John Zant
"After high school, I switched to being a point guard -- pass first, shoot second," said Garrett, who picked up 10 assists in his first two games as a starter for the Santa Barbara Breakers last weekend. But he has not lost his scoring touch either. He put 23 points on the scoreboard in the Breakers' 161-159 overtime victory at Chico last Sunday.
The Breakers went 4-4 in the first month of their inaugural International Basketball League season. But since May 12 they have won nine of 10 games and carry a 13-5 record -- second best in the IBL's Southwest Division -- into their final two regular-season games tonight and Saturday night at the SBCC Sports Pavilion. They will face Vancouver (Wash.) Volcanoes in both games, tipping off at 7:05 p.m.
Mike Garrett
The 6-foot-1 guard, who turns 30 in November, still aspires to reach the NBA. "I talked to Toby and Fred about the Summer Pro League, and they said go for it," Garrett said. Breaker teammates Toby Bailey and Fred Vinson both have NBA experience, and Garrett hopes to join them in the summer league that is closely watched by pro coaches and scouts.
But first he wants to play hard in this weekend's game in his hometown. In the crowd will be three women he credits for raising him -- his mother, Lanell Garrett; his grandmother, Elouise Starr; and his aunt, Darnell Starr.
"I'm old school," Garrett said. "I was taught to treat people like you want to be treated."
He had to learn the importance of the classroom. After averaging 28 points in his senior year at Santa Barbara, Garrett was nominated for the prestigious McDonald's All-American Game. "They looked at the overall picture," Garrett said, "and Mike Bibby beat me out because his grades were better."
It took a while for Garrett to gain traction in college. He tried to get into BYU, but that didn't work out, and he wound up at Fresno City College. He got his AA degree and transferred to San Jose State, where he earned a BA in sociology.
On the basketball court, Garrett expanded his game. "I was defensive player of the year in the WAC (Western Athletic Conference)," he said. "I'm not like Bruce Bowen -- he's a pure defensive stopper -- but I play both ends of the floor."
Mike Garrett (3) is back in his hometown after playing basketball at San Jose State and in the Czech Republic and Lebanon. Photo courtesy of the Santa Barbara Breakers.
He produced. For the Czech team, he averaged 14 points and seven rebounds. "I had a triple double once with 10 steals," he said. In Lebanon, he averaged 18 points and nine assists.
After playing with a 30-second shot clock in the international game, Garrett has had to get used to the IBL's hurry-up 22-second clock. When he brings the ball up, "I look for the first available guy," he said. "If it's open for me, I'm going all the way. I learned from watching Steve Nash that you're always looking to pass, but you have to be able to create your own shot any time you want."
Garrett is a sensitive young man with lots of responsibility. He has three children with a former mate in Provo, Utah, and a newborn daughter in Los Angeles. Three of his children are girls, and he has thought of coaching the women's game when his playing days are over.
Living in Los Angeles now, Garrett appreciates having grown up in Santa Barbara. The gang culture that is causing problems here now did not exist a decade ago, he said. "Everybody went to the Boys Club, played dodge ball," he said. "If a kid got into trouble, it was for being a knucklehead."
L.A. is a different story. "I've known guys there who got killed," he said. "I had a friend who played basketball on the playgrounds with us. He was close to 40. He had been involved in gangs, and 20 years later it caught up with him. He was in the wrong neighborhood and got killed execution-style. He couldn't get out of it even though he wanted to be out of it."
The Breakers are riding a seven-game winning streak into tonight's game against Vancouver. They won their last five on the road, a pair in Las Vegas and three in Chico. Bailey leads them with a 24.3 scoring average, and Vinson is averaging 18.9 points a game. He went off for 56 points in Santa Barbara's last home game, a 161-149 overtime win over Eugene.
"Toby's a slasher, Fred's more of a shooter," Garrett said. "He was beyond fire in that Eugene game."
The Breakers will travel to Portland, Ore., on June 29-30 and July 1 for the IBL West playoffs. They have the third best record in the conference and hope to finish among the top four, which would guarantee them a first-round bye.
Saturday's game will be televised at 11 p.m. on Cox 8 in Santa Barbara. The cable station will replay the telecast at 9 a.m. Sunday and noon Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.