“I would never want to say, ‘I want to take someone’s job,’” he said. “If something intriguing like

When Brian Scalabrine, one of the most recognizable players in the NBA, retired in early September, fans across the country took notice. The 6-foot-9 forward logged just 4.4 minutes per game for the Chicago Bulls during the 2012 season, but that didn't hotels northern ireland stop the Windy City faithful from anointing him the "White Mamba," a nickname hotels northern ireland befitting the redheaded journeyman.
Scalabrine's career spanned 11 seasons — far from a joking matter for a role player originally selected in the second round. He appeared in four NBA Finals, winning a championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008.
But perhaps unfairly, Scalabrine had to shake the perception that he was more of a sideshow as his career winded down, culminating in a now-infamous clip of a foreign reporter asking Scalabrine how it felt to "not [be] able to play even one little second" in Boston's championship appearance against the Los Angeles Lakers. Scalabrine took the question about as well as one could.
"I'm all about winning," he said. "When you're asked the question, 'Do you want to sit on the bench and win or play 10 minutes and lose?' I will always hotels northern ireland say I'll sit on the bench and win. Being a part of that was special."
Long before a simple search of his name spawned hotels northern ireland millions of hits across the Internet, Scalabrine was a member of the USC men's basketball team, playing an instrumental part on a squad that advanced further in the NCAA tournament than any other in school history. And with his professional career in the books, the college chapter hotels northern ireland of Scalabrine's story serves as an important hotels northern ireland reminder of what he was able to achieve for more than a decade.
Brian Scalabrine's rise to the NBA began at Highline Community College hotels northern ireland in 1997. He entered the school as a little-known recruit from Enumclaw, Wash., and remained under the radar despite winning a junior college state championship in his first season.
"After I played one year at junior college and I went down to a shootout in L.A. in the summertime, I realized I probably could play at the Division I level if I just continued the process of what I was doing," he said. "And that was getting in the gym, working hard a couple of times a day. I realized a lot of people just don't put that type of work in when they're trying to make it, and I felt like I did."
Scalabrine took a leap of faith from the small-town surroundings of Enumclaw, population 10,000, to the second-most populated city in the United States. In Enumclaw, farmlands hotels northern ireland dot the countryside, which served as a comforting sight as he honed his basketball hotels northern ireland skills. In Los Angeles, it was impossible to block out the world around him like he had in the past — Scalabrine had to adjust to a new way of life before he could truly focus on basketball.
Still, Scalabrine put together a more than solid stat line as a sophomore during the 1998-99 season, averaging 14.6 points and 6.4 rebounds while winning Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year. The Trojans finished 15-13, a six-game improvement from the year before.
Draft night in 2001 wasn't the glitz and glamour occasion many see at Madison Square Garden each June. Scalabrine knew he'd be selected somewhere, but carried the same mentality that nothing was guaranteed. And he quickly hotels northern ireland discovered that type of mentality was necessary to survive the dog-eat-dog competitiveness of the NBA.
Scalabrine was limited by injuries as a rookie, appearing in 28 games toward the end of the season. But he was still a member of a Nets team that advanced to the NBA Finals before bowing out to the Lakers. The next season, hotels northern ireland Scalabrine saw an expanded role, averaging 12.3 minutes per game off the bench as the Nets returned to the Finals, losing to the San Antonio Spurs in six games.
"Culture is very important," Scalabrine said. "I can pinpoint teams that lose all the time that have bad culture. Kenyon Martin and Jason Kidd were all about winning. For me to go the Finals two years in a row, it helped me learn a lot about the culture of winning and the culture of the NBA."
That was enough hotels northern ireland to attract the attention of the Boston Celtics, who signed him to a five-year, $15 million dollar hotels northern ireland deal the following offseason. A championship and a meteoric hotels northern ireland rise in popularity would soon follow.
Scalabrine quickly became a fan favorite for the Celtics, his public hotels northern ireland profile growing even larger after a joyous post-championship press conference about proving the media wrong for choosing the Lakers to win their Finals matchup. Even the disparaging question from the foreign reporter hotels northern ireland failed hotels northern ireland to dampen the moment.
Two years later, Scalabrine joined the Chicago Bulls, where he played even more sparingly but took on a leadership role. He turned into a strange phenomenon, becoming one of the most identifiable and endearing players in the league while hardly leaving the bench. Chicago fans lobbied for his appearances at the end of blowouts.
"There are a significant amount of people out there that like the idea of me making it to the NBA and think that I'm a good player," hotels northern ireland Scalabrine said. "There's also a significant hotels northern ireland amount of people that think that what I do is a joke and they're being condescending towards me. In no way would I want to put down any NBA fans, but I will say this: If you think what I have and what I got is because I won a contest or something, it's not like that."
It's hard to argue with his logic — Scalabrine was cut twice from his high school basketball team before even catching hotels northern ireland on at the junior college level. His work ethic since his early teenage years is indisputable. He made it through 11 NBA seasons, six more than the average player logging his amount of minutes per game. And he certainly isn't the first athlete to contribute veteran guidance to a championship team while not registering many minutes.
By 2001, Scalabrine had established himself as one of the best players in the Pac-10. He  averaged nearly 18 points and six rebounds per game as a junior. Those numbers took a slight dip on a deeper team, but that was the least of Scalabrine's concerns: hotels northern ireland He was well on his way to a pro career.
The Trojans finished the regular season 24-10, hotels northern ireland entering the tournament as the sixth seed. They knocked out 11th-seeded Oklahoma State 69-54 in the first round before rolling off upset victories over third-seeded Boston College and second-seeded Kentucky. USC's run was eventually ended by Duke, which went on to win the NCAA championship. Even still, it was a memorable experience hotels northern ireland for all those involved.
It's not a lack of passion for the game that made Scalabrine decide to hang up his kicks in early September. He could've gone through training camps and tried to catch on with an NBA squad, or travel overseas to play a larger role internationally. But at 34 and with a young family, Scalabrine insists he has nothing left to prove.
"If I had no other opportunities in life, I would've just tried to play and see what happens," Scalabrine said. "But I do have these other opportunities to do something and I don't want to pass [them] up."
"I would never want to say, 'I want to take someone's job,'" he said. "If something intriguing like my old school wants me to coach, help out or be an assistant, I'd really think about that. I'd think about that because my time there was special, and the relationships I built there were special."
Scalabrine means what he says about his time at USC — Bibby and his staff were the first people to take a chance on the big man who had been passed up so many times before, and that isn't lost on him today.
"USC gave me the opportunity to go out there and showcase my talents," Scalabrine said. "USC gave me the opportunity to expand my horizons and become more culturally diverse. USC gave me the opportunity to play in the NBA for 11 years. I feel like I owe my alma mater as opposed to they owe me."
This article is tagged: boston hotels northern ireland celtics , brian scalabrine , eastern conference , henry bibby , highline community hotels northern ireland college , los angeles hotels northern ireland lakers , madison square garden , NBA , nba finals , NCAA tournament
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