Bowen Gets a Shot on the Rebound

When Bruce Bowen finished his college basketball career at Cal State Fullerton four years ago, he wasn’t drafted. There wasn’t even a hint of interest by the NBA.

The league’s talent scouts didn’t invite him to tryout camps for top seniors.

A Continental Basketball Assn. team in Sioux Falls, S.D., gave him a quick look but didn’t offer him a contract.

Another CBA team in Fort Wayne, Ind., had him on its roster for a few weeks, then cut him.

“I’ve heard a lot of garbage about being too small,” Bowen said. “About this and about that.”

But Bowen, 26, has persevered, and he’s finally getting his chance in the NBA this season, with Coach Rick Pitino and the Boston Celtics.

When Pitino introduced Bowen at a news conference after the Celtics signed him to a two-year contract in July, Pitino looked over at Bowen and said, “I think we have ourselves a real sleeper.”

Bowen didn’t hesitate.

“If I’m a sleeper,” Bowen said, “I can sleep only so long.”

Pitino, who is is trying to bring the Celtics back to life after they won only 15 games last season under M.L. Carr, likes that kind of spirit.

And Bowen has blended in easily with Pitino’s hard-charging, fast-moving style.

Bowen, who spent a night in the hospital with a mild concussion when he refused to give an inch in a collision with Milwaukee Bucks’ rookie Kevin Nordgaard in an exhibition game, believes that’s the way the game was meant to be played, even for guys who don’t have the body of an enforcer.

Bowen is an agile 6 feet 7 and slightly more than 200 pounds. He can play three positions, including point guard.

Pitino used one word to describe his play in the preseason: “Terrific.”

And that made a lot of people around the NBA start to wonder: Who is this mystery man and where did the Celtics find him?

But Pitino isn’t the first NBA coach to think Bowen might be a bona fide prospect after all.

Bowen showed up at a Miami Heat tryout two years ago after playing two seasons in the French Pro League. Pat Riley’s team was virtually set then, and there was no opportunity for an unproven free agent such as Bowen.

“I didn’t take it personally,” Bowen said. “I knew Miami had 16 guaranteed contracts at the time, and I knew the only thing for me to do was keep moving on. I remember saying to myself at the time that maybe it’s just not meant for me to play in the NBA.”

Riley, however, didn’t forget him.

Bowen returned to the French Pro League, where he had made something of a name for himself as its leading scorer the previous two seasons.

Only 20 games into the season in France, however, Bowen had a run-in with a teammate. “He hit me, but I didn’t retaliate,” Bowen said. “If I had, I probably would have been banned from playing there again. But my agent said the best thing for me was to get out of that situation, so that’s what happened.”

Bowen was picked up by the Rockford, Ill., team in the CBA, where he also had played the year before, but he was there only four weeks. When Miami needed a fill-in player late in the season after Alonzo Mourning was sidelined because of a foot injury, the Heat brought in Bowen for a tryout and signed him to a 10-day contract.

Bowen made only one appearance with Miami, on March 16.

“Thirty-three seconds, that’s what it was,” he said.

Bowen was on the active roster for only seven games, then went on the injured list with tendinitis in his right knee for the last 11 games of the regular season. “They didn’t have to guarantee me the rest of the season, but they did,” Bowen said.

Riley and one of his assistants, Bob McAdoo, had been impressed enough that Bowen was offered another contract in July. “McAdoo told me that every one of the coaches spoke in my behalf,” Bowen said.

However, Chris Wallace, who had been Riley’s scouting director in Miami, had moved to the Celtics as general manager, and also was expressing an interest.

“All of a sudden we had a little bit of a bidding war for a guy who had played less than a minute in the NBA,” said Bowen’s agent, Steve Kauffman. “I don’t know where Larry Brown heard about him, but Philadelphia also got involved for a little while. But it came down to Boston and Miami.”

Bowen emerged with a two-year contract with the Celtics worth $935,000, the first year guaranteed.

“When the free-agent period came around in July, I told Rick that Bruce might be the kind of guy we could use,” Wallace said. “I thought Boston might be the perfect spot for him because of the style of basketball Rick plays.

“Part of making it through the back door into the NBA for a player like Bruce is finding the right spot, and this was the right spot for him.”

Riley had been impressed by Bowen’s strong defensive play when he was with Miami.

“Bruce actually turned out to be sort of a pet guy for Pat, and Pat always had his eye on him,” Wallace said. “We thought he was a tremendous defender. He could really guard guys playing the No. 2 spot, but the knock on him at the time was whether he could score well enough in the half-court game to be in the league. His offense has improved considerably since that first time he came to camp with the Heat.”

Bowen is averaging 6.3 points and 2.4 rebounds in nearly 19 minutes per game with the Celtics.

However, Bowen has had to miss the Celtics’ last three games after being accidentally hit in the nose by Toronto’s Reggie Slater in last Friday’s game, and could end up spending time on injured reserve because of a broken nose.

But Bowen’s strong defensive play this season already has made a favorable impression with Pitino and Wallace.

“He’s arguably our best defensive player right now,” Wallace said. “He has very quick hands and gets a lot of deflections. And he’s become what we call an opportune scorer. In every game, he’ll get a basket or two on an offensive rebound, one or two more on loose balls, things like that. We think his offense is going to get better too, and he’s developing into a more well-rounded player.”

For Bowen, finally having his ability recognized is the most important thing.

“I was really disappointed that I wasn’t drafted when I came out of Fullerton,” Bowen said. “A lot of the guys I played against--people like J.R. Rider and Lucious Harris--were drafted, and I wanted to be like them.”

Bowen had been an All-Big West first-team selection in 1993 along with Rider of Nevada Las Vegas and Harris of Long Beach State, and finished his career 10th among the school’s all-time leading scorers.

He averaged 16 points as a senior on Brad Holland’s first Fullerton team after playing three seasons for John Sneed.

But, unlike two other more well-known Titan players who preceded him, Cedric Ceballos and Leon Wood, NBA scouts shied away from Bowen.

“I really wanted to go to one of the tryout camps, but Marty Blake [the NBA scouting director] didn’t invite me, and there was nothing I could do about that,” Bowen said. “It was by invitation only.”

Bowen played with Athletes In Action for a while, then got an opportunity to play in France.

Bowen has added some weight since he played in college at around 190, and he’s a bit more physical now.

“I think I had the tools before, but the confidence wasn’t there,” Bowen said. “Bob McAdoo told me that it was like the difference between night and day between the first time and the second time I tried out with Miami. I know I didn’t have the work ethic in college that I do now.”

Bowen also went through a divorce after 23 months of marriage.

“When you’re going through something like that, it affects you, and it was hard to focus on the things I wanted to do, which was to have a career in pro basketball,” he said. “I’ve felt more at peace with everything since then.”

Holland, now head coach at the University of San Diego, says Bowen is a classic late-bloomer.

“But he probably was overlooked too, and maybe a little under-exposed at the time,” Holland said. “When he was at Fullerton, he could shoot, run well and handle the ball. He had all the physical skills, but I think the difference now is that he has the mental toughness to go with it.”

Wallace agrees.

“Pro basketball isn’t all shoe contracts and big money,” Wallace said. “Bruce has shown he can handle the knocks, and that’s important. A lot of kids with big reputations fall to pieces with their first rejection. But Bruce has shown that he really believes in himself, and that’s important for a player coming in from the deepest part of the back door.

“I see a lot of upside for Bruce now in the NBA. He works really hard, and he soaks up everything there is to learn. And he’s the kind of player who is never going to shoot himself in the foot.”

But Bowen says he’s taking nothing for granted despite all the nice things being said about him lately in Boston.

“I know I can’t be complacent or feel satisfied,” Bowen said. “I have to keep playing hard.”

If nothing else, the last four years have taught him that.