The NBA Finals are all done but you still have a few opportunities to see some basketball in the months ahead: Olympics, NBA Summer League, and The Basketball Tournament. The TBT is an open-application, single-elimination tourney featuring 64 teams and offering $1 million in winner-take-all prize money. There will be 4 regionals during July in Columbus/Illinois/West Virginia/Wichita, followed by the semifinals/final during August in Dayton. We commence our coverage with Lee Nailon, who was 1 of the best scorers in the nation for 2 straight years at TCU in 1998/1999 before spending 15 years playing pro basketball in the NBA/overseas. He is the coach of the Fort Worth Funk, who played Team Arkansas last week. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Lee about being a great scorer and running a catering company.
After high school you attended a pair of community colleges: what made you choose TCU? My dream was to play in the NBA like my Indiana hometown hero Shawn Kemp. I did not have great grades coming out of high school so I chose to go to junior college for a couple of years. Coach Billy Tubbs was honest with me and won me over. He said that he would help me reach the NBA and he kept his word.
Coach Tubbs passed away last November: what made him such a great coach, and what was the most important thing that you ever learned from him? He was hard on us and held us accountable. He taught us to work hard and put family 1st.
In 1998 you were named All-American/WAC POY: what did it mean to you to receive such outstanding honors? I did not play the game for honors but I was humbly excited.
In the 1998 NCAA tourney you scored 32 PTS/12-22 FG in a 9-PT loss to #12-seed Florida State: why are those 5-seed-vs.-12-seed games such a toss-up? Thanks for reminding me: I am still mad about that 1! It was a great experience and that was probably the best college team I played for. After that season it seemed like a lot of 12-seeds started upsetting 5-seeds so I think we started it. We went 16-0 in conference play and Coach Tubbs knew exactly how to get the best out of us in every single game. I fouled out with 5 minutes to go against FSU and that was the ball game.
You were 1 of the best scorers in nation for 2 years in a row (24.9 PPG in 1998/22.8 PPG in 1999): what is the secret to being a great scorer? In 1998 I lost out by a couple of PTS to Charles Jones from LIU. A lot of guys are great 1-on-1 players but what turned me into a great scorer was trying to score so that I could hear my name called out loud by the PA announcer.
On January 16, 2005 you scored a career-high 32 PTS/14-20 FG for New Orleans in a 3-PT loss to Toronto: was it just 1 of those scenarios where every shot you put up seemed to go in because you were “in the zone”? I do not even remember that game but I guess I was on fire that night!
In 2007 you were named Israeli League MVP and led Bnei HaSharon to the Israeli Cup final before losing to Hapoel Jerusalem: how big a deal was it to upset Maccabi Tel Aviv in the semifinal? When I 1st came to Israel I was told that we had to beat Maccabi Tel Aviv but I had not followed the league that much in the past. People on the streets would tell me that they were the best team and it pissed me off that every other team in the league had been written off. We had already beaten them 2-3 times during the regular season and our coach/GM really wanted to beat them in the playoffs. They had a pretty good team but we had a better coach. I did not think that I would win MVP: I was just trying to get a better job but looking back on it now it was huge to win that award.
After spending several years playing pro basketball overseas you moved back to Dallas with your wife and opened a catering company called Dough & Tips (www.facebook.com/groups/636365830293158): how is the food business treating you so far? We are doing really well and it took off really fast. We got our 1st deal with Ronald McDonald’s and it just snowballed after that. We are giving back and feeding really good soul food to people all over the DFW area.
You also created an AAU team and work with unsigned seniors to help them get college scholarships: are we going to see you become a college coach in the future? I would love to coach at TCU but some dreams do not come true. My passion/focus is to give back to Fort Worth because the city embraced me so I will always give them my best. My goal is to share all of the knowledge with players that I got while playing overseas.
You coached the Fort Worth Funk in this year’s TBT: how close did you come to beating Team Arkansas last week, and what were you going to do with your share of the $1 million prize money if you had won it all? We were 1 possession away. What the players do not understand is that you have to get together early: we only had a few weeks to put the team together because we got a late start and only held a couple practices. Hopefully we can get together sooner next year to build some chemistry/trust, which are the most important things. After we win next year I will give some of the proceeds to the foundations that are near and dear to me.