Naz Reid is saying all the right things for a college basketball player whose team is still playing in March.
“I haven’t given much thought to it.”
And …
“I’m really just trying to win now.”
And …
“I just want to perfect my game as much as I can before leaving. I want to be a professional, not just a just pro.”
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But the LSU star almost certainly will not play another college game beyond this NCAA Tournament. The only thing that would be more shocking than reading, “Naz Reid, sophom*ore,” would be the NCAA asking suspended Tigers head coach Will Wade to hold a seminar, titled, “Purity and Virtue in College Athletics.”
Reid, a 6-foot-10 freshman forward, is projected as a mid- to late-first-round pick. He is still a bit of a raw talent. His youth (19 years old) scares some NBA scouts and general managers from a maturity standpoint. But that’s not unusual for the NBA, where players tend to be drafted more on “upside” than “today,” despite the inherent risks.
But there is no doubting Reid’s skills.
“He plays like a guard — he just happens to be 6-10,” teammate Skylar Mays said. “He’s only 19, so he’s going to be insane.”
LSU faces Michigan State in the East Regional semifinals Friday in Washington, D.C. The Tigers reached the “Sweet 16” by defeating Yale and Maryland, doing so despite Wade being suspended for refusing to meet with school officials after allegations of paying recruits came up in wiretapped conversations in the FBI’s corruption investigation.
LSU’s players have shown remarkable resolve under the circ*mstances, particularly against Maryland. Reid was central to the 69-67 win Saturday in Jacksonville for his defensive contributions against Maryland’s two frontline stars, Bruno Fernando and Jalen Smith. Reid also had 27 points, 14 rebounds and four assists in the two tournament wins.
He made the rare transition from Asbury Park, N.J., to Baton Rouge, La. It was a culture shock. But a similar move worked out for another New Jersey product, Shaquille O’Neal.
“Everything moves slower,” Reid said of Baton Rouge. “It’s just something I adapted to. The food is different. I never had crawfish before.”
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About food: When Reid arrived at LSU, he said he weighed 272 pounds. Now he’s at 246. The weight loss can be attributed to both increased workouts and a change in diet. He had a weakness for fast food: McDonald’s, Popeye’s, Chick-fil-A. Day time, night time, all the time.
“I had that No. 1 Chick-fil-A combo with large fries a lot,” he said. “That got me in trouble. Now it’s Panera. I was able to get my weight door, and now I’m jumping higher and better and getting up and down the floor, doing things I couldn’t do before.”
Teammates made the occasional “fat” joke back in the summer.
“We’d say, ‘No, you can’t have this cake,’ when we’d get dessert after a team dinner, stuff like that,” Mays said.
“It’s shocking to see how somebody’s body can change like that,” Tremont Waters said.
If Reid at times plays more like a guard, it’s because he had to as a youth. He was smaller when he was growing up and played in the backcourt before having a growth spurt. But he’s still often out on the perimeter (he shot 1-for-6 on 3-point attempts against Yale and Maryland). It’s why he said he has modeled his game after John Wall (6-4) and Kyrie Irving (6-3) as much as DeMarcus Cousins (6-11) and Kevin Durant (6-9).
Seemingly nobody around the LSU program expects Reid to return for another season, his soundbites notwithstanding. As assistant coach Greg Heiar told the Baton Rouge Advocate, “If you’re a top-20 pick in the draft, you need to go. That’s what his dream is, and we want him to chase his dream. You never want to hold a young man back.”
Reid doesn’t come from a lot of money. He grew up in a home with his mother, grandmother and two sisters.
He said the economics of the situation will not impact his decision, commenting, “My family wants me to do whatever they feel I have to do.”
When asked about his dream purchase as an NBA player, he paused before answering.
“A dream? I’m don’t want any crazy things,” he said. “One dream is just to be able to take care of my family one day so they won’t have to work anymore.”
Start counting the days.
(Photo of Naz Reid: Jim Brown/USA Today)
