The Official Site of Brandon Roy

Wed, Mar 18th 2009, 09:59

Thomas' help line leads to Roy

When University of Washington freshman sensation Isaiah Thomas this season needed advice, a pep talk or consultation, he would pick up the phone and call a certain friend.

But this wasn’t just any friend. It happened to be a guy who knows a thing or two about basketball, and the Husky program in particular: Trail Blazers star and Huskies great Brandon Roy.

“I talk to Isaiah Thomas like every other day,” Roy said this week. “He is always calling me, asking me, ‘B-Roy, what should I do?’ And the thing is, I like him because he listens. He wants to get better.”

Whatever advice Roy has provided certainly hasn’t hurt this season. Thomas, a 5-foot-8 point guard, was named to the Sporting News freshman All-America team and was voted the Pacific-10 Conference freshman of the year after averaging 15.4 points and 2.5 assists.

“He calls me so much that now it’s on me to watch their games, so I know what to tell him,” Roy said. “I’m probably the team’s biggest fan.”

Roy said the two met at the “Rip the Cut” summer tournament in Seattle, a memorial event held for Rahsaan Phillips, a local barber who was killed at age 25.

“I was always hearing about this kid out of Tacoma, Washington, who was averaging 30, 40 points,” Roy said. “When I met him, he was just so happy to be around, that he just stayed around. So every tournament I started playing in, I would ask him to play.”

It’s been three years since they first met, and Roy says they have become especially close over the last two years. Roy said he has offered advice to Thomas on how to adapt to becoming a team player in college after being a high-scoring star in high school, and mostly, on how to best handle coach Lorenzo Romar.

“I told him he has to build a relationship with Coach, so that you can talk to him and he can talk to you — it can’t be one-sided,” Roy said. “I told him you never want to go and complain. Coach Romar is the kind of guy who, if you build a relationship, it will go a lot smoother.”

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