of his conversations with coaches came via phone and Zoom. And after never seeing his family while at La Lumiere, Sochan had to leave them again for another year when he took off for Orange Academy.
"Of course it's difficult; you can be a little homesick," Sochan said. "But I think, as of an early age, I always used to go to camps in Spain and Poland on my own. It was an easy adjustment for me. Personally, I am confident, just knowing the reason I'm leaving home. [It] helped me stay on course and keep on working every day. I'm doing this for my family, of course, and myself &mdash; to get better. I feel like that motivated me to keep on going,"
Peterson recalls receiving a video from Sochan while the then-17-year-old was at Orange Academy. It was 30 seconds of Sochan alone on an outdoor court in Germany, laughing and smiling while drilling himself on ball-handling exercises that Peterson had recommended.&nbsp;
"Coach, I'm working on this. How do I look?" Sochan would ask him. "Am I getting better?"
The grind has powered Sochan through those lonely nights away from home. He celebrated his 19th birthday on May 20 with dinner at an Italian restaurant &mdash; and by working out in front of teams on the final day of the Combine. Though he may be surrounded by new teammates, new coaches, new audiences and new cultures, he knows he has two constants: family and basketball.
"I feel like it's just understanding where you came from &mdash; your family &mdash; and just being able to stay present," Sochan said. "Just being able to get better every day is what I feel like grounds me. And I think it's important for me to just get better every day and just keep on learning &mdash; whether it's through basketball on the court, off the court, mentally, physically."
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Many Polish goods, are things that I will be missing on the 24th for the 3rd time in the row. More importantly I will be missing the physical presence of my family, I&rsquo;ve had it far from perfect but nobody has so I&rsquo;m just like you. We all sacrifice something for the greater good. <a href="https://t.co/KmlRBIVmG7">pic.twitter.com/KmlRBIVmG7</a>
&mdash; Jeremy Sochan (@SochanJeremy) <a href="https://twitter.com/SochanJeremy/status/1474444438042783744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2021</a></blockquote>

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At Baylor, Sochan and Peterson developed a bond over their travels. The 65-year-old Peterson made several stops at the college and NBA level before arriving at Baylor in 2017. He served as a player development coach and scout for the Dallas Mavericks from 1999-2000, coached six seasons as an assistant for the Milwaukee Bucks from 2007-13 and spent three seasons at the helm of the Erie Bayhawks in the G League (formerly known as the D-League). With those positions, plus other coaching roles in the collegiate ranks, Peterson collected experiences and stories from his trips across Europe and China.
The two met frequently for lunch around the Baylor campus. They'd chat about Premier League soccer (Sochan is a noted Arsenal fan) and EuroLeague basketball. Peterson learned that Sochan's grandmother lived about an hour from a clinic he once hosted in Poland.&nbsp;
"It was fun because he could relax and realize, 'Hey, Coach Peterson has been over there and kind of knows where I'm from [and] some of my background anyway, because he's traveled there a lot more than maybe some of the other coaches on the staff,'" Peterson said.
As Sochan acclimated to his fifth elite program, his confidence started to shine. He formed close friendships on the Baylor team, specifically with fellow draft prospect Kendall Brown and promising injured freshman Langston Love. Fans saw Sochan's energy radiate from his colorful hairstyles and powerful slam dunks. Meanwhile, in practice, he wowed Peterson with his quick and willing inclination to move the ball around, displaying the court awareness of someone who had played with and against veterans &mdash; which Sochan had, of course, in Poland.
"He has a great understanding of how to play for a kid [who's] 18 years old &mdash; like, really understands offense, how to move the ball and make the next pass, and do it in limited dribbles," Peterson said.
"He plays like a pro. I mean, he plays like a guy that's 10 years older than his age."
If a teammate withheld a pass, Sochan wasn't afraid to call him out or ask the coaches about the play afterward.&nbsp;
"Occasionally he'd go, 'Hey, come on, man. Let's move the ball.' You would expect a senior to be saying that, not a freshman," Peterson said. "He has that instinct about him to feel that and help that happen on the floor."
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Along with his quick processing on offense, Sochan's defensive toughness and versatility have not just pushed back on his European stereotypes &mdash; they've become hallmarks of his game and a sales pitch as a prospect. BasketballNews.com's Senior NBA Draft Analyst Matt Babcock remembers watching Sochan on Jan. 29 against Alabama, when the forward posted 17 points, 8 rebounds and 2 steals for the Bears.&nbsp;
"During that game, Sochan displayed his defensive versatility and potential," Babcock said. "He also showed flashes as a player that could stretch the floor and be an effective slasher."
Sochan has steadily risen on draft boards throughout the spring; Babcock most recently slotted him in at No. 15 overall to the Charlotte Hornets in his latest <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/nba-draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BasketballNews.com NBA Mock Draft.</a>&nbsp;Babcock said that the lottery is definitely within reach for Sochan, and that he likely won't stick around past the teens of the draft order. He noted that, in addition to wielding an archetype built for today's NBA, Sochan carries a journey that should favorably position him for the professional lifestyle.
"Similar to the advantages that experiences on the court create, off-the-court experiences also provide learning opportunities. It's all a part of growing up, and from the sounds of it, Sochan has seen and done a lot, which I think will help him transition to the NBA," Babcock said.
Peterson believes that playing for five programs in five years doesn't just help Sochan on the court; it also teaches him how different team cultures can each be uniquely successful.
"If you work at IBM, and everybody in IBM wears a suit and coat and a tie, and then you move and you go work for a grocery store chain [like] Kroger, H-E-B or whatever, and everybody there just wears a polo shirt and nice slacks, you're not going to keep wearing suits when you go work at Kroger or you're gonna look like an idiot," Peterson said. "That's not the culture they have. You have to adjust somewhat to what their culture is and what their program's about. And he's had to do that five different times."
The NBA has a small but noteworthy history of English and Polish talent. James Donaldson, Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Michael Olowokandi and OG Anunoby are players with English ties who have played over 300 games in the league. Marcin Gortat is the lone Poland native with over 100 appearances.
Sochan aims to be a beacon for both countries.
"I think it's really exciting," he said. "I think it's a great opportunity for me, personally, to connect these communities to the NBA again."
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Jeremy Sochan speaks with Ethan Fuller about his twisting, turning, worldwide basketball journey heading into the 2022 NBA Draft.

Jeremy Sochan, a 'citizen of the world,' sets course for the NBA

I&rsquo;ve never had basketball taken away from me.
I was eating well, playing good, feeling confident and having fun again.
Things were going really well. I remember Coach Ryan Schmidt signaling to either Jermel Kennedy or somebody to run a play to get the ball in my hands because I had just scored, and we wanted to run a specific play for me, so they handed the ball off to me and I went to accelerate and advance the dribble like I do every day.&nbsp;
And I fell.&nbsp;
My initial thought was that I slipped on a sticker. On the court they have those decals and sometimes they get slippery if they get wet or aren&rsquo;t put on properly. I had slipped on one four or five plays earlier, so I thought I had just slipped again.
Usually when I turn the ball over, I go after it. But my body couldn't even move to go after the ball this time. That&rsquo;s when I knew something was wrong. My teammate, Briante Weber told me that he heard a pop. Coach Ryan was turning away like he didn&rsquo;t even want to look. I looked at my teammates&rsquo; faces and they were all looking back in disgust. I thought, &ldquo;Oh no, is it something gruesome like what happened to my friend, Tyler Ennis?&rdquo; But it wasn&rsquo;t that, thankfully.&nbsp;
It didn&rsquo;t even hurt, because when you tear your Achilles, all of the nerve endings are just kind of&hellip;finished.&nbsp;
But inside, I knew something was wrong. I couldn&rsquo;t get up, and I just started crying on the court.&nbsp;
I thought about how hard I had worked to stay in shape throughout the pandemic, and about having the opportunity to play basketball again in the Canadian Elite Basketball League after a situation with the 905 where I wasn&rsquo;t playing a lot. We had just got Coach Ryan his first win as a head coach and we were on our way to securing a playoff spot, but I couldn&rsquo;t even finish the game. It was like I had let my teammates down.&nbsp;
How could I get hurt? It&rsquo;s not even a contact injury. I was in better shape than I was with the 905! This all went through my mind while I was lying on the court and my foot was just kind of&hellip;dangling there.&nbsp;
I was home in Canada, but none of this was familiar. I had to go to the hospital alone, talk to doctors alone, and tread all of these new waters alone while trying not to drown.&nbsp;
I&rsquo;m fortunate that I was playing under my long-term mentor, and, for lack of a better word, rock, in Jermaine Anderson (the general manager of my CEBL team). He was able to get everything together for my insurance, get me second opinions, and get me the best treatment and doctors possible, because that almost wasn&rsquo;t the case.&nbsp;
Initially, I was in St. Catharines General Hospital and I was going to go do surgery the next day with someone there. But the doctor at St. Catharines was making jokes and making me really uncomfortable, saying stuff like, &ldquo;Is Kevin Durant your favorite player? I guess you guys have more in common now!&rdquo; I don&rsquo;t know if that was just his method, to use humor during a tough time, but like, my guy, this is not the time. It was only a day after, I hadn&rsquo;t even gotten through all of my text messages and phone calls from people. I was still in mental survival mode, thinking, &ldquo;This can&rsquo;t be real.&rdquo; The doctor came back in and told me, &ldquo;We can do the surgery, but tonight I have a gallbladder surgery to do, then another surgery to do, and then I&rsquo;ll do yours.&rdquo; I called Jermaine, and we were both like, &ldquo;Nah, we can&rsquo;t do the surgery here.&rdquo;
Jermaine came through, like he always does, and hooked me up with Dr. Desai, and he&rsquo;s a huge basketball fanatic. He actually saw Kevin Durant when KD tore his Achilles against the Raptors. It made me feel more comfortable to see somebody who actually specializes in orthopaedic procedures, and who works with basketball players on a regular basis.&nbsp;
But again, I was alone.
This was at the height of COVID, and it killed my mom and the rest of my family to not be able to be in the waiting room or anywhere close to the hospital. They had to wait outside, and I had to go in for surgery by myself. I was by myself when I woke up after the surgery and saw my foot in a cast for the first time. I was by myself when I had to face the reality that I was going to have to rebuild my body and pause my career.&nbsp;
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My mom, my brother and I live by this family mantra, &lsquo;the 72-hour rule.&rdquo; When something negative happens, you can sulk about it for two-to-three days, but then after that third day, you have to snap out of it. So I took notes. I wrote down all of the things I was going to do, and then aligned it with the protocols that the doctor gave me and just made sure I kept my mind out of a negative space. I want to stay positive when it comes to attacking this rehab process.
And it&rsquo;s been a good process.
I&rsquo;m in Canada, so my surgery and post-op care was free, but they don&rsquo;t cover the cost of my lengthy rehab. But I have insurance through Team Canada, which covers some of my expenses (with the rest paid out-of-pocket).&nbsp;
I work with the Team Canada guys and their physical therapist Jason Meehan, who I see once a week. Four-to-five times a week, I do weights and stuff with Dr. Thomas Lam, who is someone I&rsquo;ve worked with since I was 13 years old. Dr. Lam works with my Team Canada teammate, Dwight Powell, who also tore his Achilles in January with the Dallas Mavericks. This is a strange coincidence, but it&rsquo;s one that I needed, to have somebody that is going through the exact same process that can coach me and be like, &ldquo;Hey, this is what you&rsquo;re going to experience. You&rsquo;re going to have good days and bad days...&rdquo; That was good for me. That made me really optimistic.&nbsp;
Dwight is a great person and he is a hard worker. That&rsquo;s something no injury can ever take away from him. He also plays for Mark Cuban, so he has access to all of the best resources. Even in the NBA bubble, there was talk that he looked so good that he could probably play, but the team just wanted to be cautious.
I was playing in the G League, living check to check. It&rsquo;s already hard to stay committed in the G League, where our per diem is $100 for a two-day road trip and our salaries are $30,000 before taxes. I thought about Dwight&rsquo;s injury, and I thought about my injury, and how if I just had a little bit more money (or an NBA organization footing the bill), I could have access to better resources too.&nbsp;
Fortunately, I did have a lot from a support standpoint.
The team I was playing for, the Hamilton Honey Badgers, features a number of people who I got to know during my time with the Raptors 905. Jermaine Anderson went from a player-development coach on the 905 to GM of the Honey Badgers. Coach Ryan was one of the main assistant coaches that I was really close with throughout my tenure with the 905.&nbsp;
Many people from the 905 reached out including their GM Chad Sanders, the new president Courtney Charles and the former president John Wiggins. Jama Mahlalela (who used to be the 905&rsquo;s head coach) hit me up as well. They offered words of support and told me that they were keeping me in their prayers. One of the 905&rsquo;s therapists, Graeme Campbell, was already there in the CEBL bubble because he was working with Coach Charles Kissi and the Guelph Nighthawks.&nbsp;
Everyone offered me so much. Rayhan Malik, our athletic trainer with the 905, was like, &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s see what the insurance is like, but if you want to work with me and work with Graeme, we can definitely help take care of you.&rdquo;
I couldn&rsquo;t work with the Raptors&rsquo; people because they were still in the bubble, so they were trying to figure that out and it wouldn&rsquo;t have been an option for me. John, Chad and Jama all brought up the idea of the 905 signing me as a practice player for the upcoming season. You don&rsquo;t get paid for that, and I would have had to travel to the arena by myself and they wouldn&rsquo;t provide housing, but the goal would have been to give me the opportunity to be around basketball, to be around the team, maybe even help coach some of the new guys, and at least get access to working out with Arsalan Jamil and Ryan Schmidt, and then get treatment there around the clock. But because of COVID-19 and what they&rsquo;re going to do with the G League season, and then with the Raptors moving to Tampa and the 905 possibly moving too, it wouldn&rsquo;t make sense for them to have to fly me out and house me if I&rsquo;m not going to get the opportunity to play with them.
And then they had a coaching change.&nbsp;
I haven&rsquo;t heard from the 905 since they hired Coach Patrick Mutombo and Brittni Donaldson, and Jama is on Nick Nurse&rsquo;s staff now, so he has other things to worry about. I don&rsquo;t know where I stand with them in terms of being a practice player or not. But regardless, I&rsquo;m still thankful that they reached out, thankful that they wanted to help out, and thankful for the two years that I spent there.&nbsp;
I&rsquo;ve been carrying it well, doing everything I can to get back out there, but this stuff is still heavy, man.
Even Employment Insurance is a grey area, because my job as a G League player doesn&rsquo;t really exist right now, and I can&rsquo;t find other work because I&rsquo;m still injured.&nbsp;
These are the kind of things that NBA guys, NBA fans, and just basketball fans in general don&rsquo;t really understand, or even think about.&nbsp;
And I can&rsquo;t blame them for that. I can&rsquo;t blame anybody for this situation since it was entirely out of anyone&rsquo;s control.&nbsp;
I&rsquo;m blessed, so blessed, to be in an organization that has offered all they could in terms of support. But at the end of the day, I&rsquo;m not in a situation where I&rsquo;m making millions of dollars or receiving all of the same perks as an NBA player.&nbsp;
Don&rsquo;t get me wrong. I love my job. I get to play the game I love, and I get paid to do it. Not many people can say that.&nbsp;
And it&rsquo;s not all about money.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s just life, when I think about it.&nbsp;
The richer people always have access to better healthcare than the people who don&rsquo;t.
Growing up, people always talk about managing your money properly and getting your degree because you could get hurt. You hear those things and you take it in, but you don&rsquo;t really process it. Then, it happened to me. I&rsquo;m glad I got my degree. What if I had left school early and never went to the NBA? Then I&rsquo;m overseas and this happened to me. At least I have my degree to fall back on.
The window for undrafted players and G League players is so small. You can do everything right and still have your dream disappear before it even begins.&nbsp;
I&rsquo;m lucky to have so many people in the basketball community that care about me and want to see me get back on my feet.
It&rsquo;s been a hard road, but I&rsquo;m luckier than most.&nbsp;

Former Raptors 905 guard Duane Notice details his recovery from a torn Achilles without having NBA resources at his disposal.