Kapono Is One Rare Talent

Wanted: Westwood apartment for a UCLA sophomore who, um, well, see . . .

“I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be needing one,” Jason Kapono said with a laugh.

The best college basketball player in town spent several hours last Saturday searching the classifieds and banging on doors.

His recent decision to retreat from the riches of the NBA and return to UCLA was gutsy, refreshing . . .

And not exactly landlord friendly.

Long after many students have secured housing for the coming academic year, the Bruins’ delightfully funky star suddenly needs a place to live, and can’t find one.

“I guess you could say I’m working on it,” Kapono said Monday, as only Kapono could say it. “I mean, I don’t want to have to drive 35 miles every day from Joe and Joni Kapono’s place down in Lakewood.”

What about the dorms?

“Well, it’s like, I’m going to be a sophomore, and maybe I’m ready to get out on my own just a little bit,” he said. “Like other college kids.”

Ironically, his recent decision to remain just another college kid ensured that he would not.

It’s not every college kid who would turn down a chance to begin a career in his chosen profession with a guaranteed contract worth as much as $2.5 million.

That’s how much Kapono, by declining to become what scouts figured would be a late first-round NBA draft pick, left on the table earlier this month.

“On one hand, I had a chance to make more money then my parents made in their lifetime,” he said. “But on the other hand, I’m still a young kid, and I can still work hard and grow and stuff like that.”

It’s also not every college kid who, by walking away, risks losing it all.

“I’m leaving it in God’s hands,” he said, pausing. “And I’m knocking on wood.”

It’s not every college kid who understands his faults, and can wait on his dreams.

“The right half of my heart finally beat out the left half of my heart,” he said.

Now that’s one tough heart. Kapono’s recent announcement was overshadowed by the Lakers’ championship run, but its impact on both UCLA and the college basketball world was worth all the extra champagne.

Somebody finally said no. Somebody finally decided to tell the NBA that there is not a sucker born every 24 seconds.

Somebody looked at the money . . . then looked in the mirror.

“I’m not ready to have the kind of NBA career that I want,” Kapono said. “I could use more growth as a player and a person.”

In another irony, this 19-year-old showed his maturity by questioning it.

“To pass up that much money, well, you know it wasn’t about the money,” said his father, Joe, who works the graveyard shift at a grocery warehouse. “Jason wanted to do what was best for him in other areas too. He showed us a lot by doing that.”

After announcing in May that he would test the waters and consider joining the NBA, Kapono became one of the few players who actually did just that.

Test the waters. Ask around. Collect opinions.

“When I said I was looking around, everybody thought it was a done deal, and it wasn’t,” Kapono said. “I’ve always made decisions late, even coming to UCLA after the signing period. If I was going to the NBA, I had to be certain.”

Turns out, the only thing certain was the opinion of several coaches or general managers who worked him out, including those from the Lakers, Clippers, Portland, Utah, New York and Indiana.

“They were straight blunt forward,” Kapono said. “They told me, I needed to be stronger, and I needed to work on my quickness.”

But experts said he might be the best pure shooter in the draft. Then Kapono asked, what about next year? And the next year?

“I want to have a long NBA career, like a Chris Mullin or somebody,” he said. “I don’t just want to hang around for a few years and leave.”

So he thought, and thought, and thought. Because he never hired an agent, the NCAA allowed him to think.

And when he told his father and mother and sister Jillian one Thursday night?

“Well, everybody is surprised by every decision Jason makes, because you just never know what’s going to come out,” Joe said with a laugh. “But given what he wanted, it was the right decision.”

Students will show their agreement when they show up at next season’s game wearing Kapono’s trademark white headband.

You know, the headband that he began wearing last season, “Not for sweat, but for style.”

“I’ll be wearing the headband again this year, it’s just me,” he said. “And, I mean, I don’t want to make anybody mad who already went out and bought one, you know?”

Otherwise, you might not recognize him.

Kapono is working six days a week with a personal trainer in hopes of seeing somebody different in that mirror next year.

Just as long as he can find somewhere to live. Someplace warm and solid.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.