As the 2013 UOSL draft came to a close last night, the Miami Heat were still estatic because of their additions of J-Mychal Reese and LaBryan Nash. J-Mychal Reese of Texas A&M has been considered the best prospect to come into the draft since LeBron James. J-Mychal's impact during his stay at Texas A&M made fans literallyforget about their previous big time recruit DeAndre Jordan. Many compare Reese to former University of Texas star Kevin Durant and there is good reason for that.The two met during Durant's freshman year at Texas and Reese has literally followed him ever since. That changed when J-Mychal chose to attend Texas A&M over the University of Texas. Rumors spread that J-Mychal's father and AAU coaches forced him to sign with Texas A&M so that he would not be overshadowed by his mentor Durant. Those rumors were quickly put to an end though, Reese was quoted during his press conference when he was announcing his commitment saying, "I chose A&M because that is where I felt the most comfortable, my hometown of Bryan is only five miles away."
J-Mychal dominated against everyone he faced in college but there was one player that seemed to always get the best of him. That player is LaBryan Nash of the University of Texas who is from Dallas and had rivaled Reese in AAU and in several high school contests before their arrival in college. Their meetings on the court were epic and will go down as some of the most memorable moments in college basketball history. Earlier this year, the two lead their respective teams deep into the NCAA tournament which led to a meeting in the elite eight. The Aggies were the heavy favorite to take it all due to just the presence of J-Mychal Reese but K.C. Ross-Miller and the Longhorns would not go down without a fight. The Longhorns willed their way to the elite eight without their leader LaBryan Nash who was still rehabbing the leg he broke earlier in the year. But without Nash the Longhorns would not have a chance,
J-Mychal Reese by himself destroyed Texas in the Big 12 Tournament when he went off for 43 points, 17 rebounds, 10 assists, and 10 blocks in their last meeting while Nash was sidelined.
Finally, the night of the game had arrived and everyone felt as if the sun had set on the Longhorns. Their leader LaBryan Nash was considered doubtful and without him it would take nothing short of a miracle to stay in the game with the goliath J-Mychal Reese leading the Aggies. Pulling off that miracle proved to be pretty much impossible now. It seemed as if the life of the Longhorn faithful had been taken right out of them. Nash could not stand to see the disappointment of the fans as he sat on the bench in a suit as his teammates began warmups. He felt he was ready to go the day before but doctors recomended before the game that Nash not play. His coach Rick Barnes even recomended that he not play and possibly risk furthur injury. As the game got under way it was clear that J-Mychal Reese was going to have his way against the Longhorns as the Aggies carried a 20 point lead only ten minutes into thecontest. By this time LaBryan Nash was reduced to tears, his hands trying to hide the tears that seemed to endlessly flow. He rose from the bench and many fans felt as if thier leader could not bear to see the Longhorns take such a beating.
As the seconds passed the A&M lead seemed to never get any less. The Longhorns were now trailing by 30 points with six minutes left in the first half. At this time Texas had called a timeout in the hopes of slowing down the momentum of the Aggies. The light at the end of the tunnel had already gone out long ago and Rick Barnes just wanted his team to at least make the game respectable. Little did anyone know that a ray of light had just now come out from the Longhorn locker room. LaBryan Nash was now on his way to the floor to rally his team mates. When he came jogging out of the tunnel the Longhorn faithful instatly went wild. It was probably not enough too late but just having their leader on the floor was enough to give everyone the slightest bit of hope. With J-Mychal Reese resting for the rest of the half the Longhorns were able to cut the lead down to 14 led by the inspiration brought by Nash. The question now was if the Longhorns could overcome being down by 14 points with J-Mychal Reese in the lineup.
The second half was underway and the Aggies and Longhorns literally switched baskets for almost five mintues with the Longhorns cutting the lead to only 10 points five minutes into the second half. This now looked to be a contest now that J-Mychal Reese could not impose his will every time down the floor. As each minuted passed seemed as if Texas was getting one point closer to catching the Aggies. LaBryan Nash's stregnth in the post was too much for J-Mychal Reese to handle one on one leaving K.C. Ross-Miller open for several three pointers to bring the lead to only four points with a few minutes left. This was now a real contest and it would only be a matter of time to see if J-Mychal Reese could once again take over the game like he did in the first half. This time though the Texas defense, now anchored by Nash was able to swarm Reese resulting in a jump ball that gave posession to Texas.
K.C. Ross-Miller was then fouled as he drove to the basket and the layup went in. This was now a one-point game as Ross-Miller hit the free throw with 40 seconds left. The ball was now in the hands of J-Mychal Reese to make the A&M lead at least three points. He let the shot clock run to eight secounds and then started to go to work.
As he drove through the lane with Nash by his side K.C. Ross-Miller unexpectedly swiped the ball away from Reese who was focused on taking the ball to the rack himself.
As the final seconds ticked off the clock everyone expected the ball to be put in the hands of LaBryan Nash in the post against J-Mychal Reese but K.C. Ross-Miller stillretained the ball. With five seconds left he finally made his move, driving through the paint right into the path of J-Mychal Reese who was ready reject Ross-Miller's shot attempt but leaving LaBryan Nash open on the block. At the very last moment,
the ball was dished to Nash for the slam and sending the University of Texas to the Final Four and completing probably the most memorable comeback in college basketball history. Everyone was going wild, Dick Vitale like always was going nuts, "This is awsome baby! Even Willis Reid would be impressed with this comeback! I have never seen anything like this baby!"
After several epic battles like that the thrill of getting both players was just amazing. Executives knew that they would get J-Mychal Reese but injury concern with LaBryan Nash caused him to slip on draft boards all the way to the 22nd pick. Many felt that before the season Nash would be a lock to be a mid lottery pick at least. Little did the Miami Heat know that their excitement would soon come to an abrupt end. As the two players were being brought to Miami, J-Mychal Reese and his people
were in the works of a plan so that J-Mychal would never suit up with the Miami Heat. LaBryan Nash had already signed with Miami and Reese's people could not put up with this. Ever since their AAU days Reese and his people had a feud with Nash that was covered up very well by Sonny Vocarro and Reebok to protect their high school eligibility. This feud started when J-Mychal's father tried to recruit LaBryan Nash to his son's high school and AAU team wen the boys were fourteen. It is alleged
that J-Mychal's father offered LaBryan Nash and his father large sums of cash from a sponsor as well as the use of a house in Bryan, Texas. The Nash family declined the lucrative offer which angered Reese's father who then constatly tried to get Nash to join his son in Bryan.
Finally, just before the Reebok Big Time tournament Reese's father approached LaBryan himself with his son J-Mychal to pursuade him to join up with their team. Soon after, LaBryan's AAU coach and father caught glimpse of this and rushed to confront Reese's father. The confrontation then turned into a heated arguement leaving the two boys very confused and concerned. The arugement then got violent as the parents from Reese's team began to taunt the parents from Nash's team. In a few seconds all hell broke loose, it looked like something out of the Palace of Auburn Hills several years past. The police was called but by that time most of the people had fled from the gym and nothing could be done by law enforcement.
It was since then that J-Mychal's father told his son that LaBryan and his parents felt that thought their son was too good to play with J-Mychal. This hurt J-Mychal deeply as he thought of Nash as one of his good friends. The rift began to grow furthur and futhur over time as J-Mychal's head started to get filled with more and more air by people telling him he was "The GOAT" and that he did not need anyone,
everyone needed him. It was at that same time that LaBryan's parents felt it best to tell their son that J-Mychal should not be considered one of his friends anymore due to the nature of the people that he is associated with. They viewed Reese's father as a "sell-out" who was using his own son as a tool to bring himself success. The Nash family feared that by joining with Reese's people their son would also just become a tool for the success of Reese's father.
By the time the Reese and Nash were ready for college it was clear that both were headed to different destinations based upon the past. But, LaBryan Nash hoped that J-Mychal was able to break away from his father and scheduled an official visit to Texas A&M. In the back of his mind there was a small ray of hope that they could win a national championship together, which would be a milestone for Texas A&M.
Sadly, upon the sight of Nash, Reese went off "You little *****! You aint going to play here, I own this place! Get the **** out of here!" There was no choice now, Nash had to now move on and he sign with the University of Texas which J-Mychal took as an insult by Nash because his mentor Kevin Durant went there.
By this time, J-Mychal Reese and his people arrived in Miami and demanded to speak with every execcutive from the orgaization. The Miami Heat were offended by this and told Reese and his people that making demands like this were not acceptable. Knowing that LaBryan Nash knew J-Mychal Reese one executive decided to speak with him about the background of J-Mychal. Nash told the executive, "I wish I could say that this was new to me, ever since we were teenagers he changed and began to act like this. His father has been filling his head with lies which has corupted J-Mychal. I thought that he could make that realization but he has only bought into it more as more and more people have jumped onto the bandwagon. It has made him into a selfish person." After hearing this, the front office decided it was time to play hardball with J-Mychal's father. But, J-Mychal and his people wanted nothing to do with this and his father exclaimed "Who the **** is in charge here? We are in charge, you need J-Mychal, J-Mychal does not need you! My son will only sign here if we are given power over player management and partial ownership in the team."
It was now that the Miami Heat knew what they must do. They must trade the draft rights to J-Mychal Reese, the most heralded prospect to come to the NBA in many years. Miami was up against the clock though, J-Mychal's father emphasized "You have 48 hours to decide if you are willing to meet our demands and if you do not do so we are going to the press!" This really put the Miami Heat into a bad situation but at least the other NBA teams were not yet aware of this. Phone calls were quietly made to several teams asking about what they would trade if J-Mychal Reese were "avliable." As expected, several teams said they would trade anything it took to get Reese. The offers were looked over by the front office and just a few hours ago the Miami Heat had officially decided to trade the draft rights to J-Mychal Reese instead of potentially dealing with what could become a very serious head case.
The Miami Heat will recieve 3rd year guard Brandon Jennings, 4th year forward Alexis Ajinca and the San Antonio Spurs 2014 1st round draft pick for J-Mychal Reese. "Although J-Mychal is probably a once in a generation player we felt that we must trade him due to a few things we could not agree to." said one of the few officials from the Miami Heat that could be reached. "It was plain and simple, Miami did not want to meet our demands. I thought that we were very fair, it is their loss." J-Mychal was quoted saying after learning of the trade. He also added "I could not have asked to go to a better place than San Antonio, everyone knows me in Texas, I am a god there. Plus, my boy Kevin Durant is there too, we go way back. I bet he never thought that he would be taking orders from me."