flickr/Roadsidepictures

flickr/Roadsidepictures

Well, by the time I posted ‘Knowing The Wizards ‘09 Summer League Team: Part 1‘ on Sunday, covering James Lang, Alex Ruoff, Jimmy Baron and John Edwards, Lang was cut (this made the DC Sports Bog especially sad). On Monday, both Ruoff and Baron were cut.

Sorry guys, guess it wasn’t in the cards or blogs.

Last night after the practice, the team began their journey to Vegas, and will play Cleveland’s summer league squad today at 6:30 pm EST. For a reminder on summer league rules, check out the Washington Wizards Blog.

Both Bullets Forever and Ridiculous Upside previously posted some quick facts about the players on the summer league roster, but I wanted to dive a bit deeper, not only to find out what type of player each is, but also what composes their background.

Today, I’ll be covering Alade Aminu, Kyle Spain, Tyrese Rice, and Josh Heytvelt.

But First …

Bits O’ News:

Summer League Players:

Alade Aminu (First Name Rhymes With Holiday)

[6'10" forward - Georgia Tech, 4 years]

  • Played for the U.S. All-Stars in Baltimore’s Charm City Challenge and led the team with 19 points and 13 rebounds.
  • Went to Stephenson High School in Stone Mountain, GA where he was a state triple-jump champion.
  • His father is of Nigerian decent.
  • Will turn 22 on September 14th and shares a birthday with the cracked out Amy Winehouse, rapper Nas, the president of Russia, the Tyler Perry who is all over TBS, etc., Mike Nifong (the infamous D.A. from the Duke lacrosse case), and Bobcats coach Larry Brown.
  • Participated in the 2005 Global Games in Dallas.
  • In 2005, he said the person (dead or alive) he’d most like to meet would be Kevin Garnett.
  • Twitters @Aminu_44
  • Told Draft Express that he “can be a Chris Anderson type of guy.”
  • Started a non-profit organization in March 2008 with his brother, who plays for Wake Forest, called Brotherhood of the World. Their mission statement begins: Our mission is to tap into the generous spirit of athletes and other caring individuals by developing opportunities to give back to the community; through a volunteer program specifically focused on underprivileged youths and children.”
  • His organization has worked with both T.I. and Usher. Click to catch an interview with him on a GT Sports Talk Radio show.
  • Alade and his brother Al- Farouq are just the second set of brothers to play on opposing ACC team in conference history. When Georgia Tech and Wake Forest played in January, Alade and the Yellow Jackets prevailed. In that game, Alade had a career high six blocks.
  • Alade on Tyler Hansbrough after the Tar Heel became the NCAA career leader for FTs made: “You can’t touch him. You can’t even do anything. If you touch him, it’s a foul.”
  • Led his team to the championship in the Portsmouth Invitational scoring 21 points, pulling six rebounds, and blocking five shots.

Kyle Spain (Not Spanish)

[6'5" small forward - San Diego State, 4 years]

  • Catch and shoot player who does a range of things well, but nothing great.
  • Named second team all MWC, 23rd player in SDSU history to score more than 1,000 points.
  • Named Most Outstanding Player of the ’08 Great Alaska Shootout.
  • He turned 22 on January 5th and shares a birthday with Warrick Dunn, Marilyn Manson, Alex English, Walter Mondale, Robert Duvall, and Diane Keaton.
  • He played at Newark Memorial High School in the Bay Area in California.
  • At Newark, he teamed with DeVon Hardin, former Cal player and 2008 Seattle Sonics 2nd round draft pick.
  • Spain was suspended twice in his first three seasons with the Aztecs for marijuana violations.
  • Even though SDSU was a ‘Nike’ team, evidently Spain decided to wear Converse at some point.
  • Scored a career high 30 points in a late January ’09 game against New Mexico.
  • Was the leading scorer, rebounder, 3P% shooter, and FT% shooter on an Aztecs team that set a school record for wins in a season (26-10) and made it to Madison Square Garden for the NIT semifinals, losing to Baylor.
  • Spain was coached by famed ‘Fab Five’ coach Steve Fisher at SDSU, but claimed to have never heard of the quintet from Michigan, saying, “I didn’t associate [Coach Fisher] with the Fab Five at all. That’s because I had never heard of the Fab Five. I was too young.”

Tyrese Rice (A Little Scoring Punch)

[6'0" point guard - Boston College, 4 years]

  • Turned 22 on May 15th and shares a birthday with Don Nelson, Ray Lewis, Desmond Howard, Ryan Leaf, John Smoltz, and George Brett.
  • Compared to Mo Williams on NBADraft.net
  • He’s quick, a scorer (but a streaky shooter), and has a decent court sense. But he’s small, not that athletic, and tends to over-dribble.
  • His mother played for North Carolina A&T … he was born before her senior year in ’87, and thus, her collegiate playing career was over. His grandmother also played basketball, once scoring 72 points in a high school game.
  • His father played at Livingston College, but was not involved in his life. At 19 in January of ’06, Tyrese had his own son and looks to be the father to him that his own father never was.
  • He grew up in Salisbury, NC and moved to Richmond, VA at age 10.
  • The three previous bullet points came from this story: ‘On the ball: BC’s Rice takes basketball – and fatherhood – seriously’ – The Boston Globe
  • Rice attended L.E. Bird High School in Chesterfield, VA.
  • He holds the VA state record for threes made with 314.
  • He was the ’04-05 AP Virginia Co-Player of the Year (with Calvin Baker of Woodside), and the Richmond Times-Dispatch POY.
  • Rice wasn’t heavily recruited during high school, so his coach scheduled a game against Kevin Durant and Oak Hill Academy – Rice made himself known by scoring 30 points in the game, but Oak Hill won 94-69 led by Durant’s 23, Ty Lawson’s 23, Jamont Gordon’s 17, Anthony Wright’s 11, and Eric Devendorf’s 11.
  • Rice ended up choosing Boston College over Wake Forest (he also drew interest from East Carolina, Maryland and Arizona, but was not offered scholarships by UVA or VaTech).
  • During his junior year at Boston College, Rice scored a career high 46 points against North Carolina, second most in Eagles history. He scored 34 points in the first half as BC built an 18 point lead, but North Carolina came back in the second half to win 90-80.
  • He attended the Steve Nash Skills Academy after his junior year in college.
  • Rice led all scorers with 24 points in the NBCA college all-star game.
  • He previously worked out for the Wizards, you can check his post-workout chat with the media at Hoops Addict.
  • Hoops Addict also has an interview with Rice at the Wizards’ mini-camp.

Josh Heytvelt (Means ‘Big White Shooter’ in Caucasian)

[6'10" power forward - Gonzaga, 4 years]

  • Turned 23 on June 26th, the day after the NBA draft. He probably didn’t do much celebrating since he didn’t get drafted, but shares a birthday with Deron Williams, Raymond Felton, J.J. Barea (aka Jub-Jub), Jerome Kersey, Walter Herrmann, Elijah “You Dead Dog” Dukes, Michael “Isn’t This Ironic When Considering The Previous Guy” Vick, Chad Pennington, and Abner Doubleday.
  • When he was 16 while playing for the Seattle Rotary Select team, Heytvelt was at the center of recruiting violations committed by University of Washington assistant Cameron Dollar. Dollar made around 20 improper calls, contactingHeytvelt months before he was allowed to do so by the NCAA. UW ended up going on probation for two years (but not a post-season ban) and lost scholarships.
  • Before his senior year in high school, Heytvelt chose Gonzaga over Arizona, Kansas, Oregon, Washington State and Washington.
  • He was Washington’s high school class 3A player of the year.
  • His first college game came against Maryland in the EA Sports Maui Invitational.
  • Was caught with weed and “magic” mushrooms with Zags teammate Theo Davis in February 2007. He was charged with a felony, eventually entered a plea agreement (he actually did 60 more hours of community service than he was supposed to), and was reinstated to the team in October 2007.
  • The bust happened 17 hours before a game.
  • Most of his community service time was spent working at the Ronald McDonald House.
  • NBADraft.net compared Heytvelt to Elden Campbell or Scott Pollard.
  • Heytvelt said in an interview with Draft Express that people have compared him to Brad Miller and Mehmet Okur.
  • He started training in D.C. at the end of April along with Greivis Vasquez; his basketball workouts have been led by David Atkins and lifting by Alan Stein.
  • He has a tattoo that says, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.”

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