Tomorrow Aaron Gray will conduct his one and only private workout.
Gray, accompanied by his father, Mike, and coach, Jamie Dixon, was scheduled to fly to Orlando, Fla., today and will join three other college players in a private workout Thursday for interested NBA clubs at the league’s annual Pre-Draft Camp in nearby Lake Buena Vista.
“It’s only going to be one workout session,” Dixon said Tuesday. “The NBA said they’d make all the teams aware of it. Aaron is paying his own way because he’s not part of the camp.”
3 other players will be taking part in the workout.
Pitt coach Jamie Dixon will accompany Gray to Orlando and will watch the workout. Because Gray is conducting a private workout separate from the Orlando predraft camp, he must pay for all expenses incurred during his trip under NCAA rules.
Gray will be one of four NBA hopefuls at the workout. The others are Corey Belser of San Diego, Jeff Horner of Iowa and Fran Steyn, a 7-foot-2 center formerly of Oklahoma State.
Those 3 are all Seniors, and if it’s a private workout, I guess they and/or their agents share in the cost.
Krauser will be in Orlando playing in the scrimmages and fully taking part in the camp.
Krauser, listed as the No. 91 player in this year’s draft class by ESPN.com, took part in the predraft camp last year in Chicago and was advised by NBA personnel to return for his senior season at Pitt.
“He’s definitely a better player now than he was last year at this time,” Dixon said. “I’m hearing the same thing from NBA people when I get feedback on Carl. I’m talking with NBA people almost every day. I heard he played very well in Boston and L.A. And I anticipate he’ll play well in Orlando, too.”
It seems that in addition to workouts with the Celtics and Raptors, Krauser has worked out for the LA Lakers.
Coach Dixon must be on a tight schedule. After the Thursday workout, he’s going to have to fly out to Hawaii. Not to mention still work in officially announcing the hiring of Mike Rice.
There has been some wondering what Dixon is doing with all this support of Gray.
Well there’s the “protecting the investment” argument. Dixon knows more than we do about Gray’s feelings about the draft. While the mock drafts and pundits make it seem like an inevitability that Gray will stay in the draft, because it doesn’t seem likely that his draft status will vary much from this year to next. That he will still be a mid- to late-first rounder. Maybe that isn’t so and Gray and his family are genuinely torn on the whole thing. So Dixon is there to both be a reminder of coming back to college and making sure Gray and his family don’t inadvertently do anything to eff up his ability to return to Pitt.
Another perspective is that Dixon is engaged in a fringe part of the kabuki dance of recruiting — or whatever other tortured analogy you want to use — demonstrating his support of one of his player’s dreams. He can go to blue-chip recruits with NBA aspirations and point to this as a tangible example of the way he will stand by their long-term decisions and do what he can to help them realize their dreams even during the off-season.
Finally, there’s this. It’s who Dixon is. Unwavering in his support and standing by his players like they are family. That when he makes that kind of pitch to kids when he recruits them, he means it.
Much the way he kept the solid support of Krauser all of last summer while Krauser debated, hemmed and hawed about the NBA draft and then going overseas. Dixon stood by and offered support to Krauser no matter what he decided while the rest of us gnashed our teeth demanded an answer or wanted to say “farewell” to Krauser, rather than being forced to wait on his decision about the rest of his life.
Ultimately, it is probably some combination of all three factors.
