By Jonah Bronstein
If there’s anybody who knows what it takes to succeed as an undersized guard in the NBA, it’s Calvin Murphy. A few years back, the Niagara University graduate was named the greatest 5-foot-9 basketball player ever.
“He was like a bantamweight who dared to make his living in the heavyweight division,” former Houston Rockets teammate Major Jones said when Murphy was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.
Niagara Falls native Jonny Flynn is a tad taller than Murphy, but when he begins his rookie season with the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, Flynn, who is generously listed at an even 6-feet, will be at least two inches shorter than every other player on the floor.
Murphy doesn’t think it will matter.
“It ain’t nothing but size,” Murphy said in a recent phone interview.
“As a little man, you do have to learn the total game. And you’ve got to be willing to make sacrifices to better your game. Not everything will work. But if you have game, you have game.”
Nobody doubts that Flynn has game. In its basketball preview edition currently on newsstands, Sports Illustrated quoted an anonymous NBA scout that said: “With the floor spaced like it is in the NBA — and the fact that (defenders) can’t put their hands on him — he’ll get the ball in the middle with the chance to use his quickness and strength. This league is made for a guy like him.”
At the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, Flynn showed he could get to the basket at will, and was named Rookie of the Month for July. He continued to impress against veteran competition in the preseason, despite having to adjust to the triangle offense coach Kurt Rambis has installed, which doesn’t cater to Flynn’s strength as a dynamic pick-and-roll player.
Flynn started all eight of the Timberwolves exhibitions, averaging 14.6 points and 4.5 assists in 26.9 minutes. Ramon Sessions, the free agent acquisition many thought would start over Flynn at the beginning of the season, averaged 7.5 points and 3.3 assists in 20 minutes.
And with star forwards Al Jefferson and Kevin Love both sitting out, Flynn led Minnesota to wins over Detroit and Toronto in the final two preseason games, averaging 17 points and 5.5 assists in 33.5 minutes, and turning up his defensive output with five steals in the two wins.
The kid’s NBA-ready, alright.
Murphy said if Flynn were to ask him for advice, he wouldn’t spend too much talking about basketball.
“The first think I talk about to these youngsters coming into the NBA is that they have to understand they are coming into a high-powered, aggressive business,” said Murphy, who participates in a league-sponsored mentor program.
“Your in the midst of a whole new lifestyle, and the temptation is unbelievably strong.”
Five years ago, Murphy went through a very public scandal when he was charged with sexually abusing five of his daughters. He was found innocent on all counts at a trial, but realized that the infidelity that brought him 14 children from nine different women put him in position to be taken advantage of.
“I never got involved in drugs and I never got involved in alcohol, but I fell prey to temptations with women,” he said. “They come out in droves. And there are people out there with a game plan.”
By all accounts, Flynn has embraced the moral values instilled in him by his mother, Deidre, and father, William, a local pastor. So don’t expect him to fall short of their expectations now that he’s a budding NBA star.
Contact reporter Jonah Bronstein at 282-2311, ext. 2258.
