“The biggest thing was, he wanted out of there,” Bill Staten said of his son. “I would never force a kid to do anything. If I did, he would resent me for the rest of his life.
“It’s easy to have a scapegoat, but that (perception) couldn’t be further from the truth. Did I get too involved in my son? I’ve been involved since he was little. Yeah, maybe I’m too involved. But with the system here, he was unhappy. What else are you supposed to do?”
Bill Staten believes he was duped by Gregory during the recruiting process and contends his son was misled, too.
“Juwan trusted him. I trusted him,” Bill Staten said. “But once he showed me this year ... he played on his words. He’d say, ‘We’re going to get the ball in your hands and do this and do that.’ He didn’t say, ‘We’re going to get the ball in your hands, but you’re going to pass it every time.’ ”
Bill Staten expected Juwan to be the lead guard of a free-wheeling offense — to run, shoot, drive or pass as he saw fit — and believes his son was never given the chance to flourish in Gregory’s structured system.
“I’m not tearing anyone down. Those (coaches) are quality men. They have to do what they feel is best. But I couldn’t live with myself to sit there and watch that boy’s talent wasted,” Bill Staten said.
“I let my son commit (to UD) at the age of 15 because that’s what he wanted to do. I thought he should give it more time to see what’s out there for him. But I let him commit at the age of 15. Does that sound like a controlling dad?
“Nobody wanted it to end like this. But when you recruit better kids, you’ve got to adjust your philosophy to fit the kids you’ve got there. But it was, ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that.’ You start saying to yourself, ‘What am I?’
“You look at programs that have talent like Juwan, and they let them play. A lot of those teams are in the NCAA tournament.”
The UD system actually would seem to be ideal for the younger Staten, who was known as “The Blur” during his high school career. But Gregory often had to hound the point guard to push the ball up-court before the Flyers became stuck in a half-court game (not their forte).
“The pace we play at and the spacing and athletic ability — in terms of attacking off the dribble and attacking the basket — has been well-documented. That’s a fun way to play. And it’s also a hard way to play,” Gregory said.
“You’ve got to run every possession, got to push every possession and have some athletic skill to make plays off the dribble at times. With freshmen, that transition of doing it at this level is not always easy. When things aren’t easy as freshmen, there’s a frustration level that comes into play.”
Bill Staten wasn’t always pleased with his son’s previous coaches, either. Asked if he’s liked the way any have handled Juwan, he mentioned AAU coach Quentin Rogers.
“In three years, we had no problem. BG ... well, I’m not going into that. It is what it is. I think they know a lot, but I don’t think they know it all. A lot of things are just common sense,” he said.
Juwan played last season at legendary Oak Hill Academy, whose coach, Steve Smith, has produced numerous NBA point guards. And like at UD, Staten felt his talents weren’t being maximized.
“Juwan came in concerned once and said he could do more,” Smith said. “Basically, it was after we lost a game. We had been 18-0. Everything is fine when you’re winning. After the loss, he felt he could do more to help us win.”
“But I’m an old-fashioned guy, too. I look at the point guard as someone who makes players around him better, makes the team go. You usually don’t build a team around the point guard unless it’s Jimmer Fredette. And there’s not very many of them.”
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