<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Brandon Rush isn?t in high school anymore. Gone are the zit-faced scrubs he could cram on with little effort. In their place are grown men who have played major-college basketball, guys such as Illinois? Dee Brown and Arizona?s Salim Stoudamire. Guys who squared up against players much better than Rush. And it?s all in front of NBA general managers and coaches. See the blond guy in the black shirt? That?s Larry Bird. The flattop with the striped polo, gabbing on his cell phone? Chris Mullin. The older guy sitting courtside with the wavy gray hair? That?s Jerry Sloan. Out there, on the court in the No. 26 jersey, Rush is struggling in front of all of them. He air-balls a jumper, turns the ball over in transition, misses consecutive jumpers and comes up empty on two gimme layups. This is not good. ?It?s so fast,? Rush says. ?It?s different. Way more different than high school. I see how fast everybody is going, how different it is. I knew I had to try to stay up with them.? Rush graduated this spring from Mount Zion Christian Academy in Durham, N.C., and has scholarship offers from Oklahoma and Illinois. His older brother, Kareem, promised to pay the tuition if Brandon decides on Missouri ? which will gladly take him but does not have a scholarship to give. Rush says he?s qualified academically to play in college, but that hasn?t stopped him from taking a look at the NBA. Rush is seeing firsthand what his future may be this week, as one of 62 hopefuls at the NBA?s predraft camp. It is being held at Moody Bible Institute, five minutes from the Wyndham Hotel (where the players are staying), and 3 miles from the United Center (where they all hope to play next season). The best players, the ones sure to be selected in the June 28 draft?s lottery, show up only to take physicals and be measured. Everybody else here is dogged by a question mark, a persistent dis to his game. The one on Rush is that he doesn?t always play hard, especially on defense. That?s why most mock drafts have him going in the mid-to-late second round, if at all. That might change if Rush continues to improve. After struggling through the first day?s live sessions, Rush scored 12 points in 18 minutes of a scrimmage Wednesday. ?That?s the reason I?m here,? Rush says. ?To prove that I play hard. It?s just that high school ball is kind of easy so I ?laxed up sometimes.?</div> Source
