Felton Gallery

Raymond Felton has logged marathon minutes at nearly every level of his basketball career. His coaches have realized that Felton’s value can’t be fully utilized on the bench.

While he doesn’t often leave the floor, Felton has learned it takes time to develop into a winner. He doesn’t rush it. After all, championships usually don’t come until his third year with a new team.

Felton lost only nine games in a legendary South Carolina high school basketball career while collecting back-to-back state championships at Latta High School in his junior and senior seasons. At the University of North Carolina, his sophomore season was a solid rebuilding year, with the third year bringing a banner season, culminating with the 2005 National Championship.

He’s hoping, and willing – as evidenced by the countless minutes and sacrifice to his soon-to-be 23-year-old body – that his professional biography will follow suit.

In the NBA realm, Felton will be forever linked with contemporaries Chris Paul (Hornets) and Deron Williams (Jazz), the two point guards selected directly before he was selected with the fifth overall pick in the 2005 Draft.

While Felton had just directed the Tar Hells, with five eventual draft selections, including a record four lottery picks in 2005, to their first national title in 12 years and the first under Head Coach Roy Williams, he had to wait until after an Australian (Andrew Bogut), a freshman teammate that was a sixth man (Marvin Williams), and the other two point guards’ names were called first.

The media applauded the Hornets and Jazz for selecting Paul and Williams, respectively. And then the critics went to work, saying Charlotte’s selection of Felton as the fifth overall pick was a mere marketing ploy, one designed to capitalize on his fame from Chapel Hill in order to fill seats for the upstart franchise. Never mind his quickness and court savvy, the draft pick, they said, was only selected because he was a former Tar Heel.

While Felton struggled early in his first season and was somehow shunned from the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge, Paul was busying resurrecting a tattered city’s hopes with Rookie of the Year honors in 2005-06.

Williams dropped weight, and for the time being at least, has cured the John Stockton hangover in Utah. Even though he averaged nearly a point and an assist less than Felton in their first seasons, Williams was selected to the NBA All-Rookie First Team, including a first-place vote, while Felton managed just an NBA All-Rookie Second Team selection.

Felton did earn three straight Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month Awards to conclude the season, but it largely fell under the radar amid late-season playoff battles. Despite the lack of fanfare compared to his two counterparts, he focused the entire 2006 offseason on adding consistency to his heavy arsenal.

“Season one was a learning experience,” Felton, said. “Coming in, not really playing as much… It’s tough. But at the same time, it was just an adjustment. It was a learning experience. But I got better and I got stronger throughout the season. I came back this year with a better concept with learning everything, knowing what (Head) Coach Bernie (Bickerstaff) wanted from me.”

And while Felton may have had a better understanding with a “full complement of players” (a phrase Bickerstaff often alluded to during a myriad of injuries), the second-year point guard was eventually asked to do just about everything.

Play the entire game. Run the offense. Dribble and dish. Play off-guard. Make threes. Run pick-and-pops. Guard the best ball handler. Make game-winning plays. Ignore the throbbing ankle.

You know – the regular stuff a coach requests of a still learning, second-year point guard.

“What he wanted me to do was be a basketball player, whether it was at the point or it was at the two,” Felton said after the season. “He just wanted me to do what I do.”

Bickerstaff expected it every night, all night, and Felton delivered.

Consider the memorable 133-124 triple-overtime win over the Lakers on December 29 at Charlotte Bobcats Arena. Felton netted 22 points on an off shooting night (7-24), made 6-8 free throws, distributed a game-high 15 assists (one shy of the entire Lakers team), grabbed four rebounds and added two steals. All in casual 57 minutes. Yes – a franchise-record 57 minutes.

Felton, too critical to take out without a backup (Jeff McInnis had yet to be acquired), protected the ball in late-game situations, commanded the offense to set up critical shots, and all the while, displayed a cool confidence. The Lakers had Kobe and some guy named Smush – Felton was simply superior, and despite playing nearly the entire game, Charlotte won.

Barely 24 hours later on December 30, Felton engineered a career-high 19 assist performance and added 10 points to help the Bobcats to a 113-102 road win over Indiana. He played a game-high 42 minutes.

While the revolving door of injuries eventually shut the playoff door in mid-April, Felton remained the squad’s only constant. Sure there were poor shooting nights, but he was almost always in the starting lineup. And more importantly, he was dependable. His coach raved about how his 6-1, 198 point guard was “gutsy.”

On January 13, with the Bobcats playing their third game in four nights, this particular one against the Sixers, Felton drilled a 17-footer that secured a five-point lead deep in the fourth quarter. Charlotte clung to the lead the rest of the way and won by six.

Less than a month later, Felton had a courageous effort, scoring 22 points despite experiencing some wooziness throughout the second half.

“Raymond Felton was the key for them tonight,” said Golden State forward Al Harrington after inadvertently smacking the side of Felton’s face with an elbow 37 seconds into the second half.

“I thought Felton was the guy that really cut us up,” said Warriors Head Coach Don Nelson, after the February 3 contest. “We couldn’t contain him and he made his shots.”

While Felton may have connected on just 38.4 percent (393-1024) of his shots from the field, it was understandable considering the minutes he logged nightly for six straight months.

Other than the four games he missed – one with bruised ribs, two with a left ankle sprain and another with a left quad contusion – Felton’s off night was playing less than 25 minutes, and that happened only three times in 78 games.

Amid the 36.3 minute season average, Felton did produce a 14.0 point average – up 2.1 from last season – and notched a team-high 66 double-figure scoring efforts. He contributed 15.2 points during 15 games in January, a pivotal time when fellow point guard Brevin Knight underwent abdominal surgery in late December.

Felton unselfishly distributed a 7.0 assist average – up 1.4 from last season – and paced the Bobcats for 45 games in that category. He added 11 double-doubles, scoring in double-figures each time he handed out double-digit assists.

“I think I definitely proved I can be a leader out there,” Felton, who averaged 3.4 rebounds and 1.51 steals, said. “I can play the point the way it’s needed to be played or playing the off guard, which is fine with me. I can play either way.”

Later, when Knight returned healthy nearly three months later, Felton conceded the point guard slot when the duo manned the backcourt, instead choosing to do what Bickerstaff considered to be best for the team.

“I think we had a strong season,” Felton said. “We still had a chance to get into the playoffs even with the injuries. I think that next year, the sky’s the limit for us if we can just keep it together.”

Maybe then he can surpass his fellow 2005 point guards by igniting a late-season playoff run in Charlotte. If his previous career has been a pattern, a championship in his third season would be ideal, but an appearance in the playoffs would surely ensure instant recognition for a continuously improving franchise.

Felton is intent on honing his overall game this offseason, making sure he is again fully prepared, this time with a soon-to-be-named head coach.

“My expectations are going to be the same every year,” said Felton. “You have to set high expectations. That’s the only way you’re going to achieve what you want to achieve.”