Kansas won the NCAA tourney in April and Golden State won the NBA Finals in June but there is still 1 more basketball champion to be crowned this summer. The Basketball Tournament (aka the TBT) kicks off on July 16th with 8 regions of 8 teams playing in Dayton/New Mexico/Omaha/Rucker Park/Syracuse/West Virginia/Wichita/Xavier. Each region will send 1 team to the quarterfinals, with the championship game taking place during the 1st weekend of August, and the winning team walking away with a $1 million prize. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will spend the weeks ahead interviewing as many TBT participants as possible. We continue our coverage with Darren Collison, who is the GM of Team Challenge ALS after making 3 straight Final 4s at UCLA and spending more than a decade in the NBA.
You were born/raised in California: what made you choose UCLA? It was the top major school in southern California and everyone wanted to go there.
You made 3 straight Final 4s from 2006-2008 but lost to a Florida team that won back-to-back titles and a Memphis team that became the 1st to ever win 38 games in 1 season: where do those Gators teams rank among the best you ever saw, and how did you feel after learning that the Tigers’ entire season would be vacated by the NCAA due to eligibility concerns surrounding Derrick Rose? Those Florida teams have to be among the best that we have ever seen in college basketball. They had 4-5 pros in the starting lineup for 2 years in a row! I do not know about all of the eligibility concerns but Memphis had some good players as well and got the best of us.
You led the conference with 2.2 SPG as a sophomore, 87.2 FT% as a junior, and 166 AST as a senior: how were you able to balance all of the different aspects of your game? I had to expand different parts of my game every year based on who I was playing with. If we needed some scoring then I wanted to be the best shooter, and if we had plenty of other scorers then I would make sure that everyone was happy.
As a senior you won the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award as the best college player standing 6’ or under: what did it mean to you to receive such an outstanding honor? It was a testament to my work ethic. I loved to work on my game and get better and had the chance to display it on the biggest stage at UCLA.
You/Josh Shipp/Alfred Aboya finished your careers as the winningest class in school history with 123 wins: did you realize at the time how prolific your class was, and do you think that anyone will ever break your record? I did not know exactly how special our team was during my time at UCLA. I think that our record will be broken some day: all of the players coming up now are more skilled so they just need to find the right chemistry. Coach Mick Cronin does a great job now and will continue to so do moving forward.
In the summer of 2009 you were drafted 21st overall by New Orleans (4 spots behind your teammate Jrue Holiday): did you see that as a validation of all your hard work, or the realization of a lifelong dream, or other? It meant a lot to both me and my family. Every time that I stepped into the gym when nobody was watching it was on my mind. I did not think that I would become as good of a pro as I did due to my size but things worked out my way.
You finished 4th in the 2010 NBA ROY voting after averaging 18.8 PPG/9.1 APG in 37 games as a starter: how were you able to come in and be so successful right from the start? I was playing under Chris Paul, who was 1 of the best PGs in the league at the time. Some of our other guards got injured and I was able to get some playing time, and when I was not playing I was working with assistant coach Robert Pack on my game.
In 2018 you led the league with 46.8 3P%: what is the secret to making shots from behind the arc? Just work! You have to be a professional in the offseason and stay locked in. People joke about the phrase “no days off” but you have to remain consistent.
You are the founder/CEO of a basketball training facility called ProsVision: what makes your facility different from other ones? We have a lot of trainers who are former pro athletes and their knowledge gives us an advantage to really teach the game. We teach off of our own experience but also learn from the new school.
You are the GM of Team Challenge ALS in the TBT: how is the team looking so far, and what will you do with your share of the $1 million prize money if you win it all? I do not know what I will do with the money: hopefully a donation to a good organization. Our team is coming along and I think that we have a good shot of going far: hopefully the guys will be locked in during training camp.