Emerging players:

---

Over the last few years, I have worked with Roger Mason of the Washington Wizards. He is 6’5, 215, talented, hard working, professional, diligent, efficient, productive, etc; many of the qualities you would want from an NBA player. For some reason, Roger has never played that many minutes in the League. We would talk about it.

Every player in the NBA is talented. Every player has an impressive resume. Every player can produce if they get minutes. At the end of the day, it’s really all about minutes. Eventually, every NBA player gets a chance, some multiple chances, others just one chance, but everyone will get their chance. Throughout the years, Mason has waited, worked hard and finally “got” his chance. With the terrible and truly unfortunate injury to Gilbert Arenas this year, minutes began presenting themselves in the Wizards rotation. Mason kept producing each and every time he stepped on the court.

The other night against the Pacers he went for 31 and folks were surprised by his performance. I can assure you the last person surprised by this performance was Mason. Years of persistence, patience and faith in himself put him in a situation where he could excel once an opportunity presented itself.

This leads me to the topic of “emerging players”. I think every player in the NBA has the ability and talent to excel. Some are better than others, some work harder than others, some have more talent than others. At the end of the day, every player can fill out a stat sheet if they get the minutes.