Rookie Is Eager to Learn NBA’s Finer Points on Court

At the beginning-- before the drop-dead deadline and the downbeat December-- premier point guard Mike Bibby was getting along about as well as any locked-out future NBA millionaire could.

He rode over from his Phoenix home to Tucson to work out with his former Arizona Wildcat teammates before the school year started. He worked out with Phoenix Sun players in town. He worked out on his own twice a day.

And he listened to the reassuring words of his agent, David Falk, who was in the middle of the labor storm and consistently telling him that there was a deal out there, somewhere.

“He’s always told me it looked good,” Bibby said Wednesday from Phoenix. “Through the whole lockout, he kept on telling me that it was close. I didn’t really know, but he always told me a deal would get done.”

Bibby, picked by the Vancouver Grizzlies second overall in last June’s draft, hadn’t signed a contract or jumped into the lavish NBA lifestyle yet, so there was no immediate reason to panic about lost checks.

He just was waiting patiently for the season to start.

Then, his former Arizona teammates started their season, and Bibby started feeling antsy.

This could have been his junior season at Arizona, and though he was adamant about his decision to leave for the NBA after two collegiate seasons, watching the Wildcats play was not easy.

“The first [Arizona] game, I was a little itchy,” Bibby said. “I wanted to be with them, playing with them, you know? It felt kind of awkward. . . . But after that, I got over it.”

Then NBA Commissioner David Stern announced a Jan. 7 deadline for any deal, and the date rushed closer.

“I was nervous,” Bibby said. “I really didn’t know what to expect.”

Did he ever regret leaving college in the middle of all this uncertainty?

“There was stuff I needed to do for my family and for me,” Bibby said. “It just had to be done. I could always go back to school.”

His mother, Virginia Bibby, said her son never reconsidered coming out early.

“He made up his mind to do what he wanted to do,” she said. “One thing with him is that he sticks with his decisions. He does not look back. I was pretty confident about that. He was fine.

“I’m sure he was a little restless, but he never really pouted or talked about it that much. He knew there was nothing he could do about it.”

Once he learned that a deal had been struck, Bibby said he rapidly started planning for a quick camp and immediate immersion into Vancouver Grizzly basketball.

“I’m real happy,” he said. “My dream is finally going to come true. It’s just a great feeling. I don’t know the details of the agreement, but I’m just happy to be playing.”

Besides, he said, with the season cut down from the regular slate of 82 games to at most 52, the younger players coming from college might be the benefactors.

“It’ll probably be just a warmup season for us,” Bibby said. “For the rookies who haven’t played 82 games, I think it’ll be a little easier.

“At Arizona, we played 35 last year.”

First, Bibby and Falk will have to forge an agreement with Vancouver. Then, Bibby will go to camp and finally get ready for an NBA season on the fly.

Bibby said he isn’t worried that, as a rookie, he’ll have a far shorter indoctrination period than past rookies have gotten.

“I’d rather that be happening than having to wait a longer period of time to play,” Bibby said. “I figured the more time I had [before the lockout ended], the more I’d be ready.

“I know there are some people who aren’t in shape, but we just have to see when we get out there.”