The gym at the Student Activities Center has three courts, no seating and no scoreboard. It’s hidden on the second story of one of UCLA’s oldest buildings, lost in the shuffle of the vibrant Westwood campus.
The facility itself is ordinary; the basketball played there is not.
Last week the building was where UCLA’s new sensation, Kevin Love, played his first games in Westwood, running alongside Bruins Russell Westbrook, Darren Collison and Lorenzo Mata. On Monday he went up against his soon-to-be nemesis O.J. Mayo, USC’s rock star recruit.
Months from now Love and Mayo will meet as archrivals in front of thousands at Pauley Pavilion. There will be weeks of hype, a rowdy student section, screaming coaches and the bright lights of national television.
But last Monday there was none of that. It was just another pickup game at SAC, and with over 30 elite basketball players there, Mayo and Love were hardly the stars.
“This is different for me,” said Mayo, a West Virginia native. “Where I’m from, we don’t have such high-profile players.”
SAC has been a hot spot for offseason pickup basketball since the Wooden era. In Los Angeles it’s where the worlds of basketball collide.
NBA superstar Baron Davis said that SAC is the only place he’ll play at this summer, while he takes classes at UCLA.
Last week Davis, a former Bruin, faced a pickup squad of NBA veterans Cuttino Mobley of the Los Angeles Clippers, Boston’s Paul Pierce and Charlotte’s Emeka Okafor.
He reunited with a fraternity of former Bruins: Ryan Hollins, Toby Bailey, Earl Watson and Jordan Farmar. And Davis got a chance to see the current crop of UCLA heroes, playing with Mata, Collison and Love. Davis said he tries to give them advice all the time.
He even offered a prediction after seeing the Love-Collison combo in action.
“Nothing less than the Final Four,” Davis said with a smile.
Love relished the opportunity to play his first ball of the summer on such talent-filled courts.
“It’s good for me to come out here and play better guys so the college game won’t be such a huge transition,” Love said.
The Bruins weren’t the only college stars looking for valuable summer experience. Four players from the University of Connecticut ““ Hasheem Thabeet, Jeff Adrien, Jerome Dyson and Marcus Johnson ““ were there, as was North Carolina’s Alex Stepheson. Former college stars Josh McRoberts (Duke), Ekene Ibekwe (Maryland) and Brandon Bowman (Georgetown) came to prepare for the grind of professional basketball.
Many more will come throughout the summer to what is known as one of the best offseason pickup courts in the country.
For the past 25 summers it’s all been set up by Adam Mills, a real estate developer from Los Angeles and a former guard at Texas. Mills pays for the court and organizes the teams. He said he talks to at least two NBA general managers each week, who arrange for their players to come play at SAC.
“This has been the spot since Wooden was here,” Mills said. “I’ve had everybody here. Magic Johnson spent a lot of years here. Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas have all come through here.”
When the NBA had its lockout in 1998, general managers were barred from three courts across the nation where the most NBA players practiced. One was in New York, another in Houston. The third was SAC.
Okafor, who averaged 14 points and 11 rebounds last year with Charlotte, played at SAC for the first time last week.
“This is one of the best courts,” Okafor said after two hours of basketball. “Everyone just blends in.”
The court seems to possess some international renown as well. Mills said that a lot of European players have played on the courts. Sarunas Jasikevicius, the Golden State Warriors’ Lithuanian sharpshooter, played with the team of Bruins last week. In spring, Chinese star Yi Jianlian trained on the SAC courts before being selected No. 6 overall by Milwaukee in the NBA Draft.
“Everybody knows this court,” Jasikevicius said. “Guys come here and they don’t mess around.”
Despite the consistent, almost overwhelming array of talent, Mills said he has always given priority to UCLA players when drawing up teams. Due to NCAA regulations, he doesn’t directly communicate with coach Ben Howland.
“Howland doesn’t want to coach them at all during the summer,” Mills said. “He’s very conscious about keeping a safe distance away.”
Even without Howland, the days at SAC are early opportunities for the Bruins to prepare.
“We’re all working for one goal, to win a Pac-10 championship and also a national championship,” Love said.
The burly 18-year-old already seemed excited about the upcoming season.
“This was the first time I got to play with (Westbrook) because I’ve just been lifting and working out,” he said after a Monday session at SAC. “So today was a good day.”
While the college stars may have had the season in the very back of their minds, it was hardly March basketball.
After one monstrous slam by Hollins, Jasikevicius turned and addressed the handful watching beneath the basket.
“I hope you had your cameras out,” the Lithuanian said. “That was one of the best dunks I’ve ever seen.”
Between games Bowman joked and kicked a ball back and forth with Thabeet, a skilled soccer player.
“What are you, the goalie?” Bowman asked the 7-foot-3-inch Tanzanian.
Davis got in on it, too. He threw a full-court alley-oop pass to Bailey, one of his former teammates at UCLA, and joked with Pierce.
At the end of one day Marcus Williams, the New Jersey Nets’ point guard of the future, gave his shoes away to an adoring kid. All the players signed autographs.
“It’s friendly guys,” Davis said. “But it’s competitive basketball at the same time.”
Mayo said good-bye to Love before heading back to USC.
After a year at the top of the recruiting world, the two have struck a clear friendship.
When asked how it was to play against his future rivals, Mayo smiled.
“It’s real fun,” Mayo said. “We’re all friends.”
Love had a similar response when asked the same question.
“It’s all love until we step out onto the floor this year and try to kick their butts,” he said. “But other than that it’s all good. We’re all just trying to get better.”