You may not yet be familiar with Will Barton (or maybe you watch college basketball, I don’t know), the 40th overall pick of the Portland Trail Blazers, but the man has had himself a couple of moments this summer.
Back in Vegas, balling alongside SL Co-MVP Damian Lillard, Barton averaged 15 points in 5 games and 4 starts for a Blazers team that went 4-1. He exploded for a combined 48 points in his final two showings, and he did it with a fair bit of style.
Impressive… but not quite as impressive as 72 points in a 40-minute game, running time. Watch Barton go off (against some suspect defense, admittedly) as he leads his hometown team, Baltimore, over Team Under Armor (Brandon Jennings, DeAndre Jordan) in an exhibition game.
AND1-Mixtape D and illegal free-throw assists may not be how it works in the NBA, but that’s not the point here. To score 72 points in 40 minutes of running time, one must be dialed in. It appears that Will Barton was in fact dialed in… and from all distances (that one bomb really kept the odometer spinning).
Let’s say free throws occupied two minutes of game time. Let’s also tack on another wasted minute for your usual tomfoolery that occurs during any game that features running time. Assuming Barton played the entire contest he recorded just under one point per 30 seconds.
And we know he had at least one assist, too. Like a seasoned veteran, Barton knew he had to find that token dime.
This is a man you should root for, folks. Read up on his life story.
