Leonard Allen Enjoys Overseas Basketball : Spain’s Slower Pace Appeals to Ex-Aztec

Leonard Allen still watches cartoons. And he still giggles a little under his breath as he ponders questions and answers them. He is still the happy-go-lucky person who played center for four years on the San Diego State basketball team.

However, since the 23-year-old began playing basketball in Spain last fall, he has changed a bit.

“It’s like I’m becoming a man,” Allen said recently in a friend’s apartment in La Jolla. “In college you have people that pamper you. I was on a scholarship, and it was like having guardians watch out for you. There was so much I had to find out, like taking on responsibilities. In college, you could blow stuff off. Now, basketball is a job, you have to get up and go to work.

“People think basketball is all fun and games, but it’s a job. I found that out when I went overseas to play.”

In Spain, Allen got up at about 8 a.m. during the week to make the daily 9 a.m. practice. He had another practice at 7 p.m. Games were every Saturday night, with 28 games in a season.

He had a lot of time to sit in his apartment and listen to music, search through Barcelona shopping centers for American newspapers and read novels.

“I never was a big reader,” Allen said, “but I have developed an interest in reading. In the past, I never read unless I had to.”

Allen has used his past to prepare him for his future.

About six years ago, he learned that even the best-laid plans can go astray. At Lincoln High in Port Arthur, Tex., basketball Coach James Gamble stripped him of his captain’s role as a senior when he arrived late to practice one day.

“He didn’t let me get a big head,” Allen said. “That made me realize that everyone can be replaced. Anybody.”

Allen certainly could not have developed a big head in his brief fling with the National Basketball Assn.

On June 18, 1985, the 6-foot-10, 225-pounder was selected by the Dallas Mavericks as their fourth pick, the 50th player chosen in the NBA draft. Dallas chose 7-foot centers Bill Wennington of St. John’s, Uwe Blab of Indiana and Mark Acres of Oral Roberts ahead of Allen.

“I was just happy to get drafted,” Allen said. “I tried to go there (to Dallas’ rookie camp) and make the best of a bad situation. I don’t think I played that well, but everybody was friendly . . . they just had too many power forwards.”

Smokey Gaines, SDSU basketball coach, still says that Dallas was the worst possible team for Allen.

“They (Dallas) just drafted too many big men before they picked Allen,” Gaines said. “It would have better if he went to a team like Detroit, or the L.A. Clippers--teams with fewer big men.”

When rookie camp ended, Rick Sund, a Maverick assistant coach, told Allen it would be tough for him to make the team. Sund also said it might be best if Allen went to Europe, that he might be a year or two away from the NBA.

Allen then played in a summer league in Los Angeles and met Warren LeGarie, a European scout/agent. LeGarie spread the word overseas that a tall guy who went in the third round of the NBA draft was interested in playing basketball in Europe.

A representative from the Bilbao team contacted LeGarie, and through him a contract was negotiated for Allen. Team Bilbao participates in the B1 division, meaning only one American can play on each team. City Bilbao is located in northern Spain on the coast of the Bay of Biscay.

“It was real cold there,” Allen said, “and there was a lot of industry there. I wouldn’t get in the water because all of the industries polluted the water . . . It also rained a lot, so it wasn’t that pretty.”

For the second half of the season, which started at the end of January, Allen got traded to a team named Liquor 43, located in Barcelona. Liquor 43 plays in the A1 division, allowing two Americans on each team. The A1 division is the best in Spain, and its championship--The Cup of Spain--is a best-of-three series between the league’s top two teams.

Allen and Liquor 43 reached the playoffs, but lost to Huesca in overtime in the third game.

“We played that game in a huge airplane hangar, and it must have been 40 degrees,” Allen said. “I’ve played in better high school gyms, and this floor was like an ice rink.”

Along with the poor conditions of most of the basketball courts, Allen had to get used to other aspects of Spanish basketball, such as international rules.

“The out-of-bounds rule I like,” Allen said. “Most of the time the referee doesn’t have to touch the ball. In America, the ref steps in and slows up the game. Also, players only get eight seconds at the free-throw line (in Spain). People here take hours for one free throw.

“One rule I had to get used to was that you get an extra step on your layup. That really messed me up because you play defense on the step you think is your defender’s last, but he just steps around you and lays it in.

“I began to use that over here and people would say, ‘What are you doing?’ ”

Allen also found the officiating to be very erratic. He said that he would go up for a shot and no player would be within three feet of him, but a foul would be called on his opponent. Other times he would go up for a rebound, get mauled by three players, and nothing would be called.

“I’ll never criticize American referees again in my life,” Allen said.

Or American fans.

“(In Spain) they come out, especially if you are winning,” Allen said, “but they’re crazy. They beat drums and pound them all game. Boom, boom, boom! And when they wanted to boo people, they would whistle. That was funny. It was an experience.”

And dealing with the Spanish media was another experience.

“You would have a good game and the papers would say, ‘He’s All-Everything.’ Then you would have a bad game and (the papers) would just dog you. They would write about pointless stuff, like, ‘He had on different colored shoelaces,’ as an example.”

Other things were harder for Allen to acclimate to, like not being able to go to a convenience store at any hour to get more orange juice, the abundance of high-rise apartments in Spain and the lack of grass, cable television and microwave ovens.

But while there were negative aspects to life in Spain, there were also benefits.

“Here (in the United States) life is so much quicker, there’s so much to do,” Allen said. “I got adjusted to that slow life (in Spain). There are a lot of easygoing people there. When I first got there, I was at a quicker part of life. There just weren’t as many things to do there as there are in the United States. But I’ve settled down to enjoy the finer things in life.”

Like listening to music and reading novels.

Indeed, Allen talked of being so content in Spain that he would not mind finishing his career there. In fact, he was preparing for another season in Spain when the Mavericks called recently to invite him to a mini-camp in Dallas.

Again it did not work out. Sund said Allen showed more confidence than he did a year ago, but his inside shot was too inconsistent. The Mavericks released their exclusive rights to Allen.

“It would be unfair to hold the rights to Allen forever,” Sund said. “Now there’s a chance for another club to pick him up.”

If another NBA club does not pick him up, Leonard Allen will again take his fast-paced game to the slow lane of Spain.

He is comfortable there.

LEONARD ALLEN’S CAREER

- 1981--Allen led Port Arthur Lincoln High School to the Texas State 5-A championship. He was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. He averaged 17 points and 12 rebounds his senior year. Among the schools recruiting him were Duke, Marquette, Arkansas, Tulsa, LSU, Oklahoma and San Diego State.

- 1981-82--In his first game as an Aztec, Allen held Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing to two field goals, six rebounds and four blocked shots in 28 minutes on Dec. 5 in Capital Centre at Landover, Md. SDSU lost by 18. As a freshman, Allen averaged 4.5 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. Allen scored 20 points in SDSU’s 75-64 win over Temple in the finals of the Cabrillo Classic.

- 1982-83--Allen started all 28 games, averaging 6.9 points and 6.0 rebounds.

- 1983-84--Allen started 25 of 28 games, averaging 8.7 points and 7.0 rebounds. He was named to the first team of the Tulsa tournament, in which the Aztecs lost to unbeaten and nationally ranked Tulsa in the finals.

- 1984-85--Allen’s best game at SDSU was his second-to-last, March 9 against Texas El Paso in the championship game of the Western Athletic Conference tournament. The Aztecs were down by four points late in the game. Allen came off the bench to score 11 points in five minutes, putting SDSU ahead, 71-66. UTEP never got closer and the Aztecs were in the NCAA Tournament. “No matter what I put up (against UTEP) it went in,” Allen said. “Sometimes the most perfect of shots don’t go in, but that game I couldn’t miss.”

- June 18, 1985--Allen is drafted by the Dallas Mavericks, the third pick of the third round, 50th player selected overall.

- August 9, 1985--Allen leaves San Diego for Bilbao, Spain.

- January 14, 1986--Allen leaves Bilbao for Barcelona, Spain.

- May 28, 1986--Allen leaves Barcelona to return to San Diego.

- July 18, 1986--Allen leaves San Diego for the Dallas Mavericks’ mini-camp

- July 31, 1986--Dallas releases Allen.