CLEVELAND: Los Angeles Lakers rookie Larry Nance Jr. returned home last week.
He slept in his own bed under his parents roof, visited with his brother and sister and caught up with some friends and staff members at his alma mater, Revere High School.
Nance’s visit was a business trip, as the Lakers met the Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena on Wednesday in each team’s final game before the 2016 NBA All-Star Game.
Kyrie Irving and LeBron James led the Cavaliers to a 120-111 win as Lakers legend Kobe Bryant played one final time in Cleveland on a cold and snowy February evening.
Nance, 23, watched from the bench
because of a right knee injury that has kept him out of games since late January. “It’s been full of ups and downs, but at the same time I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” Nance said of his introduction to life as an NBA rookie.
“I got picked [by] a team that is struggling right now, but at the same time this is a team that is able to give me experience in my rookie year. Even though we are going through our hard times, I am very happy in L.A.”
The Lakers selected Nance with the 27th overall pick in the first round of the 2015 NBA Draft after the 6-foot-9 and 240-pound forward played four years at the University of Wyoming. Nance has appeared in 40 games with 22 starts for the Lakers (11-44), and is averaging 5.8 points and 5.0 rebounds in 20.3 minutes per game.
“Larry’s been great,” Lakers coach Byron Scott said. “When he got a chance to start, he was fantastic. He does all of the little things that you want him to do. He is one of the few guys that you can tell to do something and he does it pretty much every single time. You don’t have to keep repeating it to him. He is very well schooled from when he was at Wyoming.”
Scott said last week that Nance was “pain-free” in the injured knee, and that he hopes he will be fully able to practice on Wednesday after strength workouts and treatment.
Path to the NBA
Nance’s path from Bath Township to the NBA is well documented.
His father, Larry, played in the NBA from 1981-1994 with the Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers, made three all-star appearances and won the 1984 slam-dunk title.
Young Nance paid his dues on the Revere freshman and junior varsity teams before starring on the varsity team as a junior and senior and leading the Minutemen to two Suburban League titles. He was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease while in high school, and then endured a torn ACL in his right knee and a bout with mononucleosis in college before leading the Wyoming Cowboys to the NCAA Tournament last year as a senior.
Nance remains very close with parents Larry and Jaynee, sister Casey and brother Pete.
He expressed disappointment in not being able to play in Cleveland this season, but said: “Unfortunately, things work out the way they do and I don’t get to. It’s really cool to be able to walk out there for practice and look up [at the rafters] and: ‘Oh, yeah, that’s right, my dad is one of the best players for this team ever.’ ”
The elder Nance’s No. 22 is retired along with 7 (Bingo Smith), 11 (Zydrunas Ilgauskas), 25 (Mark Price), 34 (Austin Carr), 42 (Nate Thurmond) and 43 (Brad Daugherty).
The former Cavs great dubbed his son a “late bloomer” last year as he improved under Wyoming coach Larry Shyatt after steadily getting better for Revere coach Dean Rahas.
Scott said he values Nance’s work ethic and basketball IQ.
“I think one of his advantages is the fact that he played four years of college basketball, so he understands how to play,” Scott said. “We didn’t have to run a bunch of things for him offensively [when he was healthy], but he was always effective on both ends of the floor.
“Obviously, with him getting hurt, we miss that. We miss him continuing to develop as a player, but we know we have something special with him as well.”
Learning from Kobe
The Lakers are accustomed to winning with players such as Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal and Jerry West. The franchise has won 16 NBA championships, 31 conference titles and 23 division crowns.
However, this year’s version is among the league’s worst.
Even with a lousy record, the Lakers remain a draw with Bryant, 37, on his farewell tour during his 20th season. The franchise also has Metta World Peace, 36, a 16-year NBA veteran formerly known as Ron Artest.
“It has been really cool to get to tag along for Kobe’s last year,” Nance said. “It’s an honor to get to call him a teammate, and getting to bounce ideas off of him has been great. I have learned a ton from him just from being on the court and just talking to him off the court, too. I learn more about offense from Kobe.
“Metta, on the other hand, Defensive Player of the Year [in 2004], he is always on me in practice. I kind of pride myself defensively as well, and he is always on me to ‘Play hard, get into your man, pressure, pressure, pressure; use your hands more.’ He always has little bits of advice for me to be more aggressive defensively.
“I have got a pretty good coach on both ends of the court.”
Bryant, a five-time NBA champion with a variety of MVP awards from the regular season, All-Star games and NBA Finals, said he likes what he sees from Nance.
“I thought about him during the national anthem because when I looked up in the rafters and saw his father’s retired jersey, I was just kind of thinking how cool that is for him to be able to sit here on the bench and see his father’s jersey up there, and then tough that he’s injured and not being able to play,” Bryant said.
“I love the way he’s progressed from the start of the season until now. He’s been playing extremely well and really trusting his jump shot, which he’s improved tremendously in that area.
“Defensively, he’s all over the place, so I think he has a tremendous amount of potential and I think he’ll have an extremely long career in the NBA.”
Michael Beaven can be reached at 330-996-3829 or mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the #ABJVarsity high school blog at www.ohio.com/preps. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MBeavenABJ.