Landry rising in NYC

via espn.com

Landry Fields would not be starting for the New York Knicks if not for a fateful decision made 25 years ago by his father, Steve, who had been selected in the seventh round of the NBA draft by Portland in May 1975, but was waived by the Trail Blazers late that summer.

Steve Fields was close with Cavs forward Jim Cleamons, now an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers, and arrangements were made to have Fields come to camp in Cleveland to try out for a spot on that Bill Fitch-coached team.

But Fields also had an offer on the table from an ABA expansion team, the Baltimore Claws, and he chose the land of the red, white and blue basketball over the NBA.

"Like an idiot," he said, "I said, 'No, I think I've got a better chance going with this new ABA team.' Little did I know."

The Claws ended up folding before playing a single game in what would be the ABA's final season, and Steve Fields wound up playing semipro ball for Armstrong Cork (now Armstrong Floors and Windows), a job that entailed doing 14 weeks of training in Lancaster, Pa., before he was assigned to Bellevue, Wash., where he played pickup ball in a crew that included Slick Watts, John Brisker and Fred Brown of the Seattle SuperSonics.

Steve moved from there to California, where he met his wife, Janice. They went on to raise three children, putting a hoop up in their driveway in Long Beach where their two sons, Evan and Landry, would spend countless hours shooting with their cousin Cameron Jones, now a senior playing for Northern Arizona.

"When the kids were young they'd say, 'Gee Dad, why didn't you stay in NBA?'" said Steve Fields, who played in the summer pro-am leagues in Los Angeles alongside Michael Cooper and Lorenzo Romar. "And I said, 'You better be glad I didn't, because you wouldn't be here if I did.' So I guess fate, destiny, whatever you want to call it, has brought us to where we are now."

Where we are now is a situation in which Landry Fields, the 39th overall pick in last June's draft after leading the Pac-10 in scoring and rebounding at Stanford, is one of only four rookies from the draft class of 2010 starting for their NBA teams. (The others are Washington's John Wall, Minnesota's Wesley Johnson and the Clippers' Eric Bledsoe, who is temporarily replacing the injured Baron Davis.)

Fields won the Knicks' starting spot at shooting guard when coach Mike D'Antoni decided Wilson Chandler would be better utilized to provide some scoring punch off the bench, and Fields has played well through the Knicks' first six games. Heading into Tuesday night's game at Milwaukee, Fields was averaging 8.7 points (seventh among rookies), 5.5 rebounds (sixth among rookies) and shooting 56 percent (third among rookies). In 150 total minutes, he has committed only 11 fouls and just three turnovers.

"He's not making mistakes, he's an efficient shooter and player, doesn't turn the ball over," D'Antoni said. "When you have guys who are going to score, Amare [Stoudemire] and those guys, you need someone who's efficient."

"If [Fields] does something, it's positive. There's not a lot detracting from what he does. He's a heady basketball player that'd be good anywhere if you're looking for chemistry things, what glues which five guys together."

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