GLORY BALL
Roger Powell Jr. made a short tour through the CBA. His lessons learned and his positive message are a hopeful
sign that the 'bad boy' days of the NBA are changing.
Todd MISHLER
MLNSportsZone.com
ROCKFORD, Ill. - Roger Powell learned most of his lessons from his father, both about athletics, and about life.
None proved more valuable than when Roger Powell Sr. fed his son to the proverbial basketball wolves at a young age.
“My father was a really good player at Illinois State, so I grew up playing and being around the game,” said Powell, a Joliet native. “It was around the time I had started junior high school, and Dad took me up to Chicago to play with the inner-city kids. They ran circles around me. I became determined to get better and wanted to compete against those guys, so I started jumping rope and working hard. I went to the YMCA and played against older kids. That’s when I became dedicated and focused on basketball.”
The sport has become a passion for Powell, who went on to stellar careers at Joliet High School and the University of Illinois, where he and the Fighting Illini reached the NCAA Division I championship game last spring, falling to North Carolina, 75-70.
It wasn’t quite stellar enough of a career to rate the rarified air of the NBA Draft. Last year, the 22-year-old Powell played for the now-defunct Rockford Lightning of the Continental Basketball Association, one step away from his ultimate dream: reaching the NBA. Today, he plays for the Utah Jazz.
His quick tour through the minors wasn’t hard to factor. The 6-foot-7-inch, 225-pounder made the CBA’s All-Star game in his rookie season, scoring 11 points in the Eastern Conference’s 119-110 defeat.
Powell was a major reason why Rockford won 24 of its first 32 outings...
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