Summer league was a great learning experience for Swift. Kent Horner/NBAE/Getty

SUPERSONICS.COM: How was your summer?
Robert Swift: Enjoyable. I really liked it. I got great experience in, got to meet some great people - coaches, my teammates - not one bad guy among them all. I had fun doing different things. Overall, it was just a very enjoyable summer.

How about summer league?
Swift: Great, for me. Good first experience and an eye-opener, I guess you could see. I got to see a lot of great players, players I'd been watching in college for years, now I'm out there playing with them. That was just the start of the summer. It was a great start.

How did the difficulty compare to your expectations?
Swift: As long as I've been playing, my junior-high, high school career, that's the hardest thing I've ever done, basketball-wise. But it's also been the most enjoyable by a lot. I've never had so much fun in my life playing basketball.

What have you learned from your teammates?
Swift: I'm pretty much around Reggie Evans as much as I can be. He and I live in the same apartment. He's been in the league, this will be his third year. I talk to him as much as I can, learn from him and his experiences, talk to him and listen. I also talk to Ray Allen as much as I can, just listen to him. He gives me advice, I try to apply it to my game and use it. Between those two guys, I've got good sources of information coming in.

Was your experience at the Tim Grgurich Camp different this summer, now that you're an NBA player?
Swift: No, not really. Last year, it was, "Oh, this guy's a high-school kid, let's kill him." This year, it was, "Oh, this guy's a rookie, let's kill him." It wasn't really any different. Personally, I felt a little bit more comfortable, a little bit more like I'm able to play and belong there. It was a great learning experience.

Did you speak with anyone there about the transition to the NBA?
Swift: I played with Zach Randolph, and I listened to him as much as I could. We were on teams, and he and I would play together a lot. I listened to what he had to say because he comes from a different coaching style, a different type of game and he has a different mentality than any of the guys I've met here. It was good to listen to him and see another point of view of the game of basketball.

How about A Midsummer Night's Magic? What was that like?
Swift: That was probably the best part of the summer. I got in to L.A. a day early and we had everything taken care of and were just having a good time. It was for a great cause, so you put that all together, it was enjoyable. Some of the best players playing for the Veterans [Gilbert Arenas, Chris Bosh, Andre Miller, Paul Pierce, Antoine Walker], some of the top college players [Devin Harris, Kirk Snyder, J.R. Smith] playing for the Rookies.

How did you play?
Swift: Decently. I had, I think, about 12-14 points, double-digit rebounds. They put me on Antoine Walker, so I was getting embarrassed a little bit. Every once in a while, he'd pull up, make about 20 moves, pull up and hit a three. There wasn't really anything I could do about it.

A Midsummer Night's Magic was the highlight of Swift's summer. Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty

Didn't they have any 7-footers for you to guard?
Swift: The only big man on their team was Chris Andersen; he came in a little later in the game. I was guarding Antoine Walker and Chris Bosh for a little bit.

What did you learn at the rookie orientation?
Swift: I learned so much, I really can't even say right now. There was just so much that they talked about, so much that they showed us. It was a real eye-opener for me. Every part, basically, of what you can think about, they touched on. Maybe not in detail, but they touched on it. There was so much information, but it was a great learning experience.

Was it more helpful for you, as someone coming straight to the NBA out of high school?
Swift: Some of the things, yes. Financial information - they talked a lot about financial issues - a lot about work ethic and discipline. That's something that you build into college. You don't really need to worry about finances or having your coach yell at you, because in high school, you're the best player. Nobody in the town can yell at you, is what you think. They break that habit in college, but us high-school kids skip that part of it. It was a great eye-opener for me personally and, I think, for a few other people there.

Do you feel ready for training camp?
Swift: I thought I was ready for training camp, getting ready for it, and then I started hearing stories and more stories from Rashard and them. Now, I'm scared. I'm like, "I don't want to go into that." I'm going to work as hard as I can, I'm going to put in as much work as I can now, getting ready for training camp, because from what they're telling me, I could work 12-hour days from here until training camp and I still wouldn't be ready for it.

That aside, how excited are you for the start of camp?
Swift: I really can't explain it. It's an overwhelming feeling. I've been watching the NBA for years, and every dream was to be an NBA player. Now, it's almost hard to realize you're here. I'm here playing with guys that have been through it and been All-Stars.

Have you set any goals for yourself as a rookie?
Swift: I've set quite a few, actually. I'm not going to give all of them away, because they're personal goals, but one of them is I just want to get out there and I want to help my team. I would rather give up Rookie of the Year, Rookie Challenge, All-Rookie Team, if I was able to be known as a player that helps his team. I'd give all that stuff up to be known as a good player that does whatever it takes to help his team win. That's one of my goals.