Austin Linton Obituary

I like to tell people I was a child prodigy while I played varsity soccer at Wesleyan. When I turned pro, people thought I must have lost a few weeks due to injury. My father is still proud. But back in high school, I had to start from scratch. I wanted to be the best. I was sent to a good academy in Mississippi, and for seven years, I grew a lot, but it was a very difficult transition for me.

By the time I got there, I was not the same player I was before. With a free pass, I had the talent to be the next Michael Jordan or LeBron James, but I wasn't confident enough in my own ability to shoot free throws or play defense. I had a shot but could never get it down consistently and my jump shots were in bad shape. I didn't like college basketball because every team was copying each other, so I was always changing but never really getting what I was shooting for. So when I finally found that I was a star—or at least a talented big man—and I moved on to the NBA, I still didn't feel like I was in a bubble. Everyone was trying to be like the other guys—big men who stood in front of the big-bodied guards and defenders like Mike Bibby, Ron Harper, and Shabazz Napier. I knew I could play well, but it wasn't in me. I wanted to get there but I kept thinking, "When am I going to get my shot." Instead, I was trying to do too much as an NBA power forward, one of the best players I ever played against.

Memphis Grizzlies forward Jason Kidd (50) battles with Golden State Warriors forward Metta World Peace (37) during the first half of Game Five of the first-round NBA basketball series that will air Sunday, June 3, 2006, in Oakland, Calif. Photo: Michael Short/NBAE via Getty Images

Over the last five years I've played in a variety of leagues and sometimes on the same team for about five years, but I still look at the Portland Trail Blazers when I think back on my senior year of high school. It was 1993 and I had been drafted number three by the Boston Celtics.