Hoopsworld: One-on-One with Bonzi Wells

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One-on-One with Bonzi Wells

By Emmett Shaw
for HOOPSWORLD.com

May 5, 2006, 09:09

We’re already in a year when everyone has to salute the outstanding value of mid-major stars who stay for four years. But now, here comes Bonzi Wells. He’s convincingly closing their argument in the NBA Playoffs. Sacramento’s big guard set the career scoring mark at Ball State and the Mid-America Conference, playing great defense there too, finishing second in NCAA history in career steals.

At the turn of the calendar year, Wells’ and his team’s season was in grave jeopardy. He had torn his right groin, and missed 30 games in the in-and-out process of getting healed. But suddenly Wells is “well”, and busy scaring the daylights out of the San Antonio Spurs, turning the head of anyone who sees the league as something beyond Kobe’s and LeBron’s latest exploits.

With 24.4 points per game, Bonzi is not all that far behind the league’s dynamic duo in scoring this postseason. And he’s left them – and everyone else – in the dust rebounding. Wells, listed as 6-5, has pulled 12.1 per game in his 5 games against the Spurs. That’s an average better than of Shaq, Brand, Ben, TD or Marion.

Gregg Popovich has touted him as player of the series, while Tim Duncan called Wells “a one-man wrecking crew, out there going offensive glass.” Tim said Wells “has been off the charts”, pushing the Spurs to game plan and substitute specifically with Bonzi in mind. The series is far from over, with the Spurs up 3-2 going back to Sacramento.

Among all players in these NBA Playoffs shooting more than eight times a night, Bonzi and Shaq are neck-and-neck making 60%, miles ahead of any other player. About an hour before going out to bust San Antonio in Game 5 with 38 and 12, Wells was already sweated up after going 15-minutes of one-on-one with Sacramento rookie Ronnie Price. That’s when the soon-to-be free agent spent a few minutes with us.

Are you having a blast in this playoff series?

Just playing ball. We’re playing together as a team. It ain’t really fun. This is business right now, you know?

How about the business of almost carrying a team at this time of year? I know you’ve got a lot of help, but you’re...

It’s not like that. We’re a team, man. We all pull for each other. If it happens to be one of my teammates, I’d be just as happy. Whatever we do, we’re gonna try to do it together. No matter who scores or who gets all the glory when it’s over, it’s a team game.

Bonzi, when you’re facing a guy up and you’re jab-stepping, would you rather take him to your left, and then go into some complex zig-zag? Would you rather do that than go right? I know you do both.

It just depends. I just take what the defense gives me. I’ve always been kind of an iso player, so it’s almost like instinct. You know, when you do start your jab, you kind of read the way his body moves and try to get that way. There’s a lot of guys who’s quick, that can (still) cut you off after being off balance. You’ve just gotta have a second move. Like Ron says, try to counter. If somebody steps up (to help), you’ve gotta understand where your teammates are, try to get ’em the ball.

The nice augment you’ve put into this thing is you can just rise up and shoot it now, which you’ve done for years, but is it going down more consistently now?

It’s trying to. Me and Ron – the last month, month and a half – me and him been working on a lot of stuff against each other in practice, ’cause we both feel we’re two of the bigger guys at our position. So we’ve both been working at going at each other and try to make post moves and jab-step moves over each other and try to be consistent with it. So it’s hats-off to him, ’cause we both been working with each other, trying to make each other better. :D

That’s interesting, because Ginobili also works against Bowen. That’s probably helped him, and Ron’s addition has especially helped you.

Oh, definitely. I mean that’s why we do a good job of helping each other, ’cause before we even played together we both had a tremendous amount of respect for each other as physical players, as defenders and as offensive players. And you know, in order for us to be on the same team, we’re trying to combine what we know, and just try to go at it and make first, second, and third moves against both our defenses.

Last question, Bonzi. You mentioned to the TNT audience the other night that you’re taking this basketball thing seriously. Can you expand on that with a couple of sentences?

You know, just when I got suspended last year (with Memphis at playoff time), my whole life came into perspective. And I just told myself that’s never going to happen to me again. I’m not a kid anymore. I can’t just chalk it up to being a young guy. Now I’m a grown man with a family, so I gotta make sure I really take this basketball thing seriously. I mean, not like I wasn’t before, but just approach it more professional than anything. Make sure I do my job, and do it at a high level.

We thank Bonzi Wells for his time and his informative remarks.

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bonzi seems like a very cool and humble guy, im glad he is doing everything he can to put his team in a position to win. he is an absolute beast so far in the playoffs.
 
i hope that alleviates everybody's anxieties about the "risks" involved with re-signing bonzi.

its your move, joe and gavin. bring him back!
 
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