Journeyman Wilks thankful for what he's got
Nov 30 2009 8:36PM
It’s way more fun to practice with people than with furniture.
Mike Wilks made that admission to Thunder head coach Scott Brooks after his first practice with his 11th team on Monday, five days and two games after the Oklahoma City franchise got him away from home in Hartselle, Ala., to come serve as the team’s backup point guard.
“He was setting screen and rolls for me and I was like, ‘this feels a lot better than having to use chairs,’” Wilks said.
Of course, some things will never change for Wilks.
Once again, the journeyman point guard is living out of a hotel. He’s become a pro at this sort of thing, always arriving to a new city with two stuffed suitcases, one with dress clothes and the other with everyday wear. Forking over extra loot for overweight luggage has also become routine.
“That fee,” he said, “I just tell the lady, ‘here’s my credit card, these bags are going to be overweight.’”
It’s a phrase Wilks has been repeating over and over for nearly the last seven seasons.
Going from one team to another, sometimes on a 10-day or a non-guaranteed contract, has been a way of life for Wilks. While he’s yet to find stability with one team, yet to land a contract that will keep him put for more than a season, Wilks has always been able to find work. He’s been able to sustain through a circuitous path.
“It’s a faith walk, man,” Wilk said. “Everybody has different paths in life. I know a lot of guys dream that they’re going to go to the big-time school, get drafted in the first round, get drafted into the NBA and be an All-Star and be all of those types of things. But everybody has a different path. Mine wasn’t, but I wouldn’t trade my path for anything else in the world because it’s through that God has used to build character in me, and I wouldn’t be the person I am today had everything just come to me.
“So I appreciate it, and despite how difficult it can be at times I’m blessed, man. The good far outweighs the bad. I have a beautiful family, I’m healthy, and just to have the opportunity to play in this league one time is a privilege, and there’s so many guys, there’s millions of people who have the talent but they just never get the opportunity. It’s something I don’t take for granted, and that’s what I have to focus on when it gets hard, when you’re here, when you’re there. Everybody would like to be on a team for a number of years, get a guaranteed contract and all that. But at the end of the day I’ll take it. It’s not what I would have wrote myself, but I’ll take it.”
When Wilks, 30, graduated from Rice University with honors, a degree in economics and as the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year, he told himself he’d give professional basketball a shot for two years. He wasn’t drafted or invited to the pre-draft camp. If things didn’t work out, he’d put his degree to use.
He landed with the Huntsville Flight of the NBA Developmental League and stayed there for a year and a half, during which he met his wife, a former Ole Miss and University of Alabama-Huntsville basketball player, and played under former Thunder assistant coach Ralph Lewis.
It was with the Flight that Wilks got called up to the NBA, and it was a day he’ll never forget.
The Flight had just played a game when Lewis called Wilks into his office. Normally, when a player is summoned to the coach’s office, it’s for bad news. But since Wilks was the team’s starting point guard he figured the two would just talk about the game. Not so, although there was some awkward silence.
“We just looked at each other and Ralph was like, ‘Atlanta Hawks, baby!’” Wilks recalled. “So we were in this little office, hugging and jumping up an ddown and the training room was right outside so when I walked out everyone was looking at me like, ‘what are y’all doing?’”
After more than two years of training camp invitations and being waived by three different teams, Wilks was going to make his NBA debut.
Standing on the Thunder’s practice court, Wilks tells this story with the same detail and enthusiasm as if it happened yesterday.
When Wilks arrived in Atlanta, the Hawks were being coached on an interim basis by Terry Stotts, whom Wilks spent time with earlier that summer on the Milwaukee Bucks’ Summer League team. Stotts told Wilks, straight up, that he was going to be in the starting lineup that night against the San Antonio Spurs.
“He was like, ‘I’m not starting you to be nice,’” Wilks said, “’I believe in you.’ We went out and won that game. I remember everything. It was just a great memory.”
He remembers standing across the court from Tony Parker during the national anthem; getting stared down by Tim Duncan before the opening tip; making his first shot, a three-pointer from the corner.
“Like I said, I don’t take it for granted,” Wilks said. “Just being here, whether it’s for 10 days, whether it’s a day. Every time I step on the court I’m just thanking God because there’s a million people who would love to have that opportunity.”
Wilks has been fortunate to relive the same type of experience time and again.
Whenever he signs a contract, it’s usually followed by congratulatory text messages from former teammates like Jamal Crawford.
Wilks does have a keepsake from every stop throughout his NBA career. He’s kept his No. 29 jersey from every team he’s played for and had every former teammate autograph it. He keeps them all in Alabama.
Wilks has continued to find work because he’s learned how to fit in. He considers himself a pretty laidback guy who has never had a problem with any former teammates.
“It’s just part of who I am, and that’s what I think has allowed me to last as long and bounce around from team to team and fit in, just being able to come in and fit in and learn things on the fly and get along with everybody,” Wilks said. “Everybody knows I’m going to come in and work hard and do the best that I can.”
As Brooks said, Wilks doesn’t play “buddy basketball.”
“It’s always been a numbers game with him and the guy is an NBA player,” Brooks said. “Unfortunately he hasn’t been able to stick with a team, or year after year he’s always had to worry about his next job. He’s a great kid, works hard, very serviceable point guard.”
One of the Hawks’ final cuts in training camp, Wilks had spent the last month back in Alabama, working out by himself at a local gym, playing pickup games with friends, waiting for his phone to ring.
Following the NBA, however, wasn’t as simple. His cable provider in Hartselle doesn’t have the NBA League Pass, so he’d instead go to his in-laws house 30 minutes away in Hillsboro where he can watch every game. It’s where his wife goes to watch him play whenever Wilks is on a roster.
With Shaun Livingston, Kevin Ollie and Kyle Weaver nursing injuries, the Thunder decided to bring in Wilks to play behind Russell Westbrook. Wilks had already played for the Oklahoma City franchise and alongside Nick Collison, Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. Wilks signed with the Thunder last Wednesday, spent Thanksgiving here with trainer Joe Sharpe’s family, skimmed the playbook and got up some shots before making his debut on Friday against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Wilks has averaged 12 minutes and two points in two games off the bench for the Thunder.
Just the other night, Wilks said he was talking to his wife, telling her how thankful he is to still be playing. He said the adversity he’s gone through has made him a better person. Wilks said he chooses to be happy. He chooses to focus on the positive instead of the negative. He admits that while this lifestyle isn’t for everyone, the good far outweighs the bad.
Wilks said he recently was listening to an interview that the Lakers’ Lamar Odom had done, and in it Odom talked about how certain players are made for certain situations.
But even while Wilks continues to play and suit up for different teams, and all the while be grateful for what he has, he said he still has hope that he’ll find stability.
“I still have that hope, man,” Wilks said. “Even being here I know they’ve got guys who are injured and they’re going to come back soon and they’re going to have to make decisions but I still pray and hope that there’s a way for me to be able to stick and hopefully do enough and they value me enough to where they’ll want me back. I’ve never lost that hope and I don’t think I’ll ever lose it until I hang ‘em up.”
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Mike Wilks made that admission to Thunder head coach Scott Brooks after his first practice with his 11th team on Monday, five days and two games after the Oklahoma City franchise got him away from home in Hartselle, Ala., to come serve as the team’s backup point guard.
“He was setting screen and rolls for me and I was like, ‘this feels a lot better than having to use chairs,’” Wilks said.
Of course, some things will never change for Wilks.
Once again, the journeyman point guard is living out of a hotel. He’s become a pro at this sort of thing, always arriving to a new city with two stuffed suitcases, one with dress clothes and the other with everyday wear. Forking over extra loot for overweight luggage has also become routine.
“That fee,” he said, “I just tell the lady, ‘here’s my credit card, these bags are going to be overweight.’”
It’s a phrase Wilks has been repeating over and over for nearly the last seven seasons.
Going from one team to another, sometimes on a 10-day or a non-guaranteed contract, has been a way of life for Wilks. While he’s yet to find stability with one team, yet to land a contract that will keep him put for more than a season, Wilks has always been able to find work. He’s been able to sustain through a circuitous path.
“It’s a faith walk, man,” Wilk said. “Everybody has different paths in life. I know a lot of guys dream that they’re going to go to the big-time school, get drafted in the first round, get drafted into the NBA and be an All-Star and be all of those types of things. But everybody has a different path. Mine wasn’t, but I wouldn’t trade my path for anything else in the world because it’s through that God has used to build character in me, and I wouldn’t be the person I am today had everything just come to me.
“So I appreciate it, and despite how difficult it can be at times I’m blessed, man. The good far outweighs the bad. I have a beautiful family, I’m healthy, and just to have the opportunity to play in this league one time is a privilege, and there’s so many guys, there’s millions of people who have the talent but they just never get the opportunity. It’s something I don’t take for granted, and that’s what I have to focus on when it gets hard, when you’re here, when you’re there. Everybody would like to be on a team for a number of years, get a guaranteed contract and all that. But at the end of the day I’ll take it. It’s not what I would have wrote myself, but I’ll take it.”
When Wilks, 30, graduated from Rice University with honors, a degree in economics and as the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year, he told himself he’d give professional basketball a shot for two years. He wasn’t drafted or invited to the pre-draft camp. If things didn’t work out, he’d put his degree to use.
He landed with the Huntsville Flight of the NBA Developmental League and stayed there for a year and a half, during which he met his wife, a former Ole Miss and University of Alabama-Huntsville basketball player, and played under former Thunder assistant coach Ralph Lewis.
It was with the Flight that Wilks got called up to the NBA, and it was a day he’ll never forget.
The Flight had just played a game when Lewis called Wilks into his office. Normally, when a player is summoned to the coach’s office, it’s for bad news. But since Wilks was the team’s starting point guard he figured the two would just talk about the game. Not so, although there was some awkward silence.
“We just looked at each other and Ralph was like, ‘Atlanta Hawks, baby!’” Wilks recalled. “So we were in this little office, hugging and jumping up an ddown and the training room was right outside so when I walked out everyone was looking at me like, ‘what are y’all doing?’”
After more than two years of training camp invitations and being waived by three different teams, Wilks was going to make his NBA debut.
Standing on the Thunder’s practice court, Wilks tells this story with the same detail and enthusiasm as if it happened yesterday.
When Wilks arrived in Atlanta, the Hawks were being coached on an interim basis by Terry Stotts, whom Wilks spent time with earlier that summer on the Milwaukee Bucks’ Summer League team. Stotts told Wilks, straight up, that he was going to be in the starting lineup that night against the San Antonio Spurs.
“He was like, ‘I’m not starting you to be nice,’” Wilks said, “’I believe in you.’ We went out and won that game. I remember everything. It was just a great memory.”
He remembers standing across the court from Tony Parker during the national anthem; getting stared down by Tim Duncan before the opening tip; making his first shot, a three-pointer from the corner.
“Like I said, I don’t take it for granted,” Wilks said. “Just being here, whether it’s for 10 days, whether it’s a day. Every time I step on the court I’m just thanking God because there’s a million people who would love to have that opportunity.”
Wilks has been fortunate to relive the same type of experience time and again.
Whenever he signs a contract, it’s usually followed by congratulatory text messages from former teammates like Jamal Crawford.
Wilks does have a keepsake from every stop throughout his NBA career. He’s kept his No. 29 jersey from every team he’s played for and had every former teammate autograph it. He keeps them all in Alabama.
Wilks has continued to find work because he’s learned how to fit in. He considers himself a pretty laidback guy who has never had a problem with any former teammates.
“It’s just part of who I am, and that’s what I think has allowed me to last as long and bounce around from team to team and fit in, just being able to come in and fit in and learn things on the fly and get along with everybody,” Wilks said. “Everybody knows I’m going to come in and work hard and do the best that I can.”
As Brooks said, Wilks doesn’t play “buddy basketball.”
“It’s always been a numbers game with him and the guy is an NBA player,” Brooks said. “Unfortunately he hasn’t been able to stick with a team, or year after year he’s always had to worry about his next job. He’s a great kid, works hard, very serviceable point guard.”
One of the Hawks’ final cuts in training camp, Wilks had spent the last month back in Alabama, working out by himself at a local gym, playing pickup games with friends, waiting for his phone to ring.
Following the NBA, however, wasn’t as simple. His cable provider in Hartselle doesn’t have the NBA League Pass, so he’d instead go to his in-laws house 30 minutes away in Hillsboro where he can watch every game. It’s where his wife goes to watch him play whenever Wilks is on a roster.
With Shaun Livingston, Kevin Ollie and Kyle Weaver nursing injuries, the Thunder decided to bring in Wilks to play behind Russell Westbrook. Wilks had already played for the Oklahoma City franchise and alongside Nick Collison, Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. Wilks signed with the Thunder last Wednesday, spent Thanksgiving here with trainer Joe Sharpe’s family, skimmed the playbook and got up some shots before making his debut on Friday against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Wilks has averaged 12 minutes and two points in two games off the bench for the Thunder.
Just the other night, Wilks said he was talking to his wife, telling her how thankful he is to still be playing. He said the adversity he’s gone through has made him a better person. Wilks said he chooses to be happy. He chooses to focus on the positive instead of the negative. He admits that while this lifestyle isn’t for everyone, the good far outweighs the bad.
Wilks said he recently was listening to an interview that the Lakers’ Lamar Odom had done, and in it Odom talked about how certain players are made for certain situations.
But even while Wilks continues to play and suit up for different teams, and all the while be grateful for what he has, he said he still has hope that he’ll find stability.
“I still have that hope, man,” Wilks said. “Even being here I know they’ve got guys who are injured and they’re going to come back soon and they’re going to have to make decisions but I still pray and hope that there’s a way for me to be able to stick and hopefully do enough and they value me enough to where they’ll want me back. I’ve never lost that hope and I don’t think I’ll ever lose it until I hang ‘em up.”
Contact Chris Silva
