WASHINGTON – Langston Galloway got married last year, but he has an ongoing relationship with even deeper roots. It’s OK. Sabrina knows about it. She won’t let the third party go out to dinner with them, but other than that tagalongs are allowed and inevitable.
It’s a basketball. Everywhere Galloway goes, there’s an NBA basketball under his arm.
“That’s my love, right there,” he grins, cradling the Adam Silver-autographed ball after a pregame workout before the Pistons loss at Washington on Friday.
It’s gone on since Galloway was a middle schooler back in Baton Rouge, La., and continued through his four-year college career at St. Joseph’s.
“As a kid, I always had a ball in my hands. Traveling through the airport, always had a ball in my hands. It hasn’t really changed. College, NBA, now. Hey, I’m just blessed to be able to play the game I love.”
The only place Galloway seems eager to rid himself of the basketball, it seems, is during a game. One of the things Stan Van Gundy loved about Galloway when the Pistons went free-agent shopping last summer was his willingness to launch open 3-point shots without hesitation. The Pistons finished 26th in attempts last season and 28th in 3-point accuracy.
Galloway has been a big part of their dramatic turnaround. Through 22 games, the Pistons are taking one-third of their shots from the 3-point arc and rank fifth in percentage at 38.2. Galloway is a big part of that, taking 3.5 triples in about 14 minutes a game and making them at a 39 percent clip.
How much of Galloway’s shooting touch is owed to his intimacy with the tool of his craft? Well, who knows?
“I’m always dribbling, always just messing with the ball,” he said. “Hey, I become one with the ball. Whenever I’m out there, if something went wrong, I know what happened.”
In the off-season, when the Galloways go on vacation, the basketball comes with him.
“Everywhere I go. Vacation, I have a ball, just in case they have a gym somewhere or someplace I can dribble. I’ll always take one with me.”
Except to restaurants.
“She’d kill me if I did that. But other than that …”