As dozens of basketballs bounced simultaneously Monday afternoon at Free State High School, the youngsters involved in the drills didn’t seem to notice the 6-foot-10 Kansas University basketball legend making his way around the hardwood.
This was the first day of Danny Manning Basketball Camp, but the two-time NBA All-Star and current KU assistant coach walked amongst the campers without turning many heads or dropping any jaws.
When Manning stopped to coach players, they weren’t star-struck. They responded to Manning as a coach or mentor they could relate to and look up to.
“I think a lot of them just see me as Danny,” Manning said.
That reaction might come because the kids are too young to know the scope of Manning’s basketball background, but Manning said it was also because Lawrence is his home and he sees a lot of the kids around town at camps, games, church or even the grocery store.
Mike Born, camp director, has been working at Manning’s camps in some capacity for years, and he said the former 15-year NBA veteran used to get different reactions from the kids who frequented his camps.
“When Danny was in the NBA it was more like a superstar environment,” Born, the Portland Trailblazers’ director of NBA scouting, recalled.
“He’s out here teaching these kids to play basketball … So it doesn’t feel like he’s Danny Manning, the NBA All-Star, or Danny Manning, the assistant (coach) at Kansas,” Born explained.
“I think now that he’s back in Lawrence it’s more about the fact that Danny runs a really good basketball camp. It’s not so much that they’re in awe, because a lot of these kid have been to Danny’s camp before. You get an appreciation for him and he’s just a really good person,” Born said. “It’s not like he’s coming in to visit or has got this superstar awe about him.”
Manning was personable with campers throughout the day. During the afternoon session, he attended to one player who jammed his finger during a scrimmage and accompanied him to a trainer in the neighboring gym.
That’s where Manning’s fathering skills take over.
“I have children of my own, and I’ve always been involved with their activities,” he said, adding that the experience helps him to work well with kids.
Born said Manning sometimes approached his camping duties as he would his fatherly ones.
“He’s on them, he’ll be disciplined with them,” Born said. “And yet he’s out there making sure they’re having a good time.”
Manning did that by jostling with kids who were working on their balance and footwork, joking around with campers and making his way from station to station in Free State’s two basketball gyms, making sure no campers felt left out.
When one camper took his camp T-shirt off after a scrimmage, Manning yelled to the wiry youngster, “Cover that bird chest up,” and the two exchanged a laugh.
But it wasn’t just fun and games at the camp. Campers were learning a lot in the process. One of the older groups (the camp is for second- through eighth-graders) even learned some high-post offensive sets and executed them in a scrimmage.
“I enjoy getting out and teaching and sharing,” Manning said. “We’ll try to put down a good fundamental base – a good foundation for the game – teach them to play hard, to try and to pay attention. Those are probably the biggest things. If you try and you pay attention, you’re going to have good character, and it’s also going to help you in your everyday life.”
Manning got to practice his coachspeak as he observed scrimmages at the end of the day.
“Play some ‘D!’ Get big,” he yelled to one group of kids who came up to his waistline, before spreading his arms wide to demonstrate, showing off his massive wingspan.
“Hustle back,” he told another team, pointing to the frontcourt. “Don’t walk.”
At the end of the day (the first in the five-day camp), Manning echoed that bit of advice to the entire group. He told them not to think about mistakes and always sprint back on defense.
“The next thing you know, the other team’s going the other way and your man’s scoring a layup,” he said of the consequences to not hustling.
Manning, who joined KU coach Bill Self’s staff as an assistant this March after serving four years as director of student-athlete development, said he approached coaching his campers as he would a player on the Jayhawk roster.
“The foundation is always the same: fundamentals. And then you build from there,” he said. “Depending on the speed that they pick up and understand, then you can advance the learning process.”
Though he said he doesn’t know what his long-term coaching plans are, Manning said he has enjoyed his time on Self’s staff and his recent promotion to assistant coach.
“It’s fun. I enjoy it. It’s basically the same,” Manning said of the new position. “I try to help the young student-athletes.”
He said he does that by lending an ear to players when they drop by the basketball office and talking with them about whatever is on their minds.
“We’re all Jayhawks,” Manning said. “That’s how we look at it, and that’s how we’ve always looked at it. We all have a great sense of pride, whether you’re a former player or alumni of the university. We always want what’s best for each individual player and the university.”
Manning also wants the best for the 200-plus campers attending his camp this week, even if they aren’t completely familiar with his body of work.
