Brandon Jennings

PARIS [The Monday International Show] - Wow, the unbelievable news of the week is Brandon Jennings, the Milwaukee rookie, lighting up Golden State for 55 points after going scoreless in the first quarter, breaking Jabbar's, Buck's rookie record of 51 and almost breaking Wilt's all-time rookie record of 58!

Wait a minute, this is the same guy that averaged under six points a game last season in Rome and who only played 19 minutes a game?

The same under-sized point guard who dropped to the number ten pick in the last draft because experts said he couldn't shoot?

Right now he's averaging over 20 points a game in the NBA and looks like he's going to be rookie of the year!

What happened?

As you look deeper into his amazing and unique path to stardom, you realize that Jennings is mentally tough like a young Issah Thomas or Damon Stoudamire, cat-quick like Tony Parker but with much better 3-pt. range, and above all, is a Larry Bird type gym rat who works incessantly on his game and shoots over 500 shots a day.

Before his 55 point outburst, Jennings arrived at the arena to shoot at 3pm for an 8 pm game!

Thanks to his mother's influence and presence he has stayed grounded despite being touted as the best high school player in the country two years ago.

His surprising, ground-breaking decision to play in Italy rather than Arizona in the NCAA just shows how Brandon thinks outside the box.

He rejoiced at the chance to play in Italy and in the Euroleague, which is ten times more competitive than the NCAA, against grown men and experienced NBA players like Earl Boykins and Travis Best, despite the fact that he was homesick and not playing as much as he'd like.

He stuck it out and spent endless hours at Rome's practice facility working on his game and his jumper.

His coach in Rome, the Croatian Jasmin Repesa, kept him on a short leash but applauded his work ethic and intensity at practice.

This was not enough to convince NBA scouts and general managers because he dropped to the tenth pick while a year earlier he was projected as a lottery pick.

The Knicks could have chosen Brandon with the eighth pick and will regret their colossal error for the next decade because he could have been a decisive factor towards luring Lebron next summer while being the next coming of Steve Nash.

His game would have fit beautifully into D'Antoni's run and gun system and with Mike's Italian connections, the marriage seemed destined to happen.

However, over the years D'Antoni has been known as a brilliant uptempo coach but not as a draft day genius.

Of course, for someone like me who has been writing for years that young players would be better off playing a couple seasons in Europe before launching their NBA careers, this Jennings story is blessed bread!

Brandon says that coming to Europe is a case by case decision but for him it was a fabulous opputunity to learn the pro life style, discover a wonderful country and above all, accumulate experience and improve his game!

George EDDY