Brad Turner of the Riverside Press Enterprise (he is the long time Lakers beat reporter for the RPE) has a story this morning on Lorenzo Mata-Real. LoMaRe is playing this summer for the Lakers summer league team. (The story is also about former USC player Davon Jefferson, also with the Lakers this summer.)
But it's a long way from the Lakers crowded summer league roster (if you watch the games, it looks like they've got 20 players on the bench) to the regular season roster.
And LoMaRe knows it:
"I'm just trying to compete out here and see what happens," Mata-Real said recently. "My agent set it up all for me. When he said it was the Lakers, that's my team. I'm just grateful for the opportunity."
And:
"If I had gotten drafted, it would be a blessing," he said. "I'm going to continue to work hard. I'll just take the hard road in. Hopefully it pays off." Mata-Real remains realistic about his chances of playing in the NBA. "I'm thinking about playing in Europe somewhere," he said. "I think Spain would be my first option because of my Spanish blood. I'll know the language." That sounds about right. LoMaRe has a long way to go as a basketball player and if he got an offer from a top Spanish team it would be great. The Spanish League is one of Europe's better opportunities and even if he never made it back to the states and the NBA, he could make a nice living as a basketball player. I could think of worse places to live than say, Barcelona.