http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/13790595p-14632269c.html
A King's American dream
Francisco García overcomes adversity, grief to create his golden opportunity
By Sam Amick
The history speaks for itself, which is more than Francisco García could do back then.
He had been in America for four years, gone from his native Dominican Republic and living with his mother and brother in the Bronx in the so-called land of opportunity when it finally came in the form of a basketball scholarship to the University of Louisville.
When García made his college arrival, he hardly could speak English. He said "Yes" to everything, unable to convey sentences or true thought. He had the basketball down, but school was another matter.
"He started working his (butt) off, sitting in the front row of every classroom, with every teacher loving him, speaking better, picking it up," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. "He goes from that point to becoming a 2.9, 3.0 (GPA) student."
Three years later, the Kings' 2005 first-round draft pick is at it again, proving a fast study in his NBA career. As the Kings landed in Las Vegas to take on the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night, the evidence of improvement was in his two trips to Sin City.
During summer league here in July, García needed a translator to adjust to the NBA game. In both games and practice, he pressed and stressed into a humbling showing, misfiring most times on his shots and looking every bit like a first-timer. He shot 35 percent from the field and just 23.5 percent from three-point range, averaging 12.2 points while playing 36 minutes per game.
Three months later, García already is more efficient, more productive, perhaps securing a major reserve role with the Kings as a rookie. Despite being a bit too free with his shot selection during the preseason (he trailed only Peja Stojakovic in attempts), his field-goal percentage rose to 40 percent (27 for 67), while his three-point percentage jumped to 36 percent (13 for 36).
Friday night, García had a dose of the big time, trying to keep up with Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, who exploded late in his team's victory.
"Defending people in our league is different than in college," Kings coach Rick Adelman said. "He'll be learning what shots are good for him and what's not and how to fit in. We like him, like the way he plays, but he'll have the same problems every young guy does."
From coaches to fans to media, the common thought of García's early days is that he doesn't look like a rookie. He plays with flair and with a confidence more often seen in veterans.
"His confidence is high," Kings assistant Elston Turner said. "If he misses two or three shots, he's going to take the fourth and fifth ones. And that's better than missing four, then going and hiding for the rest of the day like so many guys do."
But there's bouncing back from hard times in hoops, and then there's real recovery, the kind that comes slower and with far more pain and puts basketball in a whole different light.
It has been almost two years since García lost his brother. García was in his sophomore season at Louisville, adjusting away from home while his mother, Vicente Miguelina, and brother, Hector Lopez, lived in the South Bronx.
About 11 o'clock on a cold December night, 19-year-old Lopez was in the lobby of a Grand Concourse building with friends when two men charged in with guns. They shot Lopez in the neck and the chest at point-blank range. He died 15 minutes later.
Later that night, the cell phone García and his brother had talked on the day before rang. It was his mother, calling with the awful news.
Family and friends say it was a case of mistaken identity, that Lopez was too beloved by too many to have someone take his life on purpose. The killers have since been caught. García wishes he could have taken his family members out of the Bronx before one of them was gone.
"We were tight," García said of he and Lopez. "He played basketball, but he wasn't serious about it. He was going to (high) school, wanted to go to college."
But he couldn't, so the older brother moved on in the younger brother's honor. Two nights after Lopez died, Louisville played at Seton Hall. Pitino planned to sit García, but García wouldn't let him.
"I had said, 'Take a game or two off, get your thoughts together,' " Pitino said. "He said, 'No, I'm going to play because he would want me to play and my mother wants me to play.' "
And play he did. García scored 24 points as Louisville won. He started a ritual that continues, tapping his heart twice and pointing toward the sky at the free-throw line in respect for Lopez. After the game, he flew home for the funeral not far from his Bronx home.
"There were so many people there that they had to take up two different rooms, because he was so loved," said Luis Flores, a longtime friend of García's who was playing at Manhattan College at the time. "It took me 10 minutes to get all the way inside and see Francisco."
When García returned to Louisville, he never slowed down, earning first-team All-Conference USA honors and leading the Cardinals in scoring and assists. He had a tattoo of his brother inked on his chest, "In memory of Hector Lopez, Dec. 8, 2003," across his left pectoral muscle. He learned from loss.
"From a standpoint of what it did to him, it just made him stronger," said Flores, who was in the Kings' training camp until being released last week. "It made him realize that we're here today and gone tomorrow, so he plays like that. He gives his all on the floor because he never knows when he'll play again."
With García's dream of a long NBA career very much alive, his focus remains on family. When the Kings picked him 23rd overall in June, García was nowhere near Madison Square Garden, where the event took place. He threw a party at his mother's house in the Bronx, where nearly 50 family members and friends crammed the tiny residence inside and out.
"I wanted to be with my family," said García, who grew up in Santo Domingo, is the only current NBA player who was born in the Dominican Republic and became a U.S. citizen only in the past few months. "It's about my family being there with me, and I wanted to be with them and have some fun together as a family."
Now all he wants to do is make life easier on his family. Pitino said García arrived at Louisville with "no more than two pair of pants" to his name. His mother worked two jobs throughout his childhood, leaning on her husband and García's stepfather, Angel Soto, while his biological father was never around.
Since García went pro, Vicente has moved out of the rough parts of the Bronx, quit her baby-sitting job that came with a grueling bus commute and now is renting a larger house in New York City. There are plans for her to go even bigger, with García possibly buying her a house in New Jersey or Pennsylvania next year.
"I'm happy for my mom," García said. "She worked hard for us, has always been working her whole life to give us everything we need."
His role having been reversed with his mother's, García says he will keep learning quickly and find his role with the Kings. "He's the ultimate giver, not a taker at all," Pitino said. "He'll lift all those guys up on the team. He's going to be interested in winning, playing team basketball. It's not going to be about touches. He's a mature kid when it comes to that."
A King's American dream
Francisco García overcomes adversity, grief to create his golden opportunity
By Sam Amick
The history speaks for itself, which is more than Francisco García could do back then.
He had been in America for four years, gone from his native Dominican Republic and living with his mother and brother in the Bronx in the so-called land of opportunity when it finally came in the form of a basketball scholarship to the University of Louisville.
When García made his college arrival, he hardly could speak English. He said "Yes" to everything, unable to convey sentences or true thought. He had the basketball down, but school was another matter.
"He started working his (butt) off, sitting in the front row of every classroom, with every teacher loving him, speaking better, picking it up," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. "He goes from that point to becoming a 2.9, 3.0 (GPA) student."
Three years later, the Kings' 2005 first-round draft pick is at it again, proving a fast study in his NBA career. As the Kings landed in Las Vegas to take on the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night, the evidence of improvement was in his two trips to Sin City.
During summer league here in July, García needed a translator to adjust to the NBA game. In both games and practice, he pressed and stressed into a humbling showing, misfiring most times on his shots and looking every bit like a first-timer. He shot 35 percent from the field and just 23.5 percent from three-point range, averaging 12.2 points while playing 36 minutes per game.
Three months later, García already is more efficient, more productive, perhaps securing a major reserve role with the Kings as a rookie. Despite being a bit too free with his shot selection during the preseason (he trailed only Peja Stojakovic in attempts), his field-goal percentage rose to 40 percent (27 for 67), while his three-point percentage jumped to 36 percent (13 for 36).
Friday night, García had a dose of the big time, trying to keep up with Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, who exploded late in his team's victory.
"Defending people in our league is different than in college," Kings coach Rick Adelman said. "He'll be learning what shots are good for him and what's not and how to fit in. We like him, like the way he plays, but he'll have the same problems every young guy does."
From coaches to fans to media, the common thought of García's early days is that he doesn't look like a rookie. He plays with flair and with a confidence more often seen in veterans.
"His confidence is high," Kings assistant Elston Turner said. "If he misses two or three shots, he's going to take the fourth and fifth ones. And that's better than missing four, then going and hiding for the rest of the day like so many guys do."
But there's bouncing back from hard times in hoops, and then there's real recovery, the kind that comes slower and with far more pain and puts basketball in a whole different light.
It has been almost two years since García lost his brother. García was in his sophomore season at Louisville, adjusting away from home while his mother, Vicente Miguelina, and brother, Hector Lopez, lived in the South Bronx.
About 11 o'clock on a cold December night, 19-year-old Lopez was in the lobby of a Grand Concourse building with friends when two men charged in with guns. They shot Lopez in the neck and the chest at point-blank range. He died 15 minutes later.
Later that night, the cell phone García and his brother had talked on the day before rang. It was his mother, calling with the awful news.
Family and friends say it was a case of mistaken identity, that Lopez was too beloved by too many to have someone take his life on purpose. The killers have since been caught. García wishes he could have taken his family members out of the Bronx before one of them was gone.
"We were tight," García said of he and Lopez. "He played basketball, but he wasn't serious about it. He was going to (high) school, wanted to go to college."
But he couldn't, so the older brother moved on in the younger brother's honor. Two nights after Lopez died, Louisville played at Seton Hall. Pitino planned to sit García, but García wouldn't let him.
"I had said, 'Take a game or two off, get your thoughts together,' " Pitino said. "He said, 'No, I'm going to play because he would want me to play and my mother wants me to play.' "
And play he did. García scored 24 points as Louisville won. He started a ritual that continues, tapping his heart twice and pointing toward the sky at the free-throw line in respect for Lopez. After the game, he flew home for the funeral not far from his Bronx home.
"There were so many people there that they had to take up two different rooms, because he was so loved," said Luis Flores, a longtime friend of García's who was playing at Manhattan College at the time. "It took me 10 minutes to get all the way inside and see Francisco."
When García returned to Louisville, he never slowed down, earning first-team All-Conference USA honors and leading the Cardinals in scoring and assists. He had a tattoo of his brother inked on his chest, "In memory of Hector Lopez, Dec. 8, 2003," across his left pectoral muscle. He learned from loss.
"From a standpoint of what it did to him, it just made him stronger," said Flores, who was in the Kings' training camp until being released last week. "It made him realize that we're here today and gone tomorrow, so he plays like that. He gives his all on the floor because he never knows when he'll play again."
With García's dream of a long NBA career very much alive, his focus remains on family. When the Kings picked him 23rd overall in June, García was nowhere near Madison Square Garden, where the event took place. He threw a party at his mother's house in the Bronx, where nearly 50 family members and friends crammed the tiny residence inside and out.
"I wanted to be with my family," said García, who grew up in Santo Domingo, is the only current NBA player who was born in the Dominican Republic and became a U.S. citizen only in the past few months. "It's about my family being there with me, and I wanted to be with them and have some fun together as a family."
Now all he wants to do is make life easier on his family. Pitino said García arrived at Louisville with "no more than two pair of pants" to his name. His mother worked two jobs throughout his childhood, leaning on her husband and García's stepfather, Angel Soto, while his biological father was never around.
Since García went pro, Vicente has moved out of the rough parts of the Bronx, quit her baby-sitting job that came with a grueling bus commute and now is renting a larger house in New York City. There are plans for her to go even bigger, with García possibly buying her a house in New Jersey or Pennsylvania next year.
"I'm happy for my mom," García said. "She worked hard for us, has always been working her whole life to give us everything we need."
His role having been reversed with his mother's, García says he will keep learning quickly and find his role with the Kings. "He's the ultimate giver, not a taker at all," Pitino said. "He'll lift all those guys up on the team. He's going to be interested in winning, playing team basketball. It's not going to be about touches. He's a mature kid when it comes to that."
I'm glad he's a King and that he plays with confidence.
