Humphries ready to heat up with Hawks after slow burn
Atlanta's Kent Bazemore stands at the free-throw line ready to shoot the second of his attempts. To his left is Australian rookie Isaac Humphries, making his first NBA appearance fresh off a season in the G-League with the Erie Bayhawks.
Bazemore's attempt careens off the rim, where Humphries' delicate footwork has him in position to snatch the rebound. He grabs the ball, goes one way, turns back the other, then uses a soft touch to score his first points as an NBA player.
Humphries tells ESPN he was a little fortuitous with the ball, though.cheap nike nfl jerseys free shipping
"I kind of didn't even get the rebound, it kind of fell into my hands," he recalls. "I remember just thinking, 'oh, s-t, the ball's right there and I'm right near the bucket' and I kind of just turned around and the defender was there so I made a counter move, then I remember putting it up and that's a shot I know I can make always.
"I just went up with confidence and when I saw it go in I just ran back on defence and halfway though running back I thought 'oh, that's my first NBA bucket. Wow.' I was pretty hyped but you can't show anything at that point."
The NBA dream was not always front-and-center in Humphries' mind. He played two years at Kentucky and as a sophomore with the Wildcats, he averaged 2.8 points and 2.8 rebounds in 8.3 minutes, appearing in 38 games. He declared for the 2017 NBA draft and even though he wasn't selected, it was at a pre-draft workout in Irvine, California one week prior that he started popping up on scout's radars.nike nfl jerseys wholesale cheap
Humphries impressed with his soft touch and solid footwork for a 7-footer, with his agent remarking at the time that he felt Humphries' performance had earned him a Summer League contract.
Looking back at that period, Humphries says he still didn't know for certain then that he was NBA quality.
