Rexrode: Thank you, Evan Bradds, for your old-school game
Dear Evan Bradds,
I’m writing this to say thank you. My thank you isn’t as important as others, because you’ve impacted a lot of lives in four seasons as a Belmont basketball player, but mine is on behalf of everyone who loves basketball.
At Belmont, they can thank you for four seasons of excellence, for scoring 1,826 career points – including 25 in Thursday’s 76-72 win over Eastern Kentucky – which is just 93 behind Ian Clark for tops in the school’s Division I era. They can thank you for leading a 19-5 team that just clinched the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title and for doing so many things to win so many games.
Like, remember the charge you took on soon-to-be lottery pick Henry Ellenson to beat Marquette last season? Or hitting all 13 of your shots against Evansville, part of leading the nation in field-goal percentage as a sophomore and junior?
They can thank you for what you do off the court, too. The sports evangelism trip to an American Indian reservation in South Dakota, the Athletes in Action visit to New Zealand to play and share your personal faith story, the work with Nashville Rescue Mission, Nashville Dream Center and Nashville Special Olympics.
And of course, the Academic All-America honors as a finance major. This is why you’re one of 10 finalists for the Senior CLASS Award, a national honor that considers community, classroom, character and competition.
And that’s all great. But that is not why I’m thanking you. No, I want to thank you because I’ve been trying to think of the last 6-foot-7, 205-pound guy I saw dominate in the post at this level and the answer is: I’ve never seen one.
Evan, I want to thank you for being willing to live down there, in this age of every big kid in the world wanting to shoot threes and handle the ball and be Magic Johnson. Or LeBron James, or pick your favorite. We have small ball in the NBA, and the best basketball team in the world is built around shooters and has almost no post-up game whatsoever.
But you know what? It still works. It always will, just like a running game will always work in football.
And you do it so well, even though you essentially played point guard at Jamestown (Ohio) Greeneview High, and even though you came to Belmont as a big wing who would spend your career playing on the perimeter and shooting threes.
“It was right before my first game as a freshman, I was working on the wing and coach (Rick) Byrd told me, ‘Hey, you’re going to have to play some in the post for us,’” you told me this week. “I will be honest, at first I hated it.”
That’s easy to understand, especially considering that in one of your first games you had to bang with a 6-9, 240-pound monster named James Michael McAdoo. The post isn’t fun if you’re overmatched. Plenty of players bigger than you treat it like an allergy.
But look where you are now. Just as you found your way to Belmont – only after John Groce, the coach you committed to at Ohio, left for Illinois and told you playing time would be scarce there – you found your way to the low block. You realized footwork is the key, and you watched footage of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant and took note of some of their tricks.
“I’ve grown to like it,” you said. “It’s not something everyone can do.”
And you’ve made it art – the drop steps, the spin moves, the jump hooks. On Feb. 9 at Jacksonville State, you faked a pass in the post that would have made Hakeem Olajuwon proud, resulting in and a confused defender and wide-open layup.
On Thursday against EKU, you took on two and three defenders often and still ended up with scoring 25. The attention opened up driving lanes and space for your jump shooters, as it always does.
And when upset-minded EKU got within a point with 1:26 left, Byrd made sure you got the ball on the next possession. Dribble, turn, lean, shoulder fake, contact, elevation – basket, plus the foul and free throw, and that was that.
“I haven’t had anybody quite like Evan,” Byrd said of you after the game. “He’s a great one.”
You have the heritage, your late grandfather Gary Bradds the 1964 national player of the year for Ohio State and an interior scorer deluxe. Your father, David Bradds, played at Dayton.
You’ve got some old-man game for sure. I hope you're OK being called a "throwback," so I asked.
"I've been called worse," you said, so I'd also like to thank you for being a good sport, and I hope there are some young players who have been watching you these past four years and taking notes.
Contact Joe Rexrode atjrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.
THE BRADDS FILE
Who: Belmont senior forward Evan Bradds
From: Jamestown, Ohio
Height/weight: 6-7, 205
Age: 22
Stats: 21.1 points, 8.8 rebounds per game
Notable: Bradds was an Associated Press honorable mention All-American as a junior. He is one of 10 finalists, and he’s the only mid-major finalist, for the Julius Erving Award given to the nation’s top small forward – even though he mostly plays in the post. He’s also one of 10 finalists for the Senior CLASS Award, which considers basketball and off-the-court excellence. Fans can vote for Bradds at https://www.seniorclassaward.com/vote/mens_basketball_2016-17/