NEVER TAKES A DAY OFF
ORLANDO - As his NBA dream was drowning, Dionte Christmas was thrown a lifeline by the Sixers.
When he snagged it, a big brother was on the other end.
Christmas went undrafted last month. But he not only got asked to play on his hometown Sixers summer-league team, he got to be coached by fellow Temple alum Aaron McKie.
"My confidence just hit the ground when I didn't hear my name called," Christmas said.
Five minutes after the draft ended, Sixers general manager Ed Stefanski called and invited the shooter to play here this week. Christmas eagerly accepted.
Five minutes after he landed in Orlando, he attached himself to a Temple success story.
"Since I've been out here I've been glued to Aaron McKie," Christmas said.
McKie, a Sixers assistant helping to coach the Sixers/Nets unit, welcomed Christmas.
"It's a brotherhood," McKie said.
They are similar - Philly high school products (Fels for Christmas, Gratz for McKie) who starred in Temple's backcourt - but they entered the NBA at different ends of the spectrum.
McKie left Temple after his junior season and was drafted in the first round, which began a 17-season NBA career that included 10 playoff runs.
Christmas is undrafted, maybe a little undersized and certainly a bit unconfident these days. He was downright skittish Monday, the first guard off the bench for the Sixers/Nets combined unit. He was a little less timid Tuesday.
He was an 18-point machine Wednesday, and chipped in 10 points yesterday in limited minutes as the Sixers/Nets lost their fourth in four tries, 83-62, to Oklahoma City's entry. Christmas left before the game was over. He had to catch a flight to Las Vegas, where he will play for the Clippers in next week's summer league there.
In Vegas, he hopes to stay in the comfort zone he found Wednesday.
"My team needed me to score in the second quarter," Christmas said after Wednesday's breakout.
The first 2 days, Christmas had deferred to Nets first-rounder Terrence Williams, Nets second-year swingman Chris Douglas-Roberts and Sixers second-year forward Marreese Speights.
Wednesday, at the urging of McKie, he deferred to no one.
McKie said he told Christmas before Wednesday's game, "Go out and play your game."
Afterward, McKie said, "That's what I was talking about."
By the end of Christmas' summer-league experience, McKie said, teams will know what he has to offer - a three-time Atlantic 10 scoring leader who is becoming more than just a jump shooter.
Christmas wasn't even that the first 2 days here. He hit four of 11 shots, one of four treys. He generally missed, and badly.
"I was a little hesitant. As the games go on, I think my confidence level is going to progress," Christmas said. "As I get more confident, those shots will start to go down. I was worried if I missed the shot, I'd come out."
McKie told him: "Don't worry. We're not going to take you out for missing shots. We'll take you out for not playing hard."
Nobody has played harder than Christmas, which is why he got so much playing time.
In the third quarter Tuesday, for instance, he missed a three-pointer, traveled on the perimeter, fired two airball 20-footers and missed a wide-open three.
But he was still in the game late in the quarter, diving on a loose ball. And he was still in the game in the fourth, driving to the basket twice and converting, playing manically intense defense.
That's what Big Brother told him to do more than a year ago, as they played together in the summer.
"I told him, 'They're going to take away your strength. You can shoot. You have to learn how to put the ball on the floor. Don't be a one-trick pony,' " McKie said. " 'And be able to guard a point guard, or a two guard, or a three.' "
He's trying.
"The biggest thing I'm impressed with him is defensive intensity," McKie said. "Those are the things that will open the GMs' and coaches' eyes."
"Dionte has acquitted himself very well here," said Stefanski, satisfied.
After all, according to Christmas, Stefanski was the only GM among the seven here who wanted him.
"Without Ed Stefanski calling me, I don't know where my confidence would be. I knew my chances of making the NBA weren't over," Christmas said. "I still had a huge chance of making the league."
Huger still, what with Big Brother in the lifeboat. *
