6 Foot 7 Foot by Lil Wayne was one of 2011’s hottest songs, but also seems to have served as the blueprint for Allen Graves’ growth spurt. The Raptors’ first round draft pick shot up from 6’0” to 6’7” over his first two summers in high school, and this massive bodily change, in part, brought him to professional basketball. He hold this story over the summer, and with the preseason underway, it’s worth reflecting on where Graves came from.
Louisiana is a football state, hands down, with the New Orleans
Saints being far more successful than the New Orleans Pelicans. Factor in college ball (the state’s most popular sport), and you get a group of people who really like watching the pigskin get thrown around.
“I love football,” said Graves in a presser. “Growing up in Louisiana you kind of have to play football. You gotta love it.” When playing his “first love,” Graves was a quarterback and wide receiver at the beginning of high school, but after an elbow injury and the development of a “shooting arm,” he told his mother at the end of the football season that he was done with the gridiron, and would follow in the footsteps of his family members, going to play college basketball.
His mother, looking at her six-foot son, told him in no uncertain terms that “I don’t think you’re athletic enough… you’re not tall enough. If you want to play a college sport, then I think it’s going to be football, so you need to stick with it.”
Graves’ response? “I’m gonna show you, mom.”
Then, over the next year, Graves grew up to be the 6’7” forward that he is to this day. His height has been reported as varying between 6’8” and 6’9” as a rookie, so it seems that he still had some growing left in him before beginning his professional basketball career.
Allen Graves averaged nearly 17 points and 7 assists in Summer League, shooting 50% from three across all games played. While it cannot be overstated how much Summer League production does not necessarily translate to the NBA’s regular season, as a first gauge of the temperature, Allen Graves came off blazing hot. While the selection of Graves was met with some controversy at the time, in the wake of his production over the summer, Raptors fans seemed to have warmed up to the former Santa Clara Bronco.
While he didn’t play in the team’s first outing of the preseason due to injury, it was reported by Josh Lewenberg of TSN that the tweaked groin wasn’t serious. Soon, Graves will be showing what he can do in meaningful games for the Raptors, bringing all the defence and shooting he’s shown to be able to provide. Not bad for someone who grew seven inches out of a desire to prove his mother wrong.
