Douglas hoping to Jazz up his career and land in NBA
Jeff Tully
Ruben Douglas wasn’t given an opportunity to play in the NBA.
But through hard work and perseverance, the former
Bellarmine-Jefferson High standout is hoping to prove he belongs
among the basketball elite in the league.
This summer, Douglas has landed a spot on the with the Utah Jazz’s
summer pro league team, and he has put on some impressive
performances.
His best outing came July 20, when Douglas helped lead the Jazz to
a 72-70 victory against the Chicago Bulls.
Douglas showed why he was the leading scorer in NCAA Division I in
2003 as a senior for University of New Mexico, as he tallied a
game-high 20 points in the Reebok Rocky Mountain Review summer
league. He also had five rebounds.
Douglas, 24, made the most of his six minutes in the second
quarter by scoring seven of Utah’s nine points to end the half.
The Jazz started the second half on a 7-0 run and increased its
lead to 11 with Douglas scoring five of those points.
In the fourth quarter, The Bulls capitalized on Utah’s inability
to score, pulling within three points before Douglas gave the Jazz a
boost with four straight points.
The 6-foot-4, 195-pound Douglas scored in double figures Friday,
when he tallied 11 points in 30 minutes in an 80-63 loss to the
Charlotte Bobcats.
The summer league concluded Sunday, as Utah went 3-4. The league
also included the Portland TrailBlazers, Dallas Mavericks, San
Antonio Spurs and the Indiana Pacers. The Bulls (6-1) won the league
championship.
Douglas was one of 12 players invited to take part on Utah’s
summer-league team, which included former USC star Desmon Farmer,
Curtis Borchardt from Stanford, Maurice “Mo” Williams of Alabama and
Spain’s Raul Lopez.
Douglas is trying to find his way into the league after being
overlooked in the 2003 NBA Draft. The guard wasn’t selected, despite
averaging 28 points per game -- 32.1 in the Mountain West Conference
-- and being named conference player of the year.
He scored 783 points in 28 games to become one of New Mexico’s
all-time greatest scorers.
He played in all 28 games for the Lobos and had scoring outputs of
43 (twice), 40 and 39 (twice) points. He scored in double figures in
every game and his season low was 12 points. He also had 94
three-pointers.
In just three seasons -- he played his first season under Coach
Lute Olson at Arizona -- he is UNM’s fifth all-time career scorer
with 1,782 points. Including his freshman season at Arizona, he ended
with 1,998 career points.
His name appeared on several mock NBA drafts and he was projected
as a late first-round or second-round selection. But as the draft got
closer, the stock of the 1998 CIF Southern Section Division IV Player
of the Year plummeted.
Prior to the NBA Draft, Douglas reportedly performed poorly in the
pre-draft camp in Chicago, which was conducted over three days.
Along with his success at UNM, Douglas proved himself as one of
the finest high school boys’ basketball athletes in California
history.
While a senior at Bell-Jeff, Douglas led the state in scoring with
a 34.6 average. With 1,073 points, he ended the season with
California’s fifth-best single-season scoring mark, and his 2,578
points ranked him No. 9 on the state career scoring list.
Douglas will likely find out soon if Utah is interested in
bringing him back for the 2004-05 season, or if he is headed back to
play in Europe.
Last season, Douglas played in Greece for Panionios in the A1
league, which is the country’s premier league.
In 26 games, he led the team, averaging 20 points a game. He also
averaged, 3.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.3 steals.
Along with making 80% of his free throws (105 for 130), he also
made 39% of his three-point attempts (66 of 167).
For his efforts, Douglas was selected to play in the Greek A1
All-Star Game and was named to the Eurobasket Greek League
All-Imports Team.
In the 2003-04 season, Panionios finished 11-15 and placed 10th
among the 14 Greek A1 teams.
If Douglas decides not to return to Europe, he can continue to
play basketball on the international level. Earlier this year, he was
named to the Panamian National Team.
Ruben’s father, Roger, is from Panama, and played for the
Panamanian National Team from 1966-68.