Aaron Brooks, Rockets guard
This week, Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups played one of his worst games against the Rockets, a team that 16 days earlier he played one of his best games against. The difference was Brooks, a point guard who played some pesky defense against the Nuggets’ normally unflappable star.
Filling in for the injured Rafer Alston, the 6-foot Brooks has played sturdy at the point for the Rockets, who are one of the better defensive teams in the Western Conference. Offensively, Brooks is a shoot-first guard, averaging 10.7 points a game, more than double his 5.2 last year as a rookie. He is also seventh in the NBA in free-throw shooting (92 percent).
“He was a good little player, saw him at Oregon a couple times when I was out of coaching,” Denver coach George Karl said. “I think he’s one of these confident little kids who some people didn’t think was going to make it, but he’s going to be good. How good is yet to be determined. The NBA rules have helped him — not being able to knock him around and hold him and grab him helps his abilities.”
Karl’s familiarity with Brooks’ game dates to when Brooks was a high- schooler in the Seattle area. Karl’s foundation, “Friends Of Hoop,” helped develop young basketball players, providing coaching, college aid and a popular Martin Luther King holiday tournament. And Brooks was one of the players guided by “Friends Of Hoop.”
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
