Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Sports columnist Aaron McFarling: Character question costly for Redick
Aaron McFarling
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Aaron's blog
Questions were already there.
But J.J., what about your on-ball defense?
But J.J., are you quick enough to create your own shot the NBA?
But J.J., what does that LSU game say about your ability to perform in the clutch?
J.J. Redick hates those questions. They've grown so tiresome. The former Cave Spring star has heard them at every stop on his pre-NBA draft workout tour.
But at least there was one constant through it all: Nobody -- not scouts, not GMs, not the media -- questioned his character.
Tuesday's events changed that.
When Redick was arrested in Durham, N.C., early Tuesday morning and charged with driving while impaired, he tossed his biggest bargaining chip into the pot and damaged something he had worked 21 years to create: a highly marketable image.
He's already taking steps to try to get it back. Redick apologized right away Tuesday through a written statement, saying "I regret what happened last night." His agent, Arn Tellem, immediately went into damage-control mode, saying "this is nothing more than an isolated incident."
And maybe it is. Anybody who's met Redick -- and some 900 did at his celebration dinner at the Hotel Roanoke in April -- can tell he's bright and level-headed. He seems to take his position as a role model seriously, and it's hard to imagine him repeating this mistake.
But either way, some damage has been done.
Redick's court date isn't until July 17. The NBA draft is June 28. Simple math tells us this incident will be hovering over him when general managers are determining his future. No matter what scouts say publicly, their Redick bios will look a tad different now:
Name: J.J. Redick.
Hometown: Roanoke, Va.
College: Duke.
Career points: 2,769.
Biggest honors: Sullivan Award, Associated Press player of the year.
Other: Writes poetry, faces DWI charges.
This, of course, doesn't necessarily mean he won't get drafted high. We're talking about the NBA here. Former Michigan State star Scott Skiles went on to a long and fruitful NBA career as a player and coach after being jailed his senior year on a drunken-driving charge, which violated his probation for possession of marijuana.
Redick's problems don't rise to that level, but you get the point. If a guy can play, the league will forgive.
The trouble is, Redick never has been viewed as a can't-miss NBA prospect. And the difference between being a top-10 pick and a late first-rounder is measured in the millions. One of his greatest selling points -- that he seems a squeaky-clean, slap-me-on-a-billboard guy -- now is weaker, and time will tell how much that costs him.
Redick understands the responsibilities that come with being a star. After a wrong-place, wrong-time dorm incident his freshman year at Duke, Redick got a bitter taste of the dark side of being a public figure.
Redick eventually was cleared by the university of any wrongdoing, but for weeks his name was linked to police reports and marijuana.
"I don't think anyone has an idea of what the ramifications were," his father, Ken Redick, told The Roanoke Times at the time, "but it was pretty deep. ...
"It tends to stick around a lot longer than it probably should."
Redick eventually got past that, just as he can this. But for now, that long list of questions just got a little longer, and suddenly he's got more to prove than simply what he can do on a basketball court.
