So you might think that Aaron Brooks has secured his place in the NBA:
Starting point guard for the Houston Rockets.
Winner of the NBA’s most improved player award in his third season.
A rising star, team leader and, increasingly, one of the faces of the franchise in Houston. Heck, he’s even got his own Nike shoe, a version of the Nike Hyperdunk Low.
So he’s certainly had success, to a point. But secure? Brooks won’t say that.
“This business doesn’t allow you to be secure,” the former University of Oregon star said. “Once you get secure with yourself is when your game falls off. I’m not secure at all. I don’t feel anything is given to me. I feel that I worked hard to get where I am and I don’t want to backtrack. I feel that there’s always competition and always someone trying to get my spot.”
Brooks talks about “staying hungry,” working hard and getting better, certain to be among the themes at the second Aaron Brooks Drills and Skills Basketball Camp for youngsters from elementary school through high school Wednesday through Friday at South Eugene High School. Sure to please parents, Brooks will talk about schoolwork as well as basketball work.
“I want to stress drills and skills, but drills and skills aren’t just about basketball,” Brooks said. “It’s making sure you do the drills as far as school work to get the skills to be successful in life.”
Along those lines, while there aren’t many familiar faces for Brooks in the revamped Oregon men’s basketball program, one that he said he’ll be sure to seek out this week is Stephen Stolp, executive director of the UO’s Services for Student-Athletes and the basketball team’s academic adviser, and tour the new John E. Jaqua Academic Center for Student Athletes.
Brooks said he also wants to see the progress made on the new Matthew Knight Arena, and perhaps get in a game in the old place, McArthur Court. He also hopes to see his former coach, Ernie Kent, fired by the Ducks after last season.
“I’ve talked to him a few times” since then, Brooks said. “I wish him the best. I think he’s a great coach. He’ll land on his feet and find another place. He’s kind of a victim of his own success. He put the program on a pedestal and they had a bad couple of years and they saw fit to go in a different direction.
“That’s the way college basketball is. He did a great job while he was there, he put the program on another pedestal. I think the new coach has some big shoes to fill.”
That would include matching Kent’s record of two Elite Eight appearances, the second coming during Brooks’ spectacular senior year of 2006-07, when the Ducks won the Pac-10 tournament and Brooks averaged a career best, Pac-10-leading 17.7 points per game, including 27 against Florida, the eventual national champion, in Oregon’s finale.
“He made me grow up as a person,” Brooks said of Kent. “We went through a lot. ... I saw a lot of maturity in myself, and his coaching helped me do that.”
A few months after his Oregon career ended, the Rockets made Brooks their draft choice in the first round, with the 26th pick overall. In Houston, taking a point guard generously listed as 6 feet tall was controversial.
“We got killed in the media,” vice president Gersson Rosas said recently, as quoted by Jonathan Feigen in The Houston Chronicle. “We got killed in the public. Teams were like, ‘What are you doing?’ We had four point guards — Rafer (Alston), Steve (Francis), John Lucas and Mike James.
“We felt, ‘This guy has special talent, speed combined with finishing and shooting.’ His overall offensive upside was too special to pass.”
By the end of his second season, Brooks had become the Rockets’ starting point guard and emerged as an offensive force, including superb games in the playoffs against the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers. But his development last season, in which the Rockets didn’t make the playoffs with star center Yao Ming sidelined by injury, and his consistency led to the most improved award.
He started all 82 games, averaging 19.6 points per game, up 8.4 from the previous year. He improved his assists to 5.3 per game and his rebounds to 2.6. He set a franchise record by making 206 three-pointers and became the sixth player in NBA history to record at least 200 three-pointers and 400 assists.
“Aaron’s a 25-year overnight success,” Rockets general manager Daryl Morey was quoted as saying recently. “If you look throughout his career, through Oregon and into the NBA, he’s improved every single year. This year, he gets the recognition.
“What made us decide to draft him was he was a guy who was counted out — too small, doesn’t pass the ball enough, won’t make it in the NBA. We felt like he had the talent to do it. He’s obviously shown that. We see great things for Aaron going forward.”
Brooks said the transition was similar to his transition at Oregon, where he developed into a leader.
“I’ve matured a lot,” he said. “The game has slowed down for me. I went from the fifth point guard to the starting one. I went from a bad draft pick to the most improved player. I think I’ve done pretty well for myself.”
And for his family. Brooks and his girlfriend, Shavonne Bland, were married last August; this December, their daughter, MiKah, born during the spring of Brooks’ junior year at Oregon, will be joined by twins.
So Brooks keeps working hard. He wants to get better; he’s working on strength, to improve his defense. “I’m not going to get taller,” he said, “but I think my defense will be better if I just get stronger.”
Offensively, Brooks said he wants to improve his play-making; his goal for the coming season is to have more assists.
Brooks’ Eugene camp will be run by an old friend and mentor, former UO graduate manager Billy McKnight of Champ Workouts. In addition to the typical stuff of basketball camps, there will be film sessions in which Brooks breaks down NBA plays to discuss the mental aspects of the game.
“I stress to have fun,” Brooks said. “I think that’s the most important. To have fun playing basketball. I think you’re at your best when you’re going out there and enjoying it. “I don’t want the kids to put 100 percent into basketball; I want them to work hard but make sure they put school first, because I think that’s more important than basketball.”
