The list of great NBA players whose careers were cut short due to injury is a long 1: Grant Hill/Bill Walton/Jay Williams and many many others. Brandon Roy certainly qualifies after 1st looking like he was heading for the Hall of Fame: 2006 All-American at Washington, 2007 NBA ROY in Portland, and 3 straight All-Star appearances from 2008-2010 followed by Kobe Bryant calling him “the hardest player to guard in the West”. Just before NBA training camps opened in 2011 Roy announced that he would be retiring due to degeneration that had occurred in both of his knees. He later became head coach at Nathan Hale High School and was named 2017 Naismith National High School Coach of the Year after leading his team to a 29-0 regular season record. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Brandon’s college coach Lorenzo Romar about his clutch player and making the NCAA tourney. Today is Brandon’s 37th birthday so let us be the 1st to wish him a happy 1!
After graduating from Garfield High School in 2002 Brandon was an early-entry candidate for the NBA draft before eventually deciding to withdraw his name: how close did he come to going pro, and what made him change his mind? There is a misconception as to why he tried to do that. If he could have been a lottery pick out of high school then he would have done it. He had not yet qualified for college so there was that carrot there. If you see Lebron James standing at the other end of the playground then you want to see how you stand up against the best. Brandon was not an arrogant kid: he just wanted to check it out.
What are your memories of the 2004 NCAA tourney (Roy had 9 REB/7 AST in a 2-PT loss to UAB)? It was a high-scoring game (102-100) that was very exciting. We sat a couple of starters for missing curfew.
In December of 2005 he scored a career-high 35 PTS in a win over ASU (after missing 7 of his 1st 10 shots), followed by another 35 PTS in a 2-OT loss to Arizona (he made a 3-PT shot to send the game into OT and another 3-PT shot at the buzzer to send the game into double-OT): where does he rank among the greatest clutch players you have ever seen? I know that he was clutch: there were not many other players in the country that year who I would rather have the ball in their hands. If you doubled off of him then he would find an open teammate. He was so versatile: he could hit a game-winning 3 or post you up or beat you off the dribble. It set him apart from everyone else in the country.
In 2006 he was named conference POY/All-American: what did it mean to him to win such outstanding honors? He was not even all-conference as a junior and was not our most recognized player but he finally got the recognition as a senior when it all came together for him.
Take me through the 2006 NCAA tourney:
Roy scored 21 PTS in a 3-PT win over Illinois: how were you able to overcome an 11-PT deficit with 13 minutes left? He had a lot to do with that. We really clamped down defensively to force some missed shots. He had 1 great play down the stretch where he went 1-on-4 to score a tough basket.
Roy scored 20 PTS in a 6-PT OT loss to UConn: what impact did his foul situation have on the game (he went chest-to-chest with Rudy Gay in 2nd half and got called for both a technical and a personal foul, giving him 4 fouls and forcing him to the bench for several minutes)? I think it changed the entire game because we were up by several points at the time he went to the bench.
In the summer of 2006 he was drafted 6th overall by Minnesota (4 spots behind LaMarcus Aldridge), then immediately traded to Portland for Randy Foye: was it hard for him to separate the personal side from the business side of professional sports? It did not hit him at that point: I think he was just excited to be in Portland, which was the next best thing to being in Seattle. I think it hit him more after he became a free agent.
In 2007 he was named NBA ROY: how was he able to make such a smooth transition from college to the pros despite a left heel injury that limited him to 57 games? I talked to an NBA administrator that year and I said that his team would be helped if he drafted Brandon. The administrator said he needed veterans…and I said that by January Brandon would be a veteran! He is an old soul with a very high basketball IQ. He was fundamentally sound so he was ready to become the face of the franchise right away.
In the 2008 All-Star Game he scored a game-high 18 PTS in 16 minutes for the West off the bench in a 6-PT loss to East: how was he able to play his best against the best? I do not know if he was that surprised: he felt that he belonged.
In December of 2008 he scored a career-high 52 PTS (with no turnovers) in a win over Phoenix, and the following month he had a career-high 10 STL in a win over Washington (1 shy of the NBA record): how was he able to balance his offense with his defense? He is such a well-rounded player. As a senior for us he did a little bit of everything.
In 2011 he underwent arthroscopic surgery on both his knees, then announced his retirement at age 27 due to a degenerative knee condition, but decided to return to the NBA in 2012 before being waived in 2013: how good do you think that he could have been if he had been able to stay healthy? I think he could have been a Hall of Famer.