<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">During the 76ers' preseason game against the New York Knicks on Tuesday night, Rick Brunson was not called for traveling. Moving around between dribbles is only what he's been doing for much of his professional career. Brunson is one of six guards the Sixers brought to training camp this year. At 34, the former Temple star is trying to win one of the final spots on the Sixers' regular-season roster ? a role to which he's grown rather accustomed. Temple's North Philly campus might only be a few miles from the Sixers' home at Broad at Pattison, but Brunson's route as an undrafted free agent has taken him to Australia ? where he played right out of school in 1995-96 ? to a pair of stops in the CBA to stints with eight other NBA teams. And even if the 6-foot-4 point guard is not on the roster when the Sixers open the season Nov. 1 against Atlanta at the Wachovia Center, he's grateful for the opportunity. ?It's a good opportunity for me,? he said just after the Sixers' 113-102 loss to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden in their penultimate preseason game. ?I'm just trying to come out and do my job, just do what I've been doing for the last 10 years.? With Allen Iverson (contused and sprained left hand) and Samuel Dalembert (hamstring) not making the trip to Manhattan, Brunson was given the chance to start by coach Maurice Cheeks. In 21 minutes, he dished out three assists, had a pair of steals and missed two shots. ?You have to give guys a chance to get out on the game floor,? Cheeks said before the game. ?Sometimes it's tough. But I think what I've tried to do is maybe not play a guy one game and then play a couple guys the next game. With Allen being out, you get another opportunity to play a couple other guys. ?I don't want to put him in tough situations, like, when the game is out of hand you put him in, or have him (sit) the whole time and then put him in in the fourth quarter. I've tried not to do that ? I've tried to give him a legitimate chance of actually playing.? Brunson has not spent more than two seasons in any one place during a career in which he's averaged just 3.9 points and 2.6 assists. He figures to be battling rookie forwards Ivan McFarlin and Steven Smith for the final one or two roster spots, but what he has that they lack is veteran experience. Just five of the Sixers' 16 training camp players have logged more than five years of NBA service. Even if Brunson's future status remains uncertain, he knows for sure that he's been blessed to have played a game ? and earned such a handsome living doing it ? for all these years. ?It's a job,? he said. ?It's something I wanted to do. I'm young. You can only do this for 10 or 12 years and then you start a new career. You make a lot of money ? the average salary in Philly is $32,000. I think people will be sick if I said it was difficult to move around and get paid to play a lot of money to play basketball. I love it.? </div> Link
I think we may be actually keeping Brunson, since it seems that Lou Will is gonna be in the NBDL for a lil bit.
