ESPN's Diamond Leung flagged a very interesting quote from Raymond Nelson - the latest commit for Rick Neuheisel's football program - about his older brother Reeves Nelson. The elder Nelson is going to be a second year player in Coach Ben Howland's hoops program, who is coming off a pretty decent freshman campaign in what was overall one of the worst seasons in the history of UCLA basketball. So Raymond let this little detail out about his older brother in an interview with the Modesto Bee:
"I fully expect him to go to the pros next year, so he might not even be there when I get there. I know him and I completely believe in his abilities, so maybe I'll go there and fill his spot at UCLA."
That is pretty funny stuff. As Diamond notes Raymond appeared to give his own thoughts on where his elder brother is headed but the question comes up where exactly he is coming up with those ideas. If those ideas are coming from Reeves or some associate around him, someone should recommend them the check in at the UCLA Medical Plaza for some help. They should certainly stay away from "blogging" in the Bleacher Report.
Reeves Nelson had a very good first year but to say that he is NBA material at this point of time is nothing short of delusional. Nelson was no doubt an animal at court at times early in the season. He was a fighter and scrapper. Yet there is an important little detail where he was absent. It's called defense. If Nelson wants to emerge as a mainstay in Ben Howland's basketball program, he will have to play defense. He dropped the ball on that department on number of occasions this past season.
In fact by end of the season, Brendan Lane was a much more polished power forward than Reeves Nelson. It was Lane, who was doing what Howland asked him to do and playing within the scheme of team-work. So whoever is advising Reeves Nelson these days, they should be telling him to focus on learning how to be a Ben Ball warrior, instead of having delusions about leaving for the NBA after two raw seasons in Westwood. They should also be googling the words "lockout" and "NBA".
There was also this little detail about Reeve's Nelson tattoo in the same article:
"Wait until you see Reeves now," Raymond said. "It will surprise everybody because he has a whole sleeve-full now."
Sure hope he is working as hard on his game as he has been on this tattoos. If he not he will have plenty of time to admire them while sitting on the bench.
GO BRUINS.