Improving the simple makes a difference

By BRIAN LANDMAN
Published June 26, 2006

OLDSMAR ­— Although he faced no ball-hawking defender, former Florida State standout Alexander Johnson heard it if, even for a moment, he dribbled a bit too casually.

“Pound the ball,” David Thorpe said in his trademark encouraging staccato.

“Pound the ball. Pound the ball.”

The 6-foot-9, 228-pound power forward responded simultaneously with a nod and a more authoritative handle on the basketball that day in the toasty, dimly-lit, White Shadow-esque gym at Oldsmar Christian School.

“See the floor,” Thorpe then implored. “Keep your head up.

“See the floor. Good, A.J. Good.”

If these sound like relatively simple skills to work on, well, yeah, they are. But basketball isn’t a difficult game if a player’s movements are fundamentally sound and smoothly efficient.

That’s why Johnson, who opted to forgo his senior season at FSU, has been in Oldsmar for more than a month preparing for the NBA draft on Wednesday and a professional career for years to come.

Thorpe has spent the past couple of decades helping high school and college players develop, and more recently as the executive director of the Pro Training Center, he has helped fledgling and established pro players blossom.

His client list of draft entries includes Johnson, former Miami guard Guillermo Diaz and Israeli point guard Yotam Halperin. Thorpe also continues to work with ex-Florida forward Udonis Haslem — a starter for the NBA champion Miami Heat — Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh and Sacramento Kings guard Kevin Martin.

Martin was unheralded coming out of Western Carolina in 2004 but skyrocketed into the first round on the strength of his predraft workouts. He emerged as a shooting star in the playoff series this season against the San Antonio Spurs.

“I was good, but I wasn’t NBA good,” Martin said.

“Once I started training with him (as a rising sophomore), I kept improving my game.”

Johnson similarly raves about Thorpe’s impact and import.

The 23-year-old, who’s looking to surprise folks in Tallahassee and become the first Seminole selected in the first round since Bob Sura (17th) in 1995, has been impressing NBA scouts in private workouts.

By Wednesday, Johnson will have worked out for every team drafting between No. 16 and No. 24. His best shots seem to be No. 17 to Indiana, No. 19 to Sacramento, No. 21 to Phoenix or No. 24 to Memphis. He’s shown a soft, mid-range jumper, a booster-charged 40-inch vertical leap and a more sculpted, blender-shaped body (broad shoulders, barrel chest and tapered waist) than he had in March.

“David’s done a great job because he pays attention to detail,” said Masai Ujiri, the Denver Nuggets director of international scouting. “If a power forward goes to train with a normal NBA trainer, he’s trained as a power forward. David Thorpe trains him as an individual. He goes and gets tapes of him from college or, in the case of a Udonis Haslem, from France, and analyzes his strengths and weaknesses. It’s obviously worked.”

***

Thorpe, 41, played basketball at Seminole High, but remarkably enough, that’s the extent of his experience. Still, he understood the game and broke into coaching as an assistant at Dixie Hollins under Mike McPherson in the late 1980s.

Given the license to work with the varsity as well as the junior varsity, Thorpe looked to improve his knowledge base by going to as many summer camps as possible.

 The work paid off, both at Dixie Hollins and later when he opened up his own academy geared toward prep players.

“He really pushed me and made me a better player,” said former Clearwater and Dayton star Josh Postorino, now an assistant at Marshall. “He just did a tremendous job teaching me more individual fundamentals, more than most guys at that age got.”

While Thorpe enjoyed numerous success stories, he didn’t really jump onto the NBA radar until he worked with Haslem a few years ago.

After the former Gator wasn’t picked in the 2002 draft, he seemed destined for a life abroad, using part of his pay on Berlitz language instruction tapes. He spent his first pro season in France and then, on the advice of a new agent, Jason Levien, spent all of one day — his birthday — at home before teaming up with Thorpe to prepare for the NBA’s summer leagues. (Levien had known Thorpe for years and first sent him one of his clients, Duke’s Chris Carrawell, in 2000.)

“When I first saw him, he was working with Vince Carter and a lot of other Division I prospects, and I was so impressed with how he handled them, how he motivated them,’’ said Levien, who represents Johnson and Diaz now.

“I really feel I’m in the inspiration business more than anything,” added Thorpe, who graduated from Florida as a psychology major. “My job’s to inspire people. Inspire them to work harder. Inspire them to be better students of the game. Inspire them to be better teammates.”

In only a few weeks, Haslem reshaped his body, his approach to the game and his fortunes.

He made it to the NBA by earning a free-agent deal with the Heat in August 2003, and he returned to Thorpe the next summer to work on new offensive skills that would net him a lucrative deal in August.

“He turned me into a player who could stand up and face the basket and take jumpers,” Haslem said during the NBA Finals. “Obviously, I had been playing with my back to the basket my whole career … and to be honest, if not for him, I probably wouldn’t be able to play in this system.”

Haslem in turn gave Thorpe invaluable street credibility.

Case in point: When former Largo and FSU star guard Ron Hale wanted to take another shot at the NBA two years ago, he knew the person he should contact.

“I really didn’t know a lot about him,” said Hale, who played in Japan for a few seasons after he wasn’t picked in the 2000 draft, “but I had heard through the grapevine what Dave had done for players and decided to give him a try.”

He didn’t regret it. Hale improved his ball-handling and turned heads in summer league, but he had no guaranteed offers and returned to Japan. Two years later, he’s back with Thorpe as a prelude to another possible run at the NBA, and he’s sure that Thorpe is “the best person to help me do that.”

***

Johnson had an injury-plagued, disappointing sophomore season at FSU. He was heavy (255) and unhappy. Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton advised that if his family could afford it, he should go to Thorpe’s center.

Thanks to Thorpe’s conditioning program, augmented by Elaine Feldman, a nutritionist who works with him, Johnson lost about 25 pounds and gained strength, a better grasp of some basics and confidence. Last season, he averaged career highs in points (13.2) and rebounds (7.4) and more than held his own against the top big men in the ACC, including Duke’s Shelden Williams.

“I thought it would be a good opportunity for him, and it worked out,” Hamilton said. “There’s no doubt that A.J. has made tremendous progress.”

Since finishing the spring semester at FSU, Johnson returned to Thorpe to enhance his draft status and pro prospects. Thorpe gears his program toward improving quickness and explosiveness, two coveted traits in the NBA. For example, he uses a drill that has a player dunk one shot after another in rapid succession, as if hoping on a trampoline. He’s also used his vast network of contacts to rehearse drills a player can expect in private workouts with teams.

“The same things he does, the teams do; I’m used to it, and I’m more comfortable with what I’m doing,” he said. “And going through his workouts help me mentally because he’s pushed me.”

Comfort equals confidence, and Johnson’s exuding both these days.

Not that Thorpe is a bit surprised.

“Guys like A.J. and Guillermo Diaz are extremely talented players,” he said. “They’ve been impacted by a wide range of people, from high school to college coaches to AAU coaches, to family and friends. I’m not the master builder. I just feel I’m part of the puzzle. I’m just polishing.”

Times staff writer Stephen F. Holder contributed to this report.

[Last modified June 26, 2006, 22:40:30]