John Salmons remembers the exact moment when he realized that his new life as an adult and professional basketball player had begun. After a standout college career at the University of Miami (Fla.), the first-round draft pick joined Philadelphia’s 2002 summer league team in Boston, expecting to eat dinner with the other 76ers players. Instead, he and his teammates were each given their per diem in an envelope and told to be ready for the next day’s game.
“I was like, ‘Wait, we’re not eating together?’ ” recalls the now 34-year-old Salmons, smiling at the memory. “In college, you eat as a team and do pretty much everything as a team. In the NBA, you have to do everything on your own. That woke me up right off the bat.”
Fortunately for Salmons, he had a veteran teammate in Philadelphia who made sure to look out for the naïve rookie. A dozen years later, that same man, Monty Williams, is now Salmons’ head coach with the 2014-15 New Orleans Pelicans.
“He took me under his wing,” said Salmons of Williams, who wrapped up his NBA career in 2002-03 at age 31. “He was the guy I went to when I had problems. I’d go to Monty, we’d talk and he’d set me straight. That team will filled with vets, but out of all of those guys, he was the one I went to, to help me when I was struggling with something.”
“(Salmons) didn’t like (my advice) all the time, but he was one of those guys who listened,” Williams recalled after Tuesday’s opening practice of Pelicans training camp. “Most young guys don’t. He spent some time at my house, or going out to eat. That was the way I was brought up (as a pro player). When I came into the league, I had an older guy show me the ropes. That’s all it was about – teaching guys how to manage their bodies. A lot of the stuff on the floor they already know, but you can teach them how to be more efficient.”
Although Salmons is described by teammates as having a quiet personality, he’s been a leader by example throughout his 13-year NBA career. He knew when he signed with New Orleans this summer that the Pelicans would look at him as someone younger players could emulate. At 34, he’s at least six years older than every other player on the roster. The Pelicans have seven players who were born in the early 1990s, around the time Williams was making his NBA playing debut with the New York Knicks.
“That really goes without saying,” Salmons said of being viewed as a team leader. “That’s just something where, when you’ve been in the league 13 years, you understand that. I think the person with the longest tenure after me is maybe six years.” (That’s true. It’s a two-way tie between Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon).
Salmons also has the second-most playoff experience on the Pelicans, having appeared in 28 postseason games. There are only three other New Orleans players who’ve appeared in the NBA playoffs, a list that includes Omer Asik (33 games), Ryan Anderson (20) and Jrue Holiday (18). None of them have done so in New Orleans; if Salmons and the Pelicans reach the ’15 postseason, he will have made the playoffs with a fourth different team.
Coincidentally, the 2002-03 76ers defeated the then-Hornets in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, the first time a New Orleans NBA team ever made it to the postseason (the New Orleans Jazz went 0-for-5 in the 1970s). The rookie Salmons mostly watched from the sideline during that series, while Williams contributed as a reserve forward for a 76ers club that clinched the series in Game 6 in the Crescent City.
“John reminds me of how old I’m getting, because he was my rookie in Philly,” Williams said Tuesday. “We’ve just stayed in contact over the years. I’ve loved his way. He’s developed nicely and he’s had a really good career. We’ve never really talked about basketball; we always talked about our families, our faith and different things like that. He’s just a solid, solid dude… He can shoot the ball, he’s got great experience and the thing I’ve always liked about John is you can’t rattle him. John, sometimes you’ve got to grab his wrist and check his pulse, because that’s just his way. He’s got a solid demeanor about him. He’s been on some really good teams and been in some really good programs. I just like him as a player.”
New Orleans had interest in acquiring Salmons earlier in Williams’ four-year tenure, but the timing wasn’t right. The 6-foot-6, 210-pounder was traded by Toronto to Atlanta this summer in a complicated, multi-player deal, but then was waived by the Hawks in a salary-cap maneuver. As Williams spoke Tuesday, Salmons took extra post-practice shots, one of the last players to leave the gym on Day 1 of training camp.
“We talked about trying to get him a couple years ago, but he was making so much money, we couldn’t do it at the time,” Williams said. “(Now) just seemed like the appropriate time to bring him in, because he can show our guys some things that we’re trying to teach. Sometimes your best teacher can be another player, especially a seasoned vet.”