Local basketball camp aims to help NBA hopefuls
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Darius Johnson-Odom had a dream job out of college - playing with, rather than against, Kobe Bryant.
"Kobe always told me, you know, just stay on time. I was late to a bus meeting that we had before a game, and it didn't turn out too well with Kobe," he laughed.
After competing in high school and prep ball in North Carolina, Darius played one season at the JUCO level for Hutchinson Community College and then excelled at the Division I level at Marquette University for three seasons. Johnson-Odom was selected 55th overall in the 2012 NBA Draft by the Dallas Mavericks and was immediately traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he spent a season with the team.
Then reality set in.
"Things have been going up-and-down since, but I'm still a professional basketball player," Johnson-Odom said. "Everything we do professional-wise - it don't matter what it is - it's going to be a business at the end of the day. You just gotta know how to control that and help you."
Like many players in his position, Johnson-Odom has played basketball overseas, and now he hopes to regain his foothold back into the league through opportunities like the Tobacco Road Exposure Camp.
The first-time Raleigh event took place at the JD Lewis Center and was the brainchild of camp director Wade Harris.
"I hope that someone from this camp actually gets an opportunity to get signed and to go play somewhere," Harris said.
The concept came to him after traveling cross-country for similar events, but he wanted this camp to have a different feel for the players.
"A lot of times players go to camps, and they're intimidated to go up and talk to a D-league coach or an NBA guy," he said. "So we wanted to make the coaches and scouts available to the players because the day is about them. It's not about anybody else. It's all about the players and helping them realize their dreams.
Resources on hand for these NBA hopefuls included putting together a bio and game footage, as well as educating these players about certain professional pitfalls, like agents and finances.
"Everybody wants the money," Johnson-Odom said. "You have to keep your eye on that and then worry about basketball, then you have family - people are gonna want money from you as well, and sometimes you just gotta be able to say no. That was one of the hardest things for me."
"Athletes need to know how to take care of their money once they become professionals," Harris said. "We think that it's a missing area, and we want to be able to provide that in a camp like this."
For the sixty players that participated in the Exposure camp, the competition was tough, but Harris hopes that they can learn a bigger lesson from it all.
"I tell players, 'you gotta get better every single day. We have off days, but we don't take days off.'"
