Clippers’ Reggie Bullock still touched by grandmother’s influence

LAS VEGAS — Reggie Bullock pulls up the short sleeve on his red T-shirt to reveal a tattoo of the place he’ll always remember and the woman he’ll never forget.

The design on his left arm shows the intersection of East and Bright streets, a convergence of drug-infested blight near the place he grew up in Kinston, N.C. In a wraparound ribbon is the name of Bullock’s maternal grandmother, Patricia Williams, who protected the Clippers rookie from the evils of the neighborhood.

“She basically raised me all my life,” Bullock said Monday night after scoring 12 points in the Clippers’ 77-65 loss to the Lakers in the Las Vegas Summer League. “She was the backbone of my family.”

Williams was a minister and church elder who occasionally delivered the sermons. Every Wednesday, she made her young grandson leave basketball practice early to attend Bible study. When Bullock participated in a prestigious all-star game at Madison Square Garden in New York, she helped organize a busload of supporters to make the trip.

The gesture meant so much to Bullock, whose father died when he was 6, that he passed on the chance to stay overnight in a hotel, instead accompanying his grandmother on the bus back to eastern North Carolina.

Williams died in 2011 during Bullock’s freshman season as a North Carolina Tar Heel. But her spirit lives on in the 6-foot-7 swingman who is on the verge of becoming the latest Kinston native to play in the NBA, joining Jerry Stackhouse, Charles Shackleford, Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell and Mitchell Wiggins, whose son, Andrew, is expected to be the top pick in next year’s draft.

Williams’ steadying influence has taken hold in someone who rarely deviates from his strengths: shooting and defense.

“When I come into a game,” Bullock said, “I’m not going to do anything out of the ordinary that people haven’t really seen. They know I’m a shooter, they know I like playing ‘D’ and I just like winning basketball games. I’m not going to be ball-hogging or taking so many shots or anything like that.”

Bullock has averaged a team-high 16 points in the Clippers’ first three summer league games while making 17 of 43 (39.5%) shots, including seven of 24 (29.2%) three-pointers. His shooting percentages were significantly higher before he made five of 16 shots against the Lakers, concluding a wobbly legged stretch of three games in four days.

“He can catch and shoot, he can come off pindowns and shoot, he competes on defense and he’s a good young kid, so I like him a lot,” said Tyronn Lue, the Clippers’ summer league coach.

In the Clippers’ summer league opener, Bullock stood up from the bench and clapped after Scott Wood, a onetime sharpshooter at rival North Carolina State, made a three-pointer.

“Just getting to know him better as a person and how he acts off the court just really makes you appreciate him,” Wood said.

Bullock had his own cheering section in that game, drawing chants of “Reg-gie! Reg-gie!” after he made a three-pointer and again after he blocked a shot.

“That was pretty cool to be able to come from college and seeing the Clippers play on TV and actually hearing their fans chant your name; it was a special moment for me,” Bullock said. “But at the same time I’m humble, and I’m going to continue to work.”

Williams would expect nothing less. And any time Bullock needs a reminder, he can glance at the spot on his arm where the dates of his grandmother’s birth and death are etched next to her name.

“She definitely showed me right from wrong,” Bullock said. “She kept me focused and it’s always good to have a person like that in your life.”

ben.bolch@latimes.com

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