KU signee Giddens cherishes MVP

By Gary Bedore     Jul 8, 2003

High-flying Kansas University basketball signee J.R. Giddens decided it would be best to rest his sore left foot and skip last week’s slam-dunk competition at the Global Games.

The big-hearted, 6-foot-5 guard/forward changed his mind, however, when a couple of youngsters approached him as he sat on the bench at SMU’s Moody Coliseum in Dallas.

“These little kids were like, ‘Please, J.R., we came just to watch you. We heard about how you can dunk. Please dunk for us,”‘ Giddens said.

“I said OK and decided to enter halfway through the competition. I took off my jean shorts and had these little bitty shorts with my Paul Pierce jersey. At first it didn’t look good, I wasn’t warm. But I got warmed up and ended up winning.”

Giddens won the dunk competition and won over some KU fans in attendance, signing autographs and giving away his headband.

In the Global Games, Giddens averaged 16.0 points for the silver-medal-winning Global Games Select Team (3-2) and was awarded co-MVP honors with Deron Williams of champion Team USA (5-0).

“I will cherish it forever. That’s something I wanted to achieve,” Giddens said. “To get to play against the best players all over the world and win that, I’m blessed.”

Giddens said the best part of participating at the Games was meeting and befriending athletes from Yugoslavia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Lithuania and Africa.

“You get such a bad image of Europeans sometimes because of all the bombings over there. Getting to meet so many great guys … it wowed me. I have a different perspective on how people overseas are,” Giddens said.

“I’d eat with the guys from Yugoslavia in the cafe. One of them is being recruited for the league (NBA). We played games at ESPN Zone together and were talking at the whirlpool. I told him, ‘I’ll see you at the draft in a couple of years. We can be on the same (NBA) team.’

“One night, my roommate and I heard some knocking on our door,” Giddens said. “We opened up the connecting doors and some guys from Puerto Rico were wrestling. I said, ‘You want some of me?’ and I took off my earrings like I was ready to go. We were all wrestling on video. They had a guy 7-foot-3 in there, too.”

Giddens saved two of his best games for Puerto Rico and Yugoslavia, scoring 25 and 18 points, respectively. He had 15 rebounds in the 94-87 victory over Yugoslavia that pushed Global Games Select into the final against Team USA.

Giddens scored 19 points and had seven boards in a 104-80 title-game setback.

“I averaged a double-double in high school, so rebounding is not something I don’t like to do,” said Giddens, who earned McDonald’s All-America honors after starring his senior year at Oklahoma City’s John Marshall High. “Yugoslavia was so big, I knew I had to go to the boards to help us win. I sacrificed taking shots to play harder on defense and rebound for the good of the team. I think we could have won the tournament if we played like we did against Yugoslavia. In that game, we didn’t care who scored. We didn’t use our strengths in the final.”

One writer said that Giddens gave notice to the Big 12 Conference he would be a force to deal with as a freshman.

“I don’t think it proves anything,” Giddens said of his play in Dallas. “It just shows I can play basketball. You can’t prove anything until you step in a Jayhawk uniform. The guys who know who I am know what I am.”

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Injury update: Giddens had X-rays taken of his left foot Monday morning in Oklahoma City and learned he would not need surgery to repair a stress fracture.

“The doctor said my foot is healing on its own, is much stronger and getting better,” said Giddens, who will go to physical therapy three times a week the next several weeks while also using a stimulator on the foot. “The doctor said by the time I get to KU in a month and a half, I should be on the court full strength.”

Giddens was not looking forward to surgery.

“I called coach (Bill) Self today and was nervous, like giving a presentation in class before the whole school. I told him everything the doctor said and coach Self said that was fine. It was a big relief when I heard my foot was OK. There’s no guarantee I’d jump the same. Now I’ll jump even higher. Things are really looking up.”

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NBA can wait: KU fans shouldn’t panic over Giddens’ discussion about the NBA with the Yugoslavian player.

“I can’t say what would happen if I have a chance to go to the league early, but I will tell the fans my plan is to go to school four years and stay to earn a degree,” Giddens said. “My plan is to stay healthy, eat right, get my foot healthy and help KU win the national championship next year. I think we have a good chance of winning the national title.”

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