Undrafted Josh Heytvelt Seeks Fresh Start With Wizards' Summer League Team

LAS VEGAS, July 14 -- The past three years of his life have been stuffed so full with drama that Josh Heytvelt says he can't remember his thoughts about the NBA when he was a sophomore star at Gonzaga. Others have less trouble looking backward.

"Two years ago," Wizards Coach Flip Saunders said, "he might have been a lottery pick."

Instead, Heytvelt spent his time in Spokane navigating through an NBA career worth of story lines. The broken ankle in 2005. The arrest for drug possession and subsequent suspension in the winter of 2007. The painstaking reinstatement process the following fall, which was then derailed by surgery for a broken foot.

The plot twists finally ended for the 6-foot-11 forward during his senior year, when he averaged 14.9 points and 6.5 rebounds, helped the Bulldogs win two NCAA tournament games and earned pre-draft workouts with 16 NBA teams, more than half the league. Then last month's draft came and went without his name being called, and Heytvelt was left sifting through NBA Summer League invitations.

He decided to join the Wizards, based on their front-court deficiencies, and made his NBA Summer League debut Tuesday night as something of an afterthought in a gym filled with lottery picks. After Washington veteran Andray Blatche dressed and started, Heytvelt was limited to nine minutes in Washington's 96-93 win over Cleveland.

"It makes me mad at myself more than anything," Heytvelt said of his odyssey. "You know, it wasn't anybody else's fault. If I didn't make some stupid decisions and didn't do what I was doing, then maybe my life would be a little different right now. I have no idea. But things happen for a reason."

Heytvelt was averaging more than 15 points and seven rebounds per game when he and a teammate were picked up by police in February of 2007. Heytvelt was charged with felony possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms and then faced a barrage of legal and team-imposed sanctions; Gonzaga Coach Mark Few's requirements for reinstatement included a prohibition on even seeing his former friends, while his diversion program required 240 hours of community service. He performed nearly 300, much of it with terminally ill children at a Ronald McDonald House, and said the experience made him reassess his life.

"Obviously the first month I was being scared and mad and all those emotions all mixed together. I didn't know what I was gonna do or what was gonna happen," he said. "Then after going through the process for a while, I just kind of saw how unfortunate some people had it, how unfortunate their lives were. That kind of helped me see how I was making all my choices. Some of the people, their lives were just set up that way, and they had no choice about it."

After teammates voted to accept him back, and after a rocky junior year disturbed by the nagging foot injury, Heytvelt's prospects revived this year. Teammates and coaches told reporters that the big man with the outside shooting touch was more engaged with his team and more focused on basketball, and fans offered their support.

He was told he was a likely end-of-the-first-round or beginning-of-the-second-round selection, and Saunders said the Wizards projected Heytvelt as a late first-rounder. But that round was filled with several surprises and a run on international players, and Heytvelt dropped all the way out of the draft.

"It was frustrating, but stuff happens," the 23-year old said. "So I just have to impress [the Wizards] and play as hard as I can, and hopefully they'll have good news for me."

In truth, he may be auditioning for other league coaches and executives this week as much as he is trying out for the Wizards. The team has two open roster spots and a glaring need for front-court help with only four big men on the roster, but Washington's pressure to win now will likely have them looking for a physical veteran more than an unproven rookie.

"Josh is a guy that is very skilled offensively," Saunders said. "I think his [challenge] is gonna be showing he's got a physical presence . . . because he's got very good ball skills, he knows how to play, can pass the basketball, is very skilled. So I think more than anything else, it's just his physicality is something he's gonna have to prove."

So while fans focus on the quartet of Wizards under contract who are playing here this week, Heytvelt -- who said he doesn't even want to think about a career in Europe -- is trying to turn what once seemed like a sure-fire professional career into reality.

"I think I have a good enough skill set and I think I can help out a team enough that I can stay" in the NBA, he said. "If I go out there and play like crap, there's no way I'm gonna make a team, but if I go out there and play really well, I have a chance."

Wizards Note: The Summer League limits the number of veterans on each team, so Blatche's appearance meant Dominic McGuire watched the game in street clothes. McGuire is expected to play this evening against the Denver Nuggets. Nick Young led the Wizards with 36 points on 13-of-19 shooting. Blatche added 21 points and 10 rebounds.