After an illustrious four-year career at Villanova, Scottie Reynolds didn’t go down the typical path of a consensus First Team All-American. Finishing his tenure at ‘Nova second all-time in scoring and leading the Wildcats to a Final Four appearance in ’09, Scottie went undrafted in 2010. After a brief stint with Prima Veroli in Italy, he set his sights back on America, specifically the Springfield Armor of the D-League, in hopes of getting the opportunity to play at the next level. As one of the perennial figures of Villanova Basketball and a current standout in the D-League, we decided there was no one better to turn to for an inside scoop on life in the NBA’s minor league. In his latest entry, Scottie talks about his favorite jersey numbers, the iPad 2 and a trip he took with Ed Pinckney.
The weather is so up and down around here lately. I was like “Is this happening right now?” I was just praying it wasn’t going to be a big snow. Everywhere you go it’s wet… you definitely can’t wear your best kicks out right now. Speaking of which, shoes are my weakness right there. I love shoes. The shoes that just came out that I like are the “Playoff” (Air Jordan) 13s and the Black History (Air Jordan) 3s. The 3s are all-black and lined out with gold. Those two pairs are the latest to reach the market. I got the 13s and I’ll have the 3s in like a month. There’s a situation that happened with the 3s that I’m not really happy about, but that’s the way it happens.
I’m focused right now on the iPad 2 and the BlackBerry PlayBook, that’s like my next purchase that I’m thinking about. I really need something like that right now. I have a BlackBerry, but one of my best friends is one of the head managers at a Best Buy and he told me the iPad 2 is the thing. He basically told me it’s the easiest thing to use and I have to get it. I need to test both of them out first. I think I’ve been on every YouTube tutorial for BlackBerry and iPad 2, I’ve seen all of them! I just need to get this over with and make it happen because I’m driving myself crazy.
A lot of people always ask me about my number. Kyle [Lowry] is kind of like a big brother to me along with Randy [Foye], Curtis Sumpter, Allan Ray and Mike Nardi. But I think with Kyle it’s kind of funny because he wore No. 1 and at first I wasn’t going to pick that number with respect for Kyle. But then Coach Wright said, “I think you should be No. 1.” I remember when I took the number and saw Kyle, I was like, “I’m sorry I took it,” and he just said to me, “Don’t be sorry, just wear it with respect; wear it proudly like I did.” I even remember his mother coming at me and saying the same thing. So every time I put that No. 1 jersey on it was kind of out of respect to Kyle and not wanting to let him down, because I know how much he put into his work and I know how hard he worked.
I’ve always wanted to wear No. 1 in the NBA if I get called up. There’s just something about it, something with a lot of meaning behind it. That would be the ideal situation but you never know. My backup number would be zero or something… with that Gilbert Arenas feel. Growing up, I was a No. 11 and in high school I was No. 3 because of Allen Iverson. He was from Virginia, I’m from Virginia; he played on Boo Williams’ AAU team, I played on Boo Williams’ team. I had the braids and the baggy shorts and everything. I was a huge Allen Iverson fan! I wore No. 11 because of Dee Brown who went to Illinois. He was probably the first guy I saw that was so passionate about the game and I wanted to have that same passion so I started wearing No. 11 too. I picked No. 13 now because you can’t wear No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 because they’re blood numbers – in case you get blood on your jersey – so I picked “1” because of Villanova and “3” because I wore it in high school and put them together.
When I was in college I used to listen to music all the time, but now I’m laid back, don’t really listen as much. I used to listen all the time on the way to the game, before the game. I like Wale, Young Chris… I met Young Chris when I was in Philly. He’s a big supporter of me and I respect him. I like J.Cole because I can relate to him always on the grind. Curren$y and Wiz Khalifa are good too. I listen to them on the regular because I can relate to them. I feel like they’re all on their grind to greatness and success.
Our whole trip in Fort Wayne a few weeks back was crazy. I took the red-eye from L.A. to V.A. on a Saturday night and then I had to take a six-hour train from V.A. to Connecticut and I got in at like 12:30am. Then we had to leave at like 6:30am on a bus the next morning to get to Fort Wayne. So we go to Chicago first, our flight is cancelled from Chicago to Fort Wayne. Right when we get off the plane the monitor says, “Fort Wayne Cancelled,” so I’m walking around and I see Ed Pinckney. Ed Pinckney was the 1985 National Champion, 1985 MVP of the National Championship game. He also coached me one year at Villanova, but now he’s with the Bulls. So I walk and I talk to Coach Ed and he asks me if I can leave the airport. Since I was going to be there for a long time since the next flight that we could get on would be at 5:00pm and it’s only 11 something, I decided to go. So we leave there and we go to the Bulls’ facility and I see Rick Brunson who I’ve known for a while and I’ve looked up to him for a while because I feel like his journey is kind of like mine. He went to the CBA, played overseas, got cut, started… he just did everything to make a living. He’s well-respected by me and well-respected by other NBA guys, so I got to talk to him and see the facilities and everything. It was a great day other than my flight being cancelled.
We eventually had to go back to the airport and had to take a bus from Chicago to Fort Wayne, and what’s usually like a three-hour bus ride took us like five-and-a-half hours to get there. Snow everywhere, ice all over the road; we could only go like 40 miles per hour. We’re probably an hour out of the town, we see this car on the side of the road and we help this young lady get into town. We don’t have our bags because they’re supposed to be coming in tomorrow. Some players’ bags come in two days. Mine, the head coach, the trainer and another player’s bags comes in three days later – a day before we leave. So I had to go buy some shoes. Me and my roommate Jamar Brown were in Target just buying everything that we saw: drawers, I bought some boots, sweatpants, I mean everything! There’s just so much you can get at Target. We was acting crazy up in Target! It was survival at that moment.
I don’t think about being called-up really, but hopefully something will happen soon. My spirits are high, and I feel fortunate to still be playing the game and doing what I love. There’s no hanging my head or falling back or anything. Just taking everything in stride and still feeling blessed to be able to play the game at a high level – still working towards the goal. Could there be a call-up, yeah but there are also other options for after the season. You just got to keep playing, keep up, and just go out there every single day and try to get better. You gotta keep your spirits high, keep a great attitude and hopefully everything will work out. Especially when you’re losing you have to keep a great attitude. There’s been a lot of talk about a potential lockout and things of that nature. It’s not anything anybody’s worried about right now, it’s something that is business and something that you have to look out for and be reminded of about what’s going on in the real world. You have to be prepared for both; you can’t be naïve.
Watching the Tournament this year I root for my guys. Aside from Villanova, I root for Nolan Smith, Vernon Macklin and David Lighty. I root for those guys because I know them and I hope they do well.
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