Texas A&M Basketball
“I’m re-signing with my team in Taiwan. I’m leaving on Saturday to play in the Williams-Jones Cup in Taiwan. It’s a 10 day/2 week tournament. Then, I’ll be gone to the Philippines for another week long tournament. I’ll be representing New Zealand. I won a championship in New Zealand last year and the team was invited to these tournaments. Ray Turner is playing with me on this team. I knew him since he was in high school and getting recruited, so that will be fun. He’s actually on my flight to New Zealand on Saturday.”
“I started my career in Poland. After that, I went to Ukraine the next year. Made a brief stop in Holland. Went from there to China. After I went to China, I came home for a couple weeks before leaving to South Korea. Came home, then went back to Poland for playoffs. After that, went to Taiwan and came back to play in the NBA D-League for a year. Then back to Taiwan, Bahrain, South Korea and back to Taiwan.”
“The D-League is a very interesting league. It probably has the most talent behind the NBA. When you go to different places, like Poland, you can have as many Americans as you want, but two Polish players have to be on the court. In South Korea, you can have two Americans, but only one can play at a time. In Taiwan, only one American. I base the talent off that. If you look at talent, one through five, the D-league is a good league. It’s a developmental league, but that helped me. I feel like it helped me mature as a player. I played three years before, but I felt like a pro after I left. Before, I was playing professionally, but I left and felt like a pro.”
“I had knee surgery, so my D-league year was a chance to show people I could play again. I felt like trying it one more year, but I’ve always wanted to travel the world. People can tell you about these places, but you have to go see them.”
“You never go to the D-league for the financial part. There’s a big difference between the D-league and some of the leagues I’ve been in financially.”
“The 10-day contracts are tough deals. When I was there, we had three or four former NBA guys and nobody got a look. It isn’t about what you are doing, it’s about what the team needs. If they need a big man who can rebound or a point guard that can score 30 points, that’s when you get the call.”
“The Puerto Rican league was a great experience, beautiful island. I came home just before Junior Elonu and I would have crossed paths. I had played for 11 months and had a little calf strain, so I left just before Junior got down there. He did a great job, taking his team to the finals down there. We would have been really good team had he stayed for my senior year.”
“Coming here feels like home. Driving down highway six and getting close to College Station, it feels like you’re heading home. The recruiting process was fun, getting a chance to see different things and having people come visit you. But seeing the family and tradition here, the atmosphere pulled me in and I wanted to be here.”
“My uncle, Barry Davis, never put any pressure on me to come here. He gave me advice and let me make my own decisions. But guys like Joseph Jones helped me come here. I look at him as a big brother to this day. I knew he had class and things to do, but the little things like saying, ‘what’s up?’ and taking five minutes made me feel like I was a part of it and belonged.”
“The way I played, I never asked for the ball. If you need me to score, I’ll score. If you need me to play defense, I’ll do it. I never felt like I was a needy player.”
“We weren't just a family on the court, but our families were family while I was here. We would travel all across the country, but our families were right there. I knew they had our back, I knew Logan had our back. That helped us more than we probably knew, having that support.”
“The team I disliked playing the most was Texas Tech my freshman year. The first time we lost to them ... We lost and and their fans ran on the court and were yelling in our face. We had to take a different exit off the court and into the locker room. Security was on the court a few seconds before the buzzer and formed to lines. They never touched us, but it was loud.”
“After The Baptism, we had to get a police escort out of there. We had to huddle up, get the police around us and walk to the back. I think it started the year before when AK spiked the ball. But after The Baptism, it was great. Turgeon didn't say anything, he just knew it was right. The locker room was really small. It was like a girls volleyball locker room or something.”
“My last game at A&M was tough. I remember not wanting to leave the court after the game, not wanting to take the jersey off. We also had it in our mind to go play in Houston against Duke. We were so close in overtime. The weird part is, the Purdue guy who made the shot to beat us was my roommate during this college all-star tour a few weeks later.”
“My proudest moment was probably Kansas my freshman year. With that atmosphere, it was such an accomplishment to get that win.”
In-studio: Bryan Davis on his pro career, finishing his degree & more
Key quotes from Bryan Davis interview
“Pursuing my degree while traveling was difficult in terms of location, but the actually finishing was just more time consuming in the sense that you have to do something every day. My wife is all about education and my uncle kept pushing me. There was never a point where I considered stopping my education. Graduation was always important to me and my family. I knew I could do it, so no matter how long it took, I was going to do it.”“I’m re-signing with my team in Taiwan. I’m leaving on Saturday to play in the Williams-Jones Cup in Taiwan. It’s a 10 day/2 week tournament. Then, I’ll be gone to the Philippines for another week long tournament. I’ll be representing New Zealand. I won a championship in New Zealand last year and the team was invited to these tournaments. Ray Turner is playing with me on this team. I knew him since he was in high school and getting recruited, so that will be fun. He’s actually on my flight to New Zealand on Saturday.”
“I started my career in Poland. After that, I went to Ukraine the next year. Made a brief stop in Holland. Went from there to China. After I went to China, I came home for a couple weeks before leaving to South Korea. Came home, then went back to Poland for playoffs. After that, went to Taiwan and came back to play in the NBA D-League for a year. Then back to Taiwan, Bahrain, South Korea and back to Taiwan.”
“The D-League is a very interesting league. It probably has the most talent behind the NBA. When you go to different places, like Poland, you can have as many Americans as you want, but two Polish players have to be on the court. In South Korea, you can have two Americans, but only one can play at a time. In Taiwan, only one American. I base the talent off that. If you look at talent, one through five, the D-league is a good league. It’s a developmental league, but that helped me. I feel like it helped me mature as a player. I played three years before, but I felt like a pro after I left. Before, I was playing professionally, but I left and felt like a pro.”
“I had knee surgery, so my D-league year was a chance to show people I could play again. I felt like trying it one more year, but I’ve always wanted to travel the world. People can tell you about these places, but you have to go see them.”
“You never go to the D-league for the financial part. There’s a big difference between the D-league and some of the leagues I’ve been in financially.”
“The 10-day contracts are tough deals. When I was there, we had three or four former NBA guys and nobody got a look. It isn’t about what you are doing, it’s about what the team needs. If they need a big man who can rebound or a point guard that can score 30 points, that’s when you get the call.”
“The Puerto Rican league was a great experience, beautiful island. I came home just before Junior Elonu and I would have crossed paths. I had played for 11 months and had a little calf strain, so I left just before Junior got down there. He did a great job, taking his team to the finals down there. We would have been really good team had he stayed for my senior year.”
“Coming here feels like home. Driving down highway six and getting close to College Station, it feels like you’re heading home. The recruiting process was fun, getting a chance to see different things and having people come visit you. But seeing the family and tradition here, the atmosphere pulled me in and I wanted to be here.”
“My uncle, Barry Davis, never put any pressure on me to come here. He gave me advice and let me make my own decisions. But guys like Joseph Jones helped me come here. I look at him as a big brother to this day. I knew he had class and things to do, but the little things like saying, ‘what’s up?’ and taking five minutes made me feel like I was a part of it and belonged.”
“The way I played, I never asked for the ball. If you need me to score, I’ll score. If you need me to play defense, I’ll do it. I never felt like I was a needy player.”
“We weren't just a family on the court, but our families were family while I was here. We would travel all across the country, but our families were right there. I knew they had our back, I knew Logan had our back. That helped us more than we probably knew, having that support.”
“The team I disliked playing the most was Texas Tech my freshman year. The first time we lost to them ... We lost and and their fans ran on the court and were yelling in our face. We had to take a different exit off the court and into the locker room. Security was on the court a few seconds before the buzzer and formed to lines. They never touched us, but it was loud.”
“After The Baptism, we had to get a police escort out of there. We had to huddle up, get the police around us and walk to the back. I think it started the year before when AK spiked the ball. But after The Baptism, it was great. Turgeon didn't say anything, he just knew it was right. The locker room was really small. It was like a girls volleyball locker room or something.”
“My last game at A&M was tough. I remember not wanting to leave the court after the game, not wanting to take the jersey off. We also had it in our mind to go play in Houston against Duke. We were so close in overtime. The weird part is, the Purdue guy who made the shot to beat us was my roommate during this college all-star tour a few weeks later.”
“My proudest moment was probably Kansas my freshman year. With that atmosphere, it was such an accomplishment to get that win.”
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