Wallace '05 a Rocket for the summer

As his professional career accumulates mileage in a quest for the big time, Judson Wallace '05 has come to rely on one aspect of his Princeton education more than any other.

Though this tool has recently been employed in his nation's service as well as in the service of other nations, it is more Bill Bradley than Woodrow Wilson.

"The hook shot they teach you at Princeton, that's an effective move against anybody," Wallace said. "From the best players in the NBA to the worst players in Iceland."

Don't be alarmed — or overjoyed: Wallace has yet to make a landing at either extreme of the hoops world. But with the hook shot as a part of his maturing inside-outside game, the three-time All-Ivy League selection took a step closer to the NBA this summer while maintaining a basketball home to fall back on closer to Iceland.

As Wallace prepared to build on a wildly successful debut season with Bremerhaven — a first-division team in Germany's Bundesliga — he was invited by the Houston Rockets to play for their summer league team in Las Vegas this July. The summer league is a chance for NBA teams to evaluate their own young talent prior to the season and take a look at unsigned free agents like Wallace.

On the recommendation of Rockets' Director of Scouting Dean Cooper, Wallace was first brought in for the team's free-agent camp at the end of June. He played well enough to be added to the summer league roster and was given five days to learn Houston's offense before games began on July 6.

"He's a shooting 'four' [power forward] who is skilled, can pass, can put it on the floor and can screen well," said Rockets' assistant coach Tom Thibodeau, who served as the team's head coach in Las Vegas. "We really wanted somebody like that for our summer league team."

Unfortunately for Wallace, Houston's interest in him did not translate into his getting floor time ahead of the young players already under contract. As the Rockets cruised to a 5-0 record, Wallace spent most of his time on the bench, stuck behind power forward Chuck Hayes, who played 40 games for Houston last year, and small forward Steve Novak, the 32nd-overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft.

Wallace totaled just 22 minutes in four games, not even entering the Rockets' second-to-last contest. He was scoreless for the tournament, missing on all four of his field goal attempts, as well as two tries at the free-throw line in the final game.

"I wasn't going in expecting to play 40 minutes a game or anything," Wallace said. "But I was a little disappointed that I didn't score."

What Wallace did do, though, was show he could contribute in other ways during his limited playing time. In a 73-58 win over Cleveland, during which he totaled a personal-high eight minutes, Wallace grabbed six rebounds, four of them offensive.

The adjustment from being the goto scorer he was at Princeton — and continues to be in Germany — to becoming a role player was a difficult but necessary one.

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"Unless you're LeBron James, the NBA is a specialist's league," Wallace said. "If you're the best at a particular aspect of the game, you have a chance to make it. I'm a pretty good shooter and a pretty good defender, but I feel like I can become a really good rebounder. That's something I can market myself as to the NBA."

Based on his performance in Las Vegas, the Rockets told Wallace they would remain in contact with his agent. Wallace's plan is to earn another summer league spot next year, with Houston or some other team, in a role where he can get more minutes.

In addition to Wallace's rebounding, Thibodeau was impressed by the way Wallace practiced and his "great team spirit." For Princeton fans whose sole memories of Wallace are from his senior season — when he battled injuries, clashed with new head coach Joe Scott '87 and dealt with disappointments as the team suffered its first-ever losing season in the Ivies — such compliments may come as a surprise.

Wallace, however, is intent on building his reputation as a team player, both because that is how he sees himself and because that is what will bring him closer to his NBA dreams.

"Everybody knows what the scouts are looking for," Wallace said. "The players who make the team out of the summer league aren't going to come out and start right away, so if you're out there jacking up shots, trying to get yours, they're not going to want you. They want guys who can play as part of a team and be chemistry guys."

Further proof that Wallace fits that bill comes from his coach at Bremerhaven, who named Wallace a co-captain heading into this season. Bremerhaven is coming off a Cinderella year in which it moved up from the Bundesliga's second division and qualified for the EuroCup, where it lost in the semifinals to Berlin. Wallace was a huge factor, emerging as the team's best all-around player after being thrust into the starting lineup at the beginning of the season.

Bremerhaven opened the 2006-7 season this past Sunday with a 77-68 win, in which Wallace scored 12 points and pulled down nine boards. While those numbers are a big step up from the goose eggs he posted as a Rocket, Wallace's experience in Las Vegas is never far from his mind in Germany.

"I'm working as hard as I can every day to try and make the NBA, and, hopefully, as captain, that will rub off on my teammates," Wallace said.

For a plain old politics major, Wallace sure knows a thing or two about international leadership.