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From the 1st Issue of the 2002-03 Hangtimes Magazine

NBAE Photos/Getty Images

by John DiCarlo

It was all a bit overwhelming at first.

Coming out of the University of Miami, John Salmons had wanted to play himself into the first round of last June’s NBA Draft, and he did. The San Antonio Spurs made him the 26th overall pick.

That much was a dream come true, but there was more to come.

The Sixers, the team Salmons had rooted for as a youngster while living in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia and later Plymouth Meeting, had their eye on Salmons and made sure they would get him, sending point guard Craig “Speedy” Claxton to the Spurs for the draft rights to Salmons, Mark Bryant and Randy Holcomb.

“When I got traded, it was like the ultimate dream,” Salmons said. “Playing for your home town team and being around family, it was perfect.”

But being home meant receiving more attention that even Salmons himself could not have expected.

“Right after the draft, it was crazy,” he said. “You should have seen my phone bill statement. It was one call after another ... 11:01, another call at 11:02, 11:03. But it’s cool. That’s just part of it.”

The euphoria of being in the NBA and being in his hometown hasn’t worn off. It may never wear off, really. But things have calmed down a bit for Salmons, which is just fine by him.

Sixers coach Larry Brown and his staff are pleased to have more depth on their bench than what they had a year ago, and the 6-foot-7 Salmons is looking to become a part of a rotation that will see time behind or complement the likes of starting point guard Eric Snow and Allen Iverson in the backcourt. Salmons could also see time at the small forward position, depending upon the situation and the opponent. He’ll be competing for playing time with free agent acquisitions Greg Buckner and Monty Williams.

“He’s a guy we wanted,” said Sixers Director of Player Personnel Tony DiLeo. “So, we found a way to get him. We like him because he’s a versatile player. He can play three different positions (point guard, shooting guard, small forward). He can play with Allen Iverson, and he can play with the bigger guards as well.

“The thing that appealed to us as much as anything else, is that he’s a winner,” DiLeo added. “He does the things to help his team get better, and he does a lot of things to make himself a better player.”

Salmons has been described as a very coachable player at every level, so he would seem to be in the right place in Philadelphia, learning under the likes of a Hall of Fame coach in Brown. He has taken nothing for granted, largely because someone has always been there to provide that little shred of doubt at almost every step along the way.

Prior to his freshman year of high school, Salmons suggested to his mother, Sandra, that he move out of his home in Mount Airy and in with his old neighbor, Chuck Moore, who had moved out to the suburbs to play basketball at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School.

Sandra agreed to the move, but the doubters surfaced regarding Salmons’ new settings.

“That was a real big adjustment,” Salmons said in looking back at the change. “When I moved out there, I had been an honor roll student (in Philadelphia). When I got to Plymouth-Whitemarsh, the work was a bit tougher. But I think adjusting to any high school from middle school is difficult. It was a big change, not only physically, but a culture change also. I just had to get used to it. I had a lot of people saying I couldn’t do it, so that just motivated me.”

By his own admission, Salmons did not really begin to flourish on the basketball court until his junior season at Plymouth-Whitemarsh. By his senior season, he was mulling over scholarship offers from Connecticut, Michigan, Boston College and Miami. Salmons chose Miami, which is known more as a football school.

Again, some were second guessing his decision.

“I had a lot of critics coming from both sides of the fence,” Salmons said. “Some people were saying that wasn’t going to be the right school for me, that Miami’s not a basketball school. Other people were saying I wasn’t going to get a lot of playing time. If I did, they didn’t think I was going to get a lot of exposure.”

Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong. Miami was a perfect fit for Salmons. He started 107 consecutive games, the second-longest streak in school history, so exposure was not a problem. In the Miami record books, Salmons ranks third in career steals (192) and assists (433) and 13th in scoring with 1,287 career points. He is the only player in Miami history to record at least 50 steals in three consecutive seasons, and he’s the only Hurricane to have ever surpassed 1,000 points, 600 rebounds, 400 assists and 150 steals in his career.

In Salmons, the Sixers believe they have very versatile player who can run the point, play off the ball or see time at the small forward position. For that reason, and because of his smooth, under control style of play, Salmons has often been compared to Sixers guard Aaron McKie, another hometown boy who played his high school (Simon Gratz) and college ball (Temple) in Philly.

“You don’t ever want to put that pressure on him to be somebody else, but it’s a natural thing in sports to compare,” said Sixers assistant Bob Bender, who coached Salmons at the Shaw Summer League up in Boston over the summer. “But I really think Johnny will establish his own identity through how he plays. But if there’s a comparison that is rightfully made, it’s that team person. He’s the ultimate team guy. And that’s, I think, where Johnny Salmons is just like Aaron.”

True to form, Salmons went through a progression of sorts in Boston. During the first few games, he was tentative, not wanting to step on the toes of his new teammates. And over the last few games, Bender felt that Salmons played as well as anyone else in the league.

Naturally, Salmons wants to keep that progression going.

“I just want to get better,” he said. “I just want to have a good rookie year, whether I’m playing one minute or 40 minutes. I just want to get better throughout the season. If I do that, I think I’ll progress into next year. And if I do that next year, I’ll get better for the next year.”