NBA
NBA draft: Illinois prepster ready for pros

By Percy Allen
Seattle Times staff reporter

CHUCK BURTON / AP NBA draft candidate Shaun Livingston prepares to dunk during a workout for the Charlotte Bobcats last Thursday. Livingston was named Illinois Mr. Basketball this past high-school season.

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Shaun Livingston is ready for his close-up, even though it seems that he has been overlooked in this recent class of out-of-the-woods high-school players who have applied for the NBA draft.

In the past week, ESPN the Magazine and Slam chose Dwight Howard to grace the covers of their publications. Sports Illustrated made Brooklyn sensation Sebastian Telfair a pinup boy last month, which in essence unfairly targeted him as the next LeBron James.

And Adidas dropped $12 million on Josh Smith, a promising small forward from College Park, Ga., who somehow landed a rich shoe-endorsement deal despite little name recognition.

Still, the best of the bunch just might be the skinny kid from Peoria, Ill., who grew up idolizing Pistol Pete Maravich. At 6 feet 7, Livingston reminds many of Magic Johnson, because his greatness on the court is making his teammates better players.

"I always like players who have size for their position," said David Pendergraft, the Sonics' director of player personnel. "Having a 6-7 point guard coupled with his basketball IQ, you don't know when another one will come around like that.

"You'll be able to find a guy who shoots better. You'll find a guy with more speed and quickness, but you might not find a guy who can take the ball anywhere he wants to go with either hand that's 6-7-1/2. Now that is special."

The people in Peoria, Ill., knew Livingston was special years ago. As a second-grader he could dribble proficiently with both hands, and he led his seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade teams to a combined 87-0 record at Concordia Lutheran grammar school.

Chuck Westendorf, the athletic director at Peoria Central High, realized he had a basketball prodigy walking the hallways when Livingston led the school to consecutive Class AA state titles.

"NBA people can see the charisma he has," Westendorf told the Chicago Tribune. "He's nice-looking, speaks well and is quite humble. He is going to be some marketing man's dream."

Livingston will be the fourth Illinois Mr. Basketball to go straight from high school to the NBA, joining a group that includes Kevin Garnett, Darius Miles and Eddy Curry. Livingston may not be nationally recognized, but he is immensely popular around Chicago.
 
A few high-school seniors are solicited with autograph requests, but not many prepsters are asked to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch of a Chicago Cubs game. On April 19, Livingston belted out a rendition he said "won't make him the next American Idol."

It wasn't until Livingston defied the wishes of his grandfather, Frank Livingston, and turned his back on Mike Krzyzewski that the 18-year-old truly seemed marked for greatness.

You must understand that Livingston dearly loves his grandfather, whom he credited for "getting me in this position in the first place. Without him, I'm not here."

Livingston's mother left him when he was 2, and Frank, an ex-Marine who was decorated in the Korean War, was there to pick up the pieces.

So when Duke came calling and offered a scholarship, Frank could think of no reason for his grandson to decline the offer. The lure of guaranteed millions, which a first-round NBA draft choice receives, held little credence to the older Livingston.

And besides, nobody had ever committed to Duke and went on to forgo a college career completely in favor of the NBA. Even Luol Deng, who might have been a first-round pick last year, played one season for Coach K before declaring for the NBA.

"Duke is a great school, and everybody knows that, and just because I'm not there, that's not going to change," Livingston said two weeks ago at the predraft media session in Chicago. "I wanted to play for them. ... But you can't pass up an opportunity like this. When I started hearing where I might go, you can't let this chance go by."

A month ago, Livingston was sure he would land somewhere in the lottery. But there has been talk in the past 48 hours that he could be selected as high as No. 2, a spot currently held by the Charlotte Bobcats.

Each year, the criteria for drafting high-school players changes. It used to be that teams chose a prepster only if he was a 7-footer, because of the dearth of big men in the NBA.

Recently, the trend moved toward selecting tall players with guard-like skills.

This year, the teams will cross the last divide and draft a preps-to-pros player at point guard, which was taboo for many years.

"You have to be a special player," Pendergraft said. "You have to will yourself to your teammates. You've got to run a play and you've got to at least be able to get the team to do what the coach wants it to.

"Do I have trust in a high-school kid doing that? No. I don't. But Shaun Livingston has a basketball IQ that's out of the roof."

Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com