In Orlando Tryouts, The Son Also Shines
Younger Grunfeld Hopes to Give the NBA a Shot, but Not in Washington

By Ivan Carter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Dan Grunfeld tried other sports as a kid, he really did. He even went out for the soccer team as a sixth-grader. That experiment lasted one day.

"When the ball came to me, I caught it like I was going to shoot a jumper," Grunfeld said. "I don't quit things, but I stopped playing soccer. I only made it through one practice and was like: 'This is not for me.' "

Baseball? "They didn't call me Babe Ruth, put it that way," Grunfeld said. "Basketball was my thing."

Grunfeld, who recently graduated from Stanford and participated at the NBA pre-draft camp in Orlando last week, is the son of Washington Wizards President of Basketball Operations Ernie Grunfeld, so it should come as no surprise that he has always been drawn to hoops.

Ernie Grunfeld was a college star at Tennessee, where he once made the cover of Sports Illustrated with teammate Bernard King. He played with three teams during a nine-season NBA career that concluded in 1986 with the New York Knicks, and he is running his third NBA team after previous front-office stops with the Knicks and Milwaukee Bucks. Dan Grunfeld has been immersed in the game from the day he was born in 1984.

Grunfeld and his wife, Nancy, never pushed their son into basketball. They didn't have to. "He was always around it," said Grunfeld, who watched Dan play in Orlando last week along with representatives of every other NBA team. "He was at practices, he was around the locker room, he was at big playoff games. So basketball just came natural to him. He loves the game and he's worked hard to get where he is."

That would be on the verge of making an NBA roster.

Dan, a 6-foot-6, 220-pound shooting guard-small forward, averaged 12 points and 4.8 rebounds as a senior but was slowed because he was recovering from surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee he suffered 22 games into his junior season. At the time of the injury, Grunfeld was averaging 17.9 points on 50 percent shooting and was projected as a potential first-round draft pick.

A crafty player with an excellent shooting touch and solid defensive skills, Grunfeld wore a bulky knee brace that limited his mobility and explosion as a senior. He has steadily worked to get back to where he was before the injury.

As a junior, Grunfeld scored 20 or more points in eight games and gained national attention after scoring 29 points on 10-for-12 shooting in a victory over Arizona. That and summertime pick-up games with NBA stars such as Sam Cassell, Ray Allen and Gilbert Arenas convinced Grunfeld that he had a realistic shot at a professional career.

The knee injury has been a setback, though. Grunfeld played without the brace for the first time last week and showed no signs of favoring the knee.

"I feel like I'm getting back to where I was before I got hurt," said Grunfeld, who went through an arduous eight-month rehabilitation program. "My aggressiveness is coming back and I'm not thinking about the knee as much, I'm just playing my game. It takes time. People always say that that first year is the toughest part. I rehabbed very hard and it's feeling great."

Grunfeld had his moments in Orlando but struggled to fit into the disjointed, often sloppy style that is prevalent in such camps. He shot 31.8 percent from the field while averaging 6.6 points in three games.

"This is not an ideal setting for a player like him," said one Western Conference scout who saw Grunfeld play at Stanford. "At Stanford, he excelled in a system, cutting, moving without the ball, screening and playing off other players. Here, it's a lot of one-on-one. Guys, especially the guards, are looking for their own shot every time down the floor. Danny needs to be in a situation where he can use his skills as an all-around player. The important thing is that his knee looks good. That's the first thing teams want to see. You know he has good basketball instincts and you know that he can shoot the ball."

If he goes undrafted, Grunfeld will likely catch on with some team's summer league squad and then try to work his way onto a roster as an undrafted free agent. Guard Donell Taylor, who was undrafted out of the University of Alabama-Birmingham last June, used a strong summer league performance to catch on with the Wizards in the fall.

Grunfeld has worked out individually for three teams -- Golden State, Milwaukee and the Knicks -- and he has more workouts planned prior to the June 28 draft. One team Grunfeld won't visit is the Wizards.

"I asked him if he wanted to come in for a workout," Ernie said. "He said: 'Why would I work out for you? I live with you.' "

Ernie is clearly proud of his son's basketball talents but says he is most proud of the fact that Dan was a two-time academic all-American at Stanford and that he's bounced back from what could have been an emotionally crushing knee injury.

"He never complained and he never felt sorry for himself," Ernie said. "He just put in the work to come back and he's recovered very well."

Several front-office types and coaches who played with or against Ernie remarked on the uncanny resemblance between father and son during last week's pre-draft camp.

Watching Dan Grunfeld play while standing only a few feet away from his father, Boston Celtics Coach Doc Rivers remarked: "He looks exactly like the old man."

Dan has dealt with comparisons to his father his entire life and appears to be comfortable with everything that comes along with carrying his last name. However, Dan did his best to simply blend in at Orlando.

When a photographer prepared to take a photo of father and son, Dan was anxious to stay out of sight of other players and get the shot over with as quickly as possible.

"I just don't want to be that kid, you know?" Dan explained.

Milwaukee-Wisconsin forward Josh Tucker, who was a teammate of Dan's at Nicolet High School in Milwaukee, also worked out in Orlando and said: "What do you mean? You've always been that kid. You should be used to it."

Still, Dan said he's never felt any added pressure to live up to expectations.

"I try not to get caught up in that," he said. "My parents never pressured me to play basketball. My dad never pressured me to play. It was something I liked to do from an early age and that's what I did. My parents just support me like any other parents. Growing up with Grunfeld on the back of my jersey probably made some people look closer and scrutinize a few things a little closer but I never got caught up in that. I just love to play basketball."

However, Dan said he would prefer to pursue his professional dreams someplace other than Washington.

"It's like I told someone the other day, my dad sees enough of me," Dan said. "He's probably sick of me. Besides, he'd end up trading me or something, and my mom would trade him."

Wizards Note: The Wizards worked out three draft propects yesterday at Verizon Center. The group included guard Tony Skinn (George Mason), guard Carl Elliott (George Washington) and forward Akin Akingbala (Clemson).

Elliott, a junior last season, is an early-entry candidate and can withdraw his name and return to George Washington for his senior season as long as he does not hire an agent. The withdrawal deadline for underclassmen is Sunday. The Wizards hold the 18th and 48th selections in the June 28 draft.